CM says consultants are hired for quality output
while local youths are catching up
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 7: The Opposition bench on Friday asked the state government why it spends a fortune on consultants from outside Meghalaya who pay a pittance to the local educated youth assisting them.
The Voice of the People MLA from the Mawlai constituency, Brightstarwell Marbaniang said, “I’m raising this question because we have a huge number of qualified unemployed youth – engineers, graduates in agriculture and horticulture – on the one hand, and so many consultants on the other.”
Asking if the state’s unemployed youth are not as good as the consultants working for the government, he said: “If this shows our incompetence, why not train them for six months on delivery systems as what is taught in a university or colleges is understood to be different from what is expected at work?”
“If our youth are to work as professionals, the government can invest in short-term courses or probation training programmes as most companies do for graduate trainees,” he suggested.
Questioning locals are being recruited to support these consultants appointed by the government, the VPP’s Nongkrem MLA Ardent M. Basaiawmoit said, “This is not the first time the CM has explained the need to have consultants, but the question is: why do we need to have consultants when service of our boys and girls can be taken in because the consultants are just instructing but struggle and hard work is carried out by our local.”
Stating that while lakhs are being paid to these consultants and thousands to the locals who are toiling to get the work done, he lamented the government is engaging consultants from outside when the locals are competent enough to prepare projects.
“We understand the need for networking and having people in Delhi to negotiate and manoeuvre a scheme. But the credit shouldn’t go to these consultants because we are told our boys and girls are getting the jobs done for small payments compared to the consultants,” he added.
Replying to the queries, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said 39 individual consultants and 69 consultancy firms are currently engaged in the state. He said the total emoluments paid per annum to these consultants cannot be determined due to the heterogeneity of the period of payment among the departments, the scope of work, and the timeline of projects.
“Moreover, the source of funding is from the specific project under which a consultant is hired,” he said.
He also said the travelling expenses are mostly included in the project cost. However, there are cases when the state government bears the expenses for official work as required beyond the scope of activities according to the agreement.
The CM further said the government is competing to bring in schemes for the state for which DPRs have to be prepared with technical specifications, which sometimes are beyond the officials and therefore, they get the experts.
Informing the House that Meghalaya has been able to get Rs 200 crore, the highest among the states, he said the government was able to bring in 13 EAPs in the last seven years.
“We compete globally and there are standards set by the World Bank, ADB, KFW, JICA, you name. Professional approach and the level of quality helped us get Rs 7,427 crore,” he added.
Acknowledging the suggestion of the MLAs that the skills and capacity of the state’s youth must be enhanced, he said: “While we move and train our people, we cannot lose time as these windows of opportunities close if the documents are not submitted on time.”
He cited how the Centre sought the DPR for the World Bank Mega Project worth Rs 2,400 crore within 48 hours and how the state managed to do so because of the consultants.
The Finance Ministry sanctioned Rs 2,400 crore within seven days due to the speed submission of the DPR, he pointed out.
On the concerns of the local youth not optimally being engaged in consultancy, Sangma said hardly 2-3% of the people working in these consultancy firms were local when the government started. The number is almost 30% today, he added.
“The trend shows that the government objective of bringing in the local youth is being achieved,” he said.
He also clarified that the entire system of payment is transparent and therefore, the question of selecting and paying less to the girls and boys from the state and giving more to outsiders doesn’t arise.
“Everything is based on the work that is done. A large number of our boys and girls are working and we will continue to train them,” he added.
The Leader of the Opposition, Mukul Sangma asked why some of the consultants were paid more than even the officials. The CM replied that the fee for consultants from outside engaged in externally aided services is part of the project.