You know the BoQ (Bill
of Quantities) is quite interesting. It contains costs which are not so big
individually but when you add the figures up, the totals are massive. When the
architect brought the BoQ, it was quite tricky to understand it, being the
layman I was. I am surprised these days I can make a lot of sense from it. You
see when it talks of substructure, superstructure, form-works cubic meters for
mass concrete, twisted bars etc.; it can dwarf your knowledge. I demanded that
the guy supplies me with a schedule of materials which is much easier to
understand. You see 5 lorries of sand, or Y8s, Y12s and the likes makes more
sense to a layman.
Before it escapes me I
recall that incidence when we were to cast the slab and my good neighbor who
had promised to give me water; a circus it became. On the materials day, the
koroga squad arrived by 6 AM and quickly set up the machinery, then they
proceeded to carry cement from the site house and they emptied as many as 20
bags on the ground…by the way, the operations of this koroga squad is rather
organized and interesting. The toughest guys will be somewhere they call “Chini
ya mnazi”; just next to the concrete mixer and their role is to load mass
concrete atop wheelbarrows. The lightweights will be assigned simple tasks like
pouring water, cement, sand and ballast inside the mixer. Interesting these
fellows know how to balance the ratios inside the mixer…don’t ask me how they
co-ordinate, please observe. Back to my neighbour’s story: When some fellows
went inside my neighbor’s compound to get water, the lady of the house came out
with a machete claiming that the water was given without her authority. The man
being a man wanted to show his authority and attempted to force the lady into
submission but when the machete was wrestled from her, she started wailing and
close the gate. She held onto the keys like her life depended on them. I had to
utilize my negotiation skills but they never worked till I parted with some 2k
to appease the lady and finally she gave in.
Life gets quite
interesting. You know the same lady was once thrown out of the house by the
husband and the dude disappeared to Western and switched off his phone. I found
her outside the gate and she pleaded with me for some coins to take her to her
Meru. Of course I remembered the water incident but decided to let it pass and
I gave her cash enough to eat some meal and ferry her stuff to her shags.
Back to the
construction of my house: You see I noted that I had lost it and fired all the
workforce and I had to figure out how to move on. But I had to understand how
these fellows were stealing from me. And so I confided in one fellow and he
opened up. The fellow eventually became my mole. The chief architect of the
thefts was none other than my own brother (who was to be my eye on the ground).
He was a wolf in sheep’s skin. You see he knew what all the others were doing
and he’d get a cut from each. He was the guy who was meant to confirm and
receive supplies in my absence. Some of the deliveries were less and I’d pay
for the expected full deliveries. It is very easy to receive 9 cements and pay
for 10, after all the difference of one when already utilized is barely
noticeable. The hardware guy would bill me for quantities which were not fully
delivered. I’d only check on the delivery notes and assume that what was there
was accurate. The foreman was also cheeky; he had two sites and would utilize
some of the KYMs on the other site whereas I was the one paying them. Just
before I arrived in the evening, I’d find them on my site and assume they
worked the whole day. Poor me.
I knew
the only way out was to install controls at all these levels. I also had to
have a grip of the procurement process because therein was the biggest loss.
The controls worked wonders and I’ll outline them in the next post. However,
this never prevented me from being conned by the timber guy in Rongai. This was
my last loss but I learnt a lot from it. More in the next post.
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