Recently I had the opportunity to work at one of the so called hubs of corruption in Kenya:The mariakani weighbridge and I must say most of the rumours I heard turned out to be a thing of the past.
I have to say I was disappointed not to get free lunch but was quite impressed with the efficiency and lack of graft in such a lucrative hub.When the government official were running the place the collective revenue daily amounted to over 4million shilling and someone wonders why corruption still thrives in government circles?
Then came Sgs and they realised that people are the source of corruption. In this day and age no one can refuse a little extra cash or in this case making your monthly salary in 2hours.So how did they do it?
First they fired over 300 workers which did not deter graft .The effect was quite the opposite. Asking some of the employees fired they said that it was an opportunity and once you had It you took it and amassed as much as you can. This is Kenya no one is clean.
A new strategy had to be formulated. Integrity training, employee vetting and involvement of the anti corruption agency bore some fruit but as usual the money was too good for the people involved. Just watch the news to see how the anti graft agency are the chief protagonist of the current debacle in the media.
Finally they automated the system and removed human intervention in the operation and then thing took a turn for the worst(for the people of mariakani I mean).Efficiency improved up to 97% compliance. The remaining 3% is due to machine errors which is better than the precious 20% compliance and 100% graft.
It worked,without human Intervention machines eradicate corruption. Automatically things get done faster and quicker without all the issues associated with men.The top management too has changed with zero tolerance on any graft case.
Maybe the government could borrow a leaf from such as story.
