Mckinsey had been engaged by the previous government, and paid $5million by the Asian Development Bank on behalf of Pakistan, a huge sum for just one report of questionable quality. ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID
The Planning Commission (PC) is considering engaging the global management consulting firm ‘McKinsey & Company’ – a company that has in the past failed to produce a quality report on Pakistan despite charging $5 million − to prepare Vision 2025 for the country.
The PC’s desire to involve McKinsey in preparation of a policy document that it believes will set the priorities of a nation of 180 million people for next 12 years, has raised questions of aligning such policy prescription with ground realities.
Mckinsey had been engaged by the previous government, and paid $5million by the Asian Development Bank on behalf of Pakistan, a huge sum for just one report of questionable quality.
“The McKinsey’s report was fancy but a terrible one in terms of content”, said former deputy chairman Planning Commission Dr Nadeem ul Haque. Haque said he had contacted the McKinsey’s partners thrice and asked them to defend their work, but no one turned up. On one occasion, he said, one of the McKinsey partners admitted the poor quality of the work and promised to revisit the report.
Dr Haque said his predecessor Salman Faruqi had sanctioned $5 million payment to McKinsey.
The timing of giving McKinsey a stake in the new ‘visionary’ document coincides with a three-year International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) programme that has already set policy directions at least for the programme period. The ministry of finance is in the driving seat at the moment and has kept the planning ministry out of the loop. It did not engage the planning ministry when it was finalising the IMF programme that carries far reaching adverse implications on economic growth.
In a conference organised by the PC recently, Salman Ahmad, a partner at McKinsey had claimed that the previous government had shelved his company’s work.
When contacted, Asif Sheikh, the spokesman for the PC, said the government has not yet decided to formally engage the McKinsey.
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms, Ahsan Iqbal, was keen on preparing a new vision for the country aimed at stabilising economy and ensuring sustainable inclusive growth. However, the biggest obstacle for the commission, according to the minister, was the PC’s capacity constraint.
He has promised to develop the vision by the end of this year but so far the blueprint of the vision is not ready. Sources close to the minister said that Iqbal was upset about the slow pace of work and wanted to hire consultants from the private sector to complete the exercise.
Despite McKinsey’s poor work, Iqbal wanted to engage the firm to overcome capacity constraints, a strategy that is not received well in the PC, according to sources. While acknowledging capacity constraints, PC officials said that the continued indifference of the policymakers towards strengthening the PC led to demise in the working of the Commission.
They said that instead of doling out millions of dollars to these international consultants the government should focus on the Commission or else it should be closed down. The previous government turned the Commission into a project processing unit while compromising on its policy role.
Ahsan Iqbal was not available for comment.
In a similar case, the PC has also engaged Dr Khalid Ikram as a consultant on Vision 2025. Dr Ikram was also involved in the preparation of the Framework for Economic Growth (FEG), prepared by the previous government.
Asif Sheikh said that the PC had requested the ADB to provide assistance in preparation of the Vision 2025 and Dr Khalid Ikram was selected by the ADB. “We have accepted the ADB’s choice”, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2013.
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COMMENTS (13)
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@Ali Syedain: very condescending and not very enlightening. its not enough to question the corespondent's credentials. You have to say how and where his argument is weak or wrong.
Feel pity for poor Pakistani......
Give me 10 bucks. I will give you a hot vision statement !
"Dr Haque said his predecessor Salman Faruqi had sanctioned $5 million payment to McKinsey" ...........So how much is 10 % of $5 million .............
My experience with various business schools and consultancies suggests that there are enough capable consultants in Pakistan to provide the good advice and point out the right direction. The students and professors of LUMS & IBA have experience with companies like McKinsey itself. They should be engaged if the Government seeks the right direction and opportunities. However, the major concern is not the direction but the implementation will and the 'will to implement' is itself a function of various complicated variable about which Mckinsey or no other competent consultant can provide any reasonable advice. That part is for the government to do
We have very qualified people with in,our country, only if they are patronised on mérit....we have no dearth of qualified person who are moré knowledgable of ground realities.....
Feel sorry for ordinary Pakistani like me.....
Why we need someone to set your goals!!!!!!!.
It’s easy as this • Land reforms • Tax to be charged on all sort of incomes including Agriculture • Legislate for strict control and punishment for corruptions • Privatize white elephants like PIA, Steel Mill and so on…… • Make public/private partnership for infrastructure development in country. • Luxury items should be made expensive by introducing more taxes to cut our import bill.
P.S. Whoever works on the vision, some one gotta get down and implement the damn vision!
Execution is where all our Idaara's still fail.
Keep in mind that McKinsey is only a strategy advisor, they are never going to implement it for you and if you have no one with the courage and persistence to implement your visions, you might as well save the money and not engage any consultants to begin with.
The problem is that all our politicians are really good at talking. They will talk for hours and hours and hours. And their talk is academic. All talk of vision, strategy and planning is fairly useless, unless one has actually gone through a process of creating a vision, executing and implementing it via the corporate or public sector. And therefore, we see another politician being unable to find the right mix of people to develop and execute the vision. As they say at IBM, "Stop Talking, Start Doing" Before we blame consultants, put the blame on yourself first. Simply put, you are not the right man for the job. Great companies like Apple, Microsoft, Google, were not built by consultants.
You know there are enough resources & experience available within the country to develop a framework of growth for Pakistan. Honestly Mckinsey has absolutely no insight in the country as a firm they do not track Pakistan, and their strategies are not game changers.
There is a need to change the mind set. Plus if you look at Mckinseys business model, it can not invest or deploy the resources to provide a conducive program that could overhaul the countries economic outlook.
McKinsey can help identify areas of opportunity but in the end it is you O' Govt. that has to define OUR vision for US! Keep our challenges, aspirations and priorities in mind, and yes do listen to what McKinsey has to say, pick and choose some good bits, but dont just leave it to them to define a vision for you!
Oh and its always easy to blame the consultants!
Is your correspondent qualified to comment on this issue? Does he have the depth of experience, especially in the international top management where such consultancies operate, to take a clear stand on the engagement?
Quick, hide the money, "Economic Hitmen" are coming.