Some stakeholders have called for caution in the wake of federal and state government’s constant resort to engaging consultants to run some of their businesses.
For many years to date, state governments and the federal government have hired consultants with the belief that consultancies offer expertise, possess expert knowledge, are more efficient and cost-effective.
Different tiers of government engage consultancies to run public tertiary institutions, collect taxes and levies, and coordinate the affairs of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Several tertiary institutions’ new constructions in Nigeria have consultants, governing councils of these institutions are also at the mercy of these consultants and are usually accountable mostly to the principal who hired them, not the head of MDAs.
The consultants are deemed cost-effective for the government as their pay is usually a commission from revenue generated from the government or the government paying upfront to the consultant mandated to rake in a specified amount or carry out certain “reforms” within stipulated periods.
The government hires both local and foreign consultants for various projects, with the foreign consultants deemed to have some awesome expertise that meets international standards.
In many instances, those in MDAs, who believe they boast of similar expertise as the hired consultants, are left in the cold, as the government seems to trust the consultants more than their own.
However, stakeholders, in conversations with Tribune Online, note that the consequences of the government’s continued use of consultants to run its affairs are the neglect of local talent, economic drain, limited local empowerment, cultural insensitivity and missed opportunities for innovation.
President, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Oyo State, Mr Ayo Adeogun said it was worrisome that civil servants engaged to assist the government in running its affairs were left idle due to the engagement of consultants.
He argued that the civil and public servants had the expertise sought from outside, adding that it was worrisome that government workers were not being engaged to carry out the duties they received wages for.
A public affairs analyst, Mr Isaac Ademidun described multinational consultancies’ claim to offer expertise in collecting levies and taxes as a confidence trick with taxpayers the victim.
Though he noted that there was the need for a more active, creative and capable public service, he said the use of consultants does not improve the public service, as he called for more engagement and retraining of civil servants to be more capable.
In spite of the engagement of so-called experts, Ademidun said several consultants underperform due to poor management as a result of flaws in their selection, undue favouritism in their selection and being under pressure to satisfy certain interests.
Chairman, Joint Action Committee (JAC) of tertiary institutions in Oyo State, Mr Oye Oyewumi likened the government’s decision to hire consultants to oversee tertiary institutions as penny wise, pound foolish.
He bemoaned that the consultants become lords of the manor in their institutions leaving governing councils and management of the institutions at the mercy of the consultants.
Oyewumi noted that the consultants also went to the extent of deciding contractors for projects in tertiary institutions while adding to the bureaucracy in the system.
On his part, a tax expert, Mark Abuh described the use of tax consultants as an aberration.
The tax expert pointed out that the Tax Act provides that the Board of Internal Revenue in a state could delegate some of its non-core functions to tax consultants “but not assessment and actual collection.”
Abuh held that the use of consultants by some state and local governments was one of the factors that contributed to the multiple taxation of citizens and organisations.
According to Abuh, consultants often use means other than what the law prescribed to collect taxes and levies in local government areas.
He observed that many state governments spent some percentage of their revenue on consultants but failed to improve the capacity of their own revenue staff.
Speaking, a former Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Oyo State, Mr Ibrahim Bolomope condemned the government’s continued use of consultants to run its affairs.
Bolomope said he had always been baffled at the decision, tantamount to a neglect of local expertise and a waste of public resources to satisfy certain selfish interests.
But, Executive Assistant to Governor Seyi Makinde on Project Monitoring, Engineer Muftau Open Salawu, speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, said the government was right in engaging consultants as they offer specialized expertise that government workers may not have.
Salawu argued that consultants were more efficient for tasks as they have years of experience in specialized tasks compared to civil servants who may be a jack of all trades but not masters in the trades.
He said the government sought for efficiency and effectiveness in tasks hence their engagement of consultants, stressing that those in MDAs were meant to play supervisory roles while consultants carried out the projects.
He, however, said what the government must get right was the selection of the consultant as well as enhancing local content by engaging more local consultants than foreign ones.
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