My experiences

My views on Government Consulting -  I worked in this environment for a year.

First of all, too much of bureaucracy in Government makes the life of outsider (a consultant) very difficult.

It takes a new comer (a consultant) few months to realize that every government employee is self made king . Sir, Sahab are the most important words one should be saying irrespective of hierarchy to a government employee, if one wants the work to be done.

If one doesn’t accept this reality, it will create very uncomfortable situation for him.

Second, all top officials in government talk with an attitude, with air of superiority. Most of the times their demands are quite irrational, however, being a consultant one has to be diplomatic.

Most of the times its not quality or performance but relations with government officials that wins you accolades.

As the officials in Government are clueless what they wants to do, they hire consultant to guide exactly what they are looking for. However, it’s very difficult to handle an arrogant and confused person.

The consultants though try hard to persuade government officials for a concrete solution, it’s always difficult to adhere to unrealistic timelines and irrational expectations set for government projects.

Also the solution proposed by consultants takes months if not years to get final approval from the stakeholders. The approval file moves from one official to other numerous times. Each official sit on the file for weeks before approving it.

Also, it’s very difficult for government officials to understand what solution is being proposed. They have no interest in the project. They know their month end salary is surely going to come no matter what happens to the project or to the world. .

I think because of this attitude in government, most of the projects fail. However, Consultants are made the scapegoats most of the time for the failed projects.

Tender Process

Whenever Government wants to give any contract, it does so by tender process open to all to ensure impartiality. However, there are no governing procedures in place from the start of floating the tender in the market till the award of contract to the vendor. All the guidelines that are there in place are theoretical and none of them holds well on ground.

But let me explain - how the theoritical process works. First the government releases a RFP (Request For Proposal) in the market by publishing NIT (Notice inviting Tender) in all the leading newspapers. Then, a pre-bid conference is organized for all the prospective bidders. Clarifications are sent to all the bidders related to the doubts in RFP.

All bidders interested in the bid submit proposals. The proposals are evaluated based on Pre – Qualification and Technical Evaluation criteria. The bidders pass the technical evaluation criteria are invited for opening of commercial proposal. The lowest cost vendor (most of the times) is awarded the contract.

A Project Management consultant is hired to monitor the progress of the project and the project continues forever.

Getting Business from Government

For getting business one should be in touch with all the influential people in government like Ministers, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Collectors etc because they take decision about awarding contract to one of the perspective bidder.

Performance is a very subjective parameter in government and most of the time, it is completely on discretion of a single officer in charge. If the vendor keeps him happy, there will never be any questions on performance.

Lastly, a single file takes months to get approved because it moves from bottom to the top in hierarchy indicating that nobody wants to take accountability of any decision.

Sometimes, it becomes so painful working with government that one may start cursing his life. But pain is perennial from start till end of life. And hope is something that keeps our life running.