The newspaper rightly says “the gloomy atmosphere continues” because it is not the first time that an issue like this has been highlighted by the press. The Botswana Gazette was the first paper in 2004 to run a similar story. Consultants like me and many others at least can take comfort in the fact that the Sunday Tribune says “The very people involved in this illicit trade are neither Business Consultants nor represent any Consulting Company” thereby completely exonerating the Consultants.
It is most unfortunate that there is a tendency on the part of some authorities to go on the defensive whenever cases of misdemeanor on the part of some civil servants are exposed. As a result of this, we continue to have endless reports of one kind of impropriety or another being reported without any tangible action being taken to remedy the situation or to bring to book intransigent culprits.
Some twenty three years ago, the late Peter Mmusi said in his report on “Economic Opportunities” that: “We noted widespread resentment of government officialdom, based on the feeling that officials are a law unto themselves” and that complaints about inefficiency, delay and malpractices are useless since officials are judge and jury in their own case. We believe this is an extremely serious problem, and that there is indeed a widespread tendency among officials in all branches of government to forget that they are servants of the public”.
One can reasonably conclude that it is this “Government officialdom” which discourages these foreigners including some locals from seeking help from officials of Government and ultimately falling prey to “Consultants”. The question one is tempted to ask is whether these people are really and truly Consultants or Charlatans. If ever there was a cadre of people who can be described as Vulture, these are the ones. Sometime last year, I was pleasantly amused by one of these Consultants when she was been questioned by an Immigration Officer on some matter. The Consultant angrily responded: “This matter is straight and forward”. I later learnt that she had just completed her Cambridge Certificate.
The response by one of the “Consultants” that “It is not important to tell you who I am or the company I work for as long as at the end of the day I have money begs the question; is this truly a consultant who can legitimately claim to be earning his or her keep in a manner that is perfectly legal and above board, or a charlatan. The Dictionary defines a Charlatan as a person who pretends to have expert knowledge or skill he or she does not have. On the other hand, most of us are most likely aware that a consultant is someone who may be called upon to give professional or technical advice or opinion in a particular field of endeavor.
This expertise often relates to knowledge acquired over a period of time in the kind of service in which one is engaged. For example, amongst the consultants I know, one was for many years a Senior Labour Officer, one a Chief Immigration Officer and the other two a Registrar of Companies and Deputy Commissioner of Labour respectively.
It may be in the interest of both the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Consultants to call for the profile of all consultants and then set up a database of all consultants so that as and when the need arise for the Ministry to outsource some of the tasks being performed by Labour and Immigration Officers for which there is not adequate manpower they can utilise the services of these Consultants. Have you ever paused to think why the Ministry of Home Affairs is having to deal with a backlog of applications when the country is awash with people who masquerade as consultants and who, if they are, should be facilitating the work of the Department by submitting correctly completed application forms.
I have often wondered why employers or other investors utilising the services of these consultants are required to accompany the consultants to Labour and Immigration Offices and spending long hours at these offices when they should be attending to their businesses. Time is money and that is the reason why they should spend money on consultants.
