building blocks

I've been connecting with a few folks and gleaning all the info I can about, well, everything. I thought you might enjoy this answer to my question about 'getting construction done' in Liberia:

"realities of construction in the country"

I'm not sure how familiar you are with working in Africa especially "West Africa"? When doing a large project like renovating 100 schools you will have to make sure you have a good logistics team! Theft and dishonesty is a HUGE problem!

Here is a few examples I have personally encountered or witnessed.

Crooked Receipts: Most Gas stations will make receipts for what ever amount they request. Another example is if you would send your mechanic in to buy parts they will bring back a receipt but chances are that is not the amount he paid for it. Bottom line Receipts mean
absolutely nothing here!

Supplies being sold: In Sinoe County the head of the project was selling stationary, rice, and fuel. He was fudging the records.

Vehicle parts being swapped on the vehicles. In some cases the driver or mechanic had taken good parts off the vehicle and replaced them with bad parts.

Mysteriously when one of the generator operators was replaced, one gallon of diesel fuel will now run the generator for 4 hours instead of 2 hours......in other words the old operator was stealing half the fuel.

This is just a few things I have seen. But a good, well monitored logistics team can prevent or catch these kinds of thefts. I do not think it is possible to eliminate theft all together though.

Another issue will be transporting your supplies. Do not underestimate the cost for this especially if the schools are outside of Montserodo county. I have found if you have good mechanics it is cheaper to run your own large delivery trucks. But if you do not have
a good HONEST mechanic (they are hard to find) it may be cheaper to rent the large trucks when you need them.

Great to know, hey?!