Dear Editor,

I write in response to and support of a recent editorial in The Nassau Guardian, entitled "Curbing government use of foreign consultants to promote Bahamians". If 1,000 Bahamians were randomly asked if they regarded themselves as positive or negative persons, 99.9 percent of the respondents would shout "Positive!"

By extension, if 200 politicians and bureaucrats were asked if they were agents for change or proponents of the status quo - we would have the same percentage, or maybe even 100 percent, touting their "agents for change" credentials. This being said, "Why isn't The Bahamas, as a country, faring better than we are?"

Why are we not seeing the magic of a Singapore (for example) given all the native advantages we have, namely proximity to the U.S., eye of the Caribbean, manageable population size, relatively high standard of living, etc.?

Or more specifically, why aren't more Bahamian (or even regional) consultants 100 percent or even 50 percent engaged, given the stated position that only approximately 200 public employees (out of 19,000), have a highly specialized or technical skill set?

Given the above narrative and the fact that the government ministries and agencies highlighted in the editorial, i.e., finance, environment, housing, transport and aviation, the BEST Commission, and the National Insurance Board, all need and constantly hire consultants - why aren't qualified professional management consultants swamped with work?
The short answer: there has to be an elephant in the room.

If the qualified members of my profession want to work and have access to regional colleagues with "best in class" experience and our ministries and agencies have a need for and are hiring consultants, what is the issue? What is even more damning is that consultants across the region are bemoaning this phenomenon that continually promotes the "false notion that foreign is better".

If this supposition is correct, then I submit that the burning priority issue facing our country's leadership, i.e., government and opposition, is to identify and remove the proverbial elephant from the room. It is too detrimental not to deal with this matter, as this may very well be the ideal time to send the elephant out to pasture before it does irreparable damage to the innovative and independent thinking of our people.

As I watched the Parliamentary Channel last Wednesday, it was comforting to see our country's leaders collaboratively debate and pass the legislation to enact Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants 2014 Bill. The former act, enacted in 1991, had definitely passed its useful shelf-life. It needed to be repealed and replaced with legislation to "facilitate the demands of the international regulators such as the IMF, The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of the Caribbean (ICAC)".

As MP Hope Strachan succinctly put it, the new act will "transform another sector of our economy? and also ensure the maintenance of high professional standards in the accounting sector.
Very well put! Kudos and congratulations to Bahamas Institute of Chartered Accountants (BICA). Kudos and congratulations also to our Parliament for collaboratively rising to the occasion - albeit a bit late.

The accounting profession, however, like the legal one, is protected and has been for years. They both have registers and any foreign accountant or lawyer wishing to practice on our shores requires the stamp of approval of the Bahamas Bar Association or BICA, whether they are hired by the government or otherwise.

Professional management consultants are not. This reality (or tragedy) is compounded by the fact that successive governments have been unable (or unwilling) to ensure that more than five percent of the government's millions spent on consultants are spent on local and by extension regional consultants. This speaks to hundreds of millions over the past 10 years. Utilizing the Junkanoo Carnival metric, this translates to a $1 billion plus impact on gross domestic product.

The CARICOM Secretariat has been championing the enactment of legislation across our region to regularize the management consultancy sector. Legislation would be similar to that recently updated and enacted for the accountants.

This is an ideal time for the government to introduce a positive narrative to the national debate, by actively supporting the proactive and enabling legislation required to regulate this sector. A move, coincidentally, that will also serve to establish standards and transform the consultancy sector but more importantly provide additional jobs and opportunities in the fastest growing professional services sector.

Our prime minister is now chair of CARICOM, so this is an opportune time for local consultants, supported by key stakeholders and our regional colleagues, to take the bull by the horns. To lobby and antagonize every politician until they provide the regulatory and enabling legislation for management consultants, as a professional services sector, and as adopted by the Thirty-Sixth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development in May 2013.

As the editorial correctly concludes, a display of government confidence in Bahamian (consulting) firms - or Bahamian professionals in general - may entice a younger generation to the sector. The consultancy sector is indeed a high growth one ($1 trillion globally annually) and one where we can easily make inroads.

None of this will be remotely possible without ridding ourselves of the elephant in the room!
Finally, as Arinthia S. Komolafe wrote in a recent op-ed, "a luta continua" - the struggle continues.

- Donald Demeritte

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian