I was not blaming the consultants, not their fault, their role...

I was not blaming the consultants, not their fault, their role is to agree with the d***head in the client company, and do what they are requested to.

With inhouse employees you might actually get some intelligence in the formatting of the questions, and perhaps even get your judgement queried, some real debate and sometimes told you are wrong.

In cases like this I would expect the fault to lie mostly in decisions made close to the top.

EL