Not all expats are experts

By Nirwan Idrus

JAKARTA (JP): There seems to be an accepted myth that expats are experts. This not only applies for Indonesia and Papua New Guinea for example, but also developed countries like Australia. The major difference between the former countries and the latter is that in the latter, the impostor is normally found out much quicker.

There are many factors contributing to this and some have nothing to do with the shortfall in the knowledge or expertise of the locals.

Donna Woodward's article (Foreign advisers and consultants as catalysts, The Jakarta Post April 11, 2001) was refreshing. In the first place, little if any discussion on this exists at the moment.

Second, it raises awareness of both sides of the equation. On one hand is the incapacity of the locals to properly evaluate the expatriates, while on the other, the readiness and willingness of nonexpert expatriates to assume, accept and act in the role of experts when they are not.

Given that foreign experts are normally appointed by or through a foreign aid of some sort, the issue is also instructive to donor agencies and countries.

The raising of this matter in Indonesia now is crucially timely. There is aid money now to address poverty and programs that impact the majority of poor Indonesians. It is indeed a wonder how these people live under conditions which are unacceptable elsewhere, even in Third World countries.

It is imperative that experts, whether foreign or local, be chosen using strict criteria. Commitment and dedication must head the list of the selection criteria.

It is an open secret that foreign experts, even on poverty eradication projects, live in luxurious apartments, are driven in luxury cars and certainly earn in more than luxurious dollars. Is this the fault of the foreign experts? Of course not.

The donor agencies would justify the conditions they provide their foreign experts perhaps on the basis of hardships (despite the mega malls in Jakarta and Surabaya), lack of basic necessities (in their luxurious apartments?) and the high costs of living (does anyone wonder?) and so on.

For those real foreign experts who really help Indonesia, they do deserve appropriate rewards. But who really knows who the real foreign experts are or were.

A few years ago, data from the World Bank showed that there were some 60,000 expats working in Indonesia, costing the country some US$200 million per month or $2.4 billion per annum, which is six times the IMF dropping that Indonesia has to ask cap in hand for in recent times. This was not all.

The World Bank data also showed that some 41 percent of those 60,000 foreign experts were in fact not experts at all. They were technicians whose tasks could have been done by local technicians, so some people claimed. But not everybody agreed.

At a seminar attended by over 150 managers of a state-owned enterprise, an Indonesian manager stood up and said that he would employ a foreign technician any time rather than an Indonesian technician with the same qualifications.

When asked why, he said he could trust the foreign technician to do a good job, complete his tasks, come to work on time, stay at work until knock-off time and be responsible for the job he was assigned to do.

He is probably right. But are these qualities a manifestation of a person's expertise? Or are these more of what is better known as work ethics? Even if these traits were not directly related to one's expertise, the question of course is, are work ethics not just as important in achieving what was planned or targeted?

Right or wrong, the manager had at least articulated what is perhaps preoccupying a lot of Indonesian managers' heads and hearts.

This is in fact a good start to addressing the problem of the effectiveness of foreign experts and workers in Indonesia.

In addition to dedication and commitment as the leading criteria for a foreign expert working in Indonesia or developing country, a profound understanding of his tasks in all facets is also required.

In its simplest form, it seems reasonable to expect foreign experts to contribute in improving the current conditions in the country, in whatever sector they are involved in.

That improvement has to be delivered. Otherwise, as Woodward mentioned, the foreign experts will take the path of least resistance.

Indonesian values of not wanting to offend the host, not wanting to impose cultures on the local culture and many similar excuses become convenient rationale for not doing expats' jobs. Unfortunately, there is little feedback that local authorities and recipients of foreign expertise have on shortfalls on the foreign experts' deliverables.

Those who have been involved with foreign expert services and foreign donor agency bureaucracies would also lament the lack of project management expertise on the Indonesian side.

Add to that the above attitudes, much of the potential improvements are also out of reach of those who have been given the responsibility of sometimes managing projects worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.

It is also not uncommon that projects are dominated by accounting priorities rather than project contents, resulting, for example, in unused new buildings and equipment littering the countryside, benefiting no one except some of the Indonesians involved in the project and of course the expatriates.

Also, it has resulted in reports after reports from projects after projects piling up in various government bodies around Jakarta with no one really looking at or looking after them.

No one is normally charged with the complete implementation of any of the recommendations that have been carefully detailed by the foreign experts. In some projects, it is also not uncommon that duplication and overlaps occur across projects and reports. And for these, no one can blame the foreign experts, whether they really are or not experts.

Maybe, a worthwhile short term but intensive project, funded by donor agencies and countries, should concentrate on project management and implementation.

Every project grant and donation should insist on a front-end course for the sake of those involved in the project, especially the locals. We need real experts for this, and nobody would mind if they were foreigners.

The writer is the executive director of the Indonesian Institute for Management Development (IPMI) in Kalibata, South Jakarta.