Consulting Fees in Mauritius: How to Read a Mandate Quote

Consulting fees in Mauritius have no single defensible market number for an institutional mandate. The meaningful comparison is a priced scope: what decision the work supports, which people will do it, what the buyer must provide, what is delivered, when payment is due and what happens when the scope changes. An accounting subscription, a company administration charge and a ministry strategy assignment are different purchases. A search result that puts their prices in one range does not answer what your consultancy mandate should cost.

Where we sit. B Hub Consulting advises institutions through its Sovereign & Institutional Advisory practice and has an interest in how such work is bought. B Hub does not publish a standard fee card on this site; a defined assignment needs a proposal. The framework below is one you can use on our quote or any other. A firm willing to specify its assumptions and handover more clearly may be the better choice.

Consulting fees in Mauritius cannot be compared as a single hourly rate

The Procurement Policy Office publishes separate standard requests for proposals for lump sum and time based consultancy contracts, read 14 October 2026. That distinction matters because a rate is only one component of a time based price, while a lump sum prices an output. Neither document is a public tariff for all consultants. The Procurement Policy Office templates concern public procurement; private buyers can use the comparison logic but are not automatically subject to the public rules.

A proposed day rate means little without the named experts, expected days, expenses, review rounds and responsibility for delay. A low rate multiplied by an undefined programme can cost more than a higher fixed price for a complete deliverable. Conversely, a fixed fee for a vaguely defined transformation can make every discovery an argument over variations. First settle the terms of reference for the consultancy assignment, then compare money.

A lump sum works when the deliverable can be accepted

The Procurement Policy Office Evaluation Guide, section 1.13.1, read 14 October 2026, describes a lump sum contract for an assignment whose scope, duration and required output are clearly defined. It links payment to outputs such as reports, drawings, bidding documents and software programmes. For an institutional buyer, the useful question is whether a reviewer can accept or reject each output against criteria written before work begins.

A fixed fee proposal should name the reports or artefacts, the number of workshops, the data supplied by the client, review periods, decision owners and what counts as a change. An infrastructure feasibility assessment might have a bounded set of sites and a defined report. An institutional reform programme with several undecided agencies and no agreed baseline is harder to price this way without exclusions that swallow the work. Do not treat a fixed total as certainty until the exclusions have been read.

Tie milestone payment to an accepted output, not just the passage of a month. Record how many revisions are included and how a disagreement is resolved. The buyer should know what can be used if the engagement ends early: source data, models, documents, assumptions and the right to continue with another team. These are negotiation points, not published Mauritian fee levels.

Time based work needs a ceiling and an accountable work plan

Section 1.13.2 of the same Procurement Policy Office guide, read 14 October 2026, says time based contracts fit work whose scope or duration is difficult to fix, including complex studies, advisory services and supervision. It describes agreed hourly, daily, weekly or monthly rates for experts, reimbursable items, and a ceiling on total payments. It also says the client must monitor progress and claims closely. That ceiling is a control, not a promise that the desired result will be complete when the ceiling is reached.

Ask for named roles and an effort range by workstream. Which principal actually attends, who produces the analysis, who reviews it, and what happens if someone is replaced? Set a weekly or monthly record of work done, decisions pending and hours used against the ceiling. Define whether travel, specialist data, translation and alliance advisers sit inside or outside that ceiling. When a workstream cannot be estimated yet, price a bounded discovery phase that produces a better scope rather than leaving the whole mandate open.

The SME Mauritius sample consulting contract, read 14 October 2026, leaves the monthly payment to the quotation. It is a useful reminder that a contract form is not itself a market price. The quotation, deliverables and approval mechanism have to do the work.

A retainer needs a defined capacity, not just a monthly invoice

A retainer can suit a board or institution that needs continuing access to advice while the exact questions change. The buyer should specify whether the fee reserves named senior time, a number of hours, response within an agreed period, a standing meeting, or a continuing programme with stated outputs. Those are materially different promises. If the firm is free to supply any amount of attention and the buyer has no priority when a decision arrives, the word “retainer” conceals rather than clarifies the service.

Write down what happens to unused capacity, who may raise a question, whether work outside the core team needs separate approval, and how either side ends the arrangement. The output may be a decision memo, a negotiation brief or recorded advice, but it should be visible. For a public body, the procurement route and contract terms must be checked under the applicable rules before assuming a private-style retainer is available. This is a commercial comparison, not legal advice.

Compare proposals on the same assumptions before comparing totals

Send each bidder the same decision objective, background documents, access assumptions and deliverables. Ask each to list exclusions, the team by role, outside experts, data or travel costs, client approvals, timetable dependencies and handover rights. Reconcile every proposal into one comparison sheet. A quote that excludes fieldwork cannot be placed beside one that includes it as if they are equivalent. Mark a field “Not published” or “Not stated in proposal” when the bidder has not supplied it, rather than estimating.

Quality matters in the price comparison. The cheapest proposal may be sound for a tightly specified routine task. For a politically sensitive institutional assignment, the team’s judgement, independence and ability to transfer a usable record can matter more than the first invoice. Test conflicts and delivery responsibility before appointment, not after the cheapest bid is selected.

Public procurement has a separate rule after price is scored

For a public body, the Public Procurement Act 2006, section 24(9)(b), read 14 October 2026, says that where price has been a factor, the fee for services is not subject to negotiation and only reimbursable items may be negotiated. The text also records a narrow exception inserted in 2022 where the only responsive consultant’s proposal substantially exceeds the estimated cost and a rebid is not practical. A private company has a different commercial freedom. Do not carry advice about negotiating a private quote into a public tender without checking the applicable law and RFP.

The public buyer should also check the current request for proposals, evaluation method and authority for any variation with procurement counsel. A blog post cannot decide those points for a live tender. The distinction is still useful to every buyer: set the price basis and comparison criteria before selecting a firm, when there is time to make bids comparable.

Run a six step fee review before authorising the mandate

1. 01Define the decision. Name the board, ministry or investment decision the work must support, and the date it is needed.
2. 02Freeze the comparison scope. Give every bidder the same sites, documents, interviews, dependencies and expected outputs.
3. 03Choose a pricing basis. Use a defined output for lump sum, an approved ceiling for time based work, or written capacity for a retainer.
4. 04Price the whole obligation. Include expenses, specialist input, review rounds, data access and the client time needed for approval.
5. 05Test the end state. Specify acceptance, ownership of work products, correction of defects and what is handed over on early exit.
6. 06Check the procurement rule. A public body confirms its RFP, evaluation method and legal limits before negotiating; a private buyer records its own approval route.

B Hub should be assessed on that same sheet. Our published practice areas describe advisory across institutional strategy, capital, infrastructure and transformation, but a practice name is not a priced deliverable. Ask us to specify the people, work products, exclusions and handover. If another firm can provide the required result with clearer terms and less cost, the comparison should show it.

Where it is the wrong choice: a statutory audit, tax return, company administration service or routine low-cost implementation needs the relevant specialist or product supplier. We also do not hold an FSC licence or issue legal opinions on procurement. For a public tender, appoint procurement counsel for a legal interpretation. B Hub’s role is advisory, and its fee is not a substitute for the buyer’s own assessment of value.

Once the scope is set, use the consultancy due diligence test before appointment. If the mandate is defined and you want B Hub to price it, send the brief to a principal in confidence.