Well, if not exactly in praise, at least in defence of them.
There has been a lot of press recently about the federal government’s use of consultants. According to some, they should never be used. All such positions should be filled by civil servants, etc., etc. Most of these people have never worked in government offices, particularly project offices. Many MPs in opposition have zeroed in on the rising costs for consultants under the current government. But what they don’t acknowledge is that the previous Conservative government had moved to abolish all consultants from government work and were on their way to doing just that. The number and cost of consultants went down. (This may account for the poor performance in defence procurement during this period.)
Acknowledgement: I was a consultant (hiss, boo, shame on you) in several projects, mostly but not exclusively, in DND. During those years, I saw and heard a lot of things, and the following is some of the major conclusions I derived from the experience.
Early on in my consulting career, I saw a study about the cost of doing business by DND. The study looked at three different ways to provide personnel for a project. The most costly was military officers when such factors as higher pay, benefits and training were factored in. The second most costly were civil servants, again because of pay, benefits and training for specific specialties. The cheapest was consultants because all that was being paid for was the cost of the person plus a mark-up for the consulting company. In almost all cases, the provision of consultants was competitive among a large group of consulting companies that operate in Ottawa ( an online search shows over 30 such companies listed, including two I worked through). The actual consultant is an independent entity, usually incorporated, who is contracted by one of the consulting companies. As I said it is very competitive and nobody gets excessively rich.
In most cases, the consultant is older, more experienced and even in some cases better educated. My particular specialty was system engineering and project management. In both cases, I brought that knowledge with me from the military and the defence industry. Along the way I earned the designation as a Project Management Professional (PMP). When I worked as a consultant, I brought all of these attributes to the table. And I was not alone, most of the other consultants that I worked with had similar experiences and knowledge. Some had specific expertise in software development, or specific engineering or logistics specializations.
Providing personnel for project offices was not easy for a Project Manager. Many civil servants were reluctant to join projects, fearing they would become redundant after the project wound down or ended. A few of them were whiners about their jobs or other aspects of their employment. Military projects always had some military personnel. There were two problems with their employment. First, most were inexperienced in projects. This was one more step in a military career (been there, done that). Except in rare cases, they would never see another project. The second problem was the propensity of the military to post people to new positions outside project, usually at some critical time in the life of the project. The military actually puts a limit on the number of total military personnel that can be assigned to project positions. All of that makes the use of consultants, many with military backgrounds, very attractive to Project Managers.
My consultant work with DND was quite good and positive. My one experience with another department was largely disappointing. I was hired to work on a project for Public Safety and Emergency Planning Canada (PSEPC) (or as I preferred, Paranoia Canada). It turned out to be fairly short contract of only a few months. The project had a fixed budget and timeline to prove the concept that they were working on. I was brought in as the project management expert, charged with producing the plans for the project. I concentrated on three plans which I considered the foundation for a good project: a communications management plan, which I advocate as the first step, because you cannot do anything else until you know how you are to communicate with each other; a project management plan, the document that ties everything together; and, a risk management plan since it is fundamental that you can deal with risks to the project. I did produce these documents and they seemed to be accepted by the PSEPC people that I worked for. More than a year later, I was asked what I had done with this project. When I explained, they asked about the Risk Management Plan. I told them my approach to the subject which concentrated on what is called continuous risk management (assess risk at every step of the way). They acknowledged that and informed me that the project had burned through their entire budget with absolutely nothing to show for it. The project staff had never used the risk plan and had never recorded one risk.
It takes knowledge and experience to run a project. Consultants bring that to the positions that they fill.
