Hampering the local expertise!
So foreign consultants should not be compulsory! (This was under your quaint headline 'Foreign consultants should not be must'…)
Of course! The world is waiting to cheer the moment Bangladesh proves able to run its own affairs competently and without any help at all from overseas, financial or otherwise… So why do foreign donors 'hamper the application of local expertise and the maximum utilisation of resources', by insisting on such appointments?
Forgive me for stating the obvious… I think of one foreign consultant for a major road building project in despair about it ever being finished because, honourably trying to keep the 'rules and regulations' he has been given, he suffers constant harassment by those who insist these are not necessary - and even suggest he could just paint the road black to make it look as though it has been finished correctly!
As for bridge building - the need of one foreign consultant of the past to be up at 2.00 am to check the quality of cement going into the uprights does give a teeny-weeny hint of the way that some contractors save their expenses and line their own pockets, ignoring the risks of future cracks appearing…
It seems that there are still some Bangladeshis who consider any job or project is just a 'gravy train' - an opportunity for personal profit at the expense of the country their children are inheriting. Thus there will continue to be the need to 'hamper the application of local expertise' on the grounds that some 'local expertise' is the wrong sort……
However, there are surely highly qualified and well-trained Bangladeshis of integrity, who could be competent consultants, if the powers-that-be would only use their authority to get the other sort off their backs! Maybe some now have to work overseas, but these are surely the ones who have the right to say to donors, “Don't appoint foreigners! Give us the rules and regulations and supervisory visits - and a chance!”
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