Hiring consultants is expensive: Official

The Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD) deputy secretary Stephen Rambe wants district and provincial governments to cut costs by refraining from hiring consultants for development plans.
“The hiring of consultants is becoming a money-making business,” he said.
“Some are paid up to K500,000 and this is unacceptable.”
Rambe said the planning and drawing up of development plans must not be allowed to become a money-spinning industry.
“Although there is manpower shortage, we can still provide the guidelines and help districts to come up with their five-year development plans,”he said.
“The National Planning Department (NPD) is now responsible for vetting all development plans for districts and provinces.”
However, Rambe said the NPD currently had no standard guideline or tool book to assess and vet development plans.
“We need to address this issue and come up with a standard guideline to conduct such assessments,” he said.