Consultancy firms under scrutiny

Rwanda Organisation of Professional Consultants (ROPC), a consultants’ umbrella body, says there is an ongoing assessment to net quack consultancy firms.This follows reports that some external consultants have, on several occasions, lied about their credentials to get contracts.Speaking to The New Times, Wednesday, the organisation’s chairman, Jean Marie Vianney Makuza, said they have so far registered over 150 local consultancy firms and the next step is to scrutinise a number of foreign practitioners to establish those that are qualified. “We are finalising the setting up of the organisation’s administration and for impostors, it is an issue we are going to tackle soon,” Makuza asserted.“These quacks not only affect performance of institutions that hire them, but also undermine the credibility of qualified firms”.A case in point is a recent claim by the Ministry of Public Service and Labour, on a Tanzanian based consultancy firm, Credit and Risk Solutions Bureau, tasked to carry out a study on the much-needed minimum wage.According to Anna Mugabo, the Director of Employment and Labour, the said firm presented fake credentials to win a three month contract.“During the tendering process, this consultancy firm had indicated that it would use economic experts to give us quality work which we were looking for. But after they won the contract, we realised they were using local personnel who had no knowledge about the work,” Mugabo disclosed.She added that the ministry had to terminate the firm’s contract after it had provided substandard work.Makuza said his organisation looks forward to promoting locally-based consultants.“Government institutions should trust our local consultants since most of the work that requires expatriates can now be done by local experts,” Makuza said. A survey conducted by the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) showed that between 2003 and 2008, the government spent approximately $ 80 million on external consultancy services annually. Officials from the Ministry of Labour also said they were conducting a nationwide survey to establish jobs on the market to determine the structure of the country’s labour market.The occupation-on-demand list will assess the number of jobs Rwandans are able to do and come up with the exact situation of the skills gap that necessitates the hiring of foreign skilled personnel.A law determining the functions and mandate of ROPC) is currently before parliament and it is said that part of its mandate will be to follow up on the standards and ethics of consultancy firms in the country.