Challenges of consultancy

Most people perceive consultancy as an easy source of earning handsome amount of money and consultants as persons having least accountability for their activities.  But in reality this perception is not true. In fact, though monthly salary of a consultant is much higher compared to the amount one earns while in government service, since most consultants are retired or serving government officers, they have to face a lot of challenges for this. In reality, consultancy and challenge go side by side. It starts right from selection down to carrying out responsibilities which demand innovation, perseverance, compromising ability and sometimes ignoring humiliation. Some examples will clarify the situation. This article, however, deals with challenges faced by local consultants only; foreign consultant's portion has been excluded to make the focus more specific.
First is the stiff competition one has to face for getting selected as a consultant particularly at the initial stage of his new profession. Opportunities are limited compared to the number of candidates interested. Though it may not be true in all cases but it is so in some cases where favouritism in one form or other prevails over professional ability and acumen.
Instances are there where less qualified persons have been selected due to their good connection with the decision-making authorities and also for reasons other than professional excellence or experience.   
Second is the working environment within the project. During active service of a government officer, command structure and chain of command are the driving forces behind getting things done at all stages of bureaucracy in government organisations. Juniors respect seniors not only for their superior knowledge and experience but also out of backlash-fear for any sort of insubordination. But the situation is different when the same senior officer after retirement is working in a project. At that time, he does not possess the power to do harm and cannot harm his ex-junior colleague directly and therefore may not get the same type of attention from or has congenial interaction with him always. This sometimes causes humiliation and embarrassment which a consultant has to bear silently without being able to express although it is burning him mentally all the time. However, the silver lining is that such cases are rare. Besides, the situation is different for obvious reasons for in-service officers, who are on deputation to the project. But this is a reality which can not be ignored altogether outright.
Third is the reluctance of beneficiaries to accept new innovations or amendments of existing systems, procedures due to various reasons - a few of which may be genuine but most are not. A lot of instances are there where very good systems and procedures, which are tested, applied and proved successful in conditions and circumstances similar to our country, have been frozen or decision delayed deliberately. Shyness to innovation is another reason behind this situation. All these negate the very purpose of having the project and in most cases the consultant has to bear the brunt or held responsible for proposing the change. All sorts of games are played to ridicule him. There was a case where a book was written giving detailed steps to be followed for implementing a concept, practiced in all developed and most developing countries, in a very important government organisation of our country. The concept and the book were designed to examine, verify and review effectiveness of various systems and procedures now being used in the organisation for achieving its goals and objectives and suggesting improvements. After three reviews of the book by senior officers of the organisation, the last one done by a committee, the final version was prepared. But this was again subjected to reviews one after another for six months just as delaying tactics to defer decision on the subject. A group within the organisation was afraid of and did not like the new system designed to detect functional failures and bring those directly to the notice of the chief executive to facilitate prompt and effective remedial action. So, delaying tactics camouflaged as reviews were put into action. Such a situation is rather common in consultancy and to tackle this consultant has to show extreme patience, perseverance and go all out to sell his idea and output. This is not an easy task to do. The interesting point to note is that in the above-mentioned case a group of young, dynamic officers of the organisation, though heavily out-numbered, came out very strongly in support of the concept and the book and the problem was solved satisfactorily.
Fourth is the failure in preserving gains of a particular project and its proper dissemination when the project ends. Very often duplication of work occurs. Work done on a particular topic during previous project is sometimes repeated due to ignorance. Besides, several projects having some elements similar in nature are carried out simultaneously by different stakeholders without proper coordination. This is misuse of resources and manpower.
However, in recent years some steps have been taken both by government and the donors to address the problem of duplication. But proper preservation of gains of a project still needs to be addressed. There was a case where authorities handling a project planned a training programme for officers of the department on a particular topic and drew up elaborate programme to deliver it. But thanks to good luck, at the last moment before actual launching of the training programme, it was detected that about 100 officers of the same department were trained on the same topic during another project some time back. All these happened because neither the people who managed the previous project were working in the current project nor the gains were preserved and disseminated properly afterwards. Non-preservation of gains of a project properly and their ineffective dissemination down the line are great bottlenecks in the success of projects. Effective steps must be taken to address loss of valuable time of a consultant for work like this.
Fifth is the revision of project halfway through implementation resulting in amended objectives, goal and a revised plan .This causes revision of budget and consultant's involvement in the project. Often the consultant has to leave the project leaving the work half done. It happens due to defect in project preparation and approval stages.
Last but not the least challenge often faced by a consultant is to strike a balance between aspiration of top local management and that of donors managing the project. Foreign trip is one of the most-sought-after thing of people managing projects in Bangladesh while donors are allergic to it for some reason or others. And sometimes the consultant is caught in between the two aspirations when he is approached cleverly to make it happen. It is a very delicate situation and must be handled very diplomatically by the consultant to avoid misunderstanding of any sort. This is one of the most serious challenging situations the consultant has to face.
From the examples cited above it is evident that a consultant's life is not always a bed of roses. Rather it has many thorns also and is tested by various challenges. The consultant must face the challenges squarely and boldly to be effective and successful in discharging his responsibilities. Desired goals of projects will be better achieved by addressing the above mentioned difficulties faced by consultants in an effective way.
The writer is a retired Deputy Comptroller and Auditor                General (Senior), Office of the Comptroller and Auditor                  General of Bangladesh.                  [email protected]