Development Research Under Attack by Administrators

While submitting the proposal for consultancy or research one need to be very careful while submitting by mail. The finance proposal should be submitted in a password protected file & the key be given only after getting technically qualified. Most of the organizations are honest & transparent but some one (not all) in the organization may play mischief. Secondly the financial proposal if given in advance influences the technical proposal. Now a days few International Agencies have become particular for pass word protected file. They ask the key only after technical evaluation.

A few times I got response from the client international agency the responses like " you were among 3 but your budget was higher than the organization planned for". If so they should have told in advance. The TOR will ask for the best approach & best technical inputs. But while evaluating at the end it is the price which over rides the quality though every one will talk of QCBS. Those who are successful in creating a quality camouflage (hidden the lowest price) with the race. The assessment of quality is much later stage. The first stage is to get the assignment.  "Bhale hi Pitaji ki patloon ek -ek bilant kam karte karte ghutanna ban jaye"  who cares? These are the persons who will always put the blame on consultants & researchers for ineffectiveness & accuracy.

When competition becomes tough & weaker competitors are brought at the same plane. Then price becomes the selection criteria. Under such situations the bidders become very violent in approach.  Rationality in financial bidding becomes secondary. Primary becomes the lowest price bidding. The bidder then decides on the price only for  that output  which is easily visible to the client. Thus the one who is smart in increasing the invisible output wins the race. All winners  have one thing in common that hide the output as much as possible. This formula is applied for those services where validating becomes costlier than production cost such as market research or social science research. If some one wants remain in such business then he should understand this formula. This type of corruption no one will catch as the client is party in inducing the price cuts saying " Master Ji Pitaji ki Patloon ek bilont chhoti kar do". Master becomes master in cutting the price and makes the pant as "Ghutanna".