Insufficient results or unsound decisions in various ministries and institutions cast doubt about the effectiveness of the 504 consultants in Government, taking into account the investment that is being currently made of 1 million 241 thousand 910 dollars per month on them.
Government mistakes have cost the current administration a barrage of criticism from various sectors, who question the work of consultants.
While being consulted over the issue, consultants must be monitored so as to corroborate their tasks and must be asked to submit reports.
Although it is legal to appoint consultants, in jurist Ernesto Cedeño´s view, the Comptroller General of the Republic must keep a monitoring system to assess their work and performance.
"The fact should not be making an appointment to help or support someone, but rendering effective results," said Cedeño.
And according to data provided by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the Ministers are the ones responsible of watching their functions.
The lawyer was fair in recognizing that not all consultants are "botellas" (people who earn an unjustified salary), but said that there must be an "external level" (Comptroller´s Office) and an "in-house level" (Ministry) to monitor the work that is assigned to each consultant.
He also considered that an adjustment and an analysis on this issue is required so as to determine whether it is necessary to keep a massive payroll of special hires, taking into account the perception of the population who believe that consultants are not fulfilling the expectations and are not helping the Government in finding solutions to the problems
Meanwhile, lawyer Neftalí Jaén said that there seems to be a "secret affair", because consultants do not come forward and provide reports or do not submit documents that they are supposed to have developed, therefore, no results are ever seen.
The responsibility falls directly on the Ministers, because they are who administer ministries and who maintain that system of consultancy, therefore, in Jaén´s view the Minister must also submit a report to the citizenship on what consultants are assigned to do and ultimately done.
Political analyst Mario Rognoni said that as consultants, they only give advice and it is the Minister who makes the decision on taking it or not.
Rognoni considers that consultants need to be identified by sector and divide them into foreign and national consultants, and it would be good to see what responsibilities they have and what achievements they have attained.
Panama America counted 36 consultants for the Ministry of Education (Meduca), for example, and in some people´s view there are far too many consultants for the amount of erroneous decisions that the Ministry concerned has made.
"I cannot understand why they have so many consultants that seem to be out and lost in space ", said Rognoni.
