The Cost of Too Many Consultants (ADB and World Bank)

http://www.thenews.com.pk/editorial_detail.asp?id=59180

The News International

By Imtiaz Gul
Pakistan is currently witnessing a galore of consultants -- both from the private sector as well as from within the government. They are able to turn around even worst situations and hence a source of strength and new vision for respective departments, so runs the argument in favour of consultants being hired at hefty emoluments.

The Pakistan Image Project had attracted about seven highly-paid consultants. All but Mahreen Khan have said adieu to the project, stating various reasons for their departure. Departmental acrimony, lack of cooperation as well as of authority were some of the factors that forced these consultants out. Most of them were young and talented but probably had landed in the wrong place.

Several other people, however, turned to be luckier, and seem to have successfully taken the October 2005 earthquake tragedy by the horn and turned it into an opportunity.

As many as 15 consultants for instance have made their way into the "Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA)" against hefty salaries. Their prime objective is to regulate the reconstruction and rehabilitation activities in the earthquake-affected areas and to ensure financial transparency.

ERRA insiders say the employment of heavily-paid consultants, most of them from within the same bureaucracy that is accused of obstructionism and inaction, have also fuelled resentment and caused bad blood among scores of other government functionaries, particularly those on deputation; they are drawing just the government salary and some deputation allowance, whereas the consultants, draw amounts at least times of their salaries -- essentially for the same kind of jobs.

This gross disparity in the salary structure also results in bickering and indifference among the people involved in the same project. According to insiders, consultants' salaries, all being drawn from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank loans, range between 6000 to 10,000 dollars in addition to usual perks and privileges. They say this has prompted a number of bureaucrats and technocrats already in the government service to find out as to whether they could also benefit from the system in the same way.

It is surprising how ERRA, PERRA (Provincial Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority) and SERRA (State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority) can open its gates to outsiders and insiders, mostly well-connected, people and accommodate them against lucrative salaries.

One would hardly contest the premise that jobs must carry incentives to make officials work. But equally disturbing is the disparity which comes across as a blatant discrimination of the majority of the staff, including even the lower, clerical and administrative staff, who prepare the mouth-watering salary and daily allowance bills and invoices of their officers, but themselves hardly get paid decent salaries or allowances.

The way the lower staff and regular employees are hounded by the seniors and the consultants without any extra benefits also causes fissures within the system. But it also underscores the dichotomy in a system on the one hand employs some people with unusually high salaries (for the local conditions) and on the other hand heavily relies on a big disicentivised lower-rung bureaucracy. That is why the Pakistan Image Project consultants failed to create a niche for themselves within the system. To what extent can ERRA, PERRA and SERRA consultants entrench themselves and extract cooperation from their colleagues, remains a matter of speculation as of now.

Although the NGO-led work is much better, yet the pace of work under the three organizations remains slow and objectionable, resulting in protests and occasional blockades of even the Karakorom Highway The common complaint is the dithering and delaying that the nitpicking by consultants and officials causes in the course of project implementation and execution of ground works. So, it remains questionable as to whether highly paid consultants do make a difference?



The writer is an Islamabad-based correspondent of a foreign news organisation. Email: vogul1960@-yahoo.com