ENEMY'S OF DEVELOPMENT! The impact of gross procrastination...

(PICTURES: some of the beneficiaries of Tapera Industries jatropha project)

Today 07 April 2015, I woke up to work as usual, after waiting for the really long weekend to end (I hate bank holidays, I have a career) I did all the preps to make sure the day is accomplished as planned: get fumigation certificate, get phytosanitary certificate, get export permit, load 30 ton truck, deliver crop to client, smile all the way to the bank. Simple plan, no hustle, I did all my pre preparations over the weekend, what could possibly go wrong?
So I call the fumigator, he's at church, and I think, religious man, trustworthy. So I ask, ' what time will you be here' his response ' I'll have to inform the phyto inspector and get back to you', me baffled, because the phyto inspector is supposed to verify by seeing that the pests are clear of stock. I say 'OK, get back to me when done consulting'. Fumigator calls and says ' the inspector doesn't have transport, can you pick him up?' Reluctantly I say 'YES' it only 15kms away after all. I jump in my truck, don't even have breakfast, straight shot, I drive down to Zambia Agric Research Institute, Musekela. I proceed to locate the inspector, and he says 'oh, you're here, when do you intend to unveil the fumigation?' Politely I say 'Now!', when do you intend to export?' He asks, 'uhm, tomorrow.' Ok he exclaims, 'I'm hosting a field day and can't leave just yet, I can be available after an hour and I'll find my way to the inspection site' All sorts of profanities rattling in my head and I say 'thank you boss, we'll wait your arrival'. That's 09:11 am Tuesday morning.
I proceed back into town to wait, do some errands, make some follow up calls, and really just watch time waste away like a starving child watching the food network. Finally after pressing this gentleman with calls, he shows up at 04:00PM! Signs the simple phytosanitary certificate.
So my 6 step plan reduced to 2, get fumigation certificate and phyto certificate. Because of the 8 hour delay to perform a 5 minute act of verification and certification, the consequences are:
1. the trucker I hired decided to proceed without my cargo, since there were more 'serious' clients ready to go,
2. the export permit process has to be done the next day,
3. the pre clearing arrangement I'd organised at the border has been delayed so our truck will have to join the queue
4. international banking practices take 2 working days to take effect, so will receive payment next week for a consignment delivered tomorrow.
It may seem trivial, especially if you're not in the business world, but here's how the greed of one individual can affect many:
1.Tapera industries employs 3 contracted workers and 15 commissioned workers in eastern province.
2.We work in 5 major districts and buy energy crops from 300 small scale farmers who survive on the cash flow from jatropha sales during the farming off season.
3. We pay company tax and when export, we pay export taxes.
4. When we export, we bring in much needed FOREX into the economy.
5. The energy crops we supply are processed into a biofuel that not only saves the environment, but reduces the cost of living through increased savings on the cost of doing business.
It is common in Zambia for a govt official to frustrate a simple process in order to get one to pay a bribe, to get the officer to do their job more efficiently, maybe coming to 20 USD. But the real impact of todays procrastination was 18 employees won't get paid on time, over 300 households will desperately wait for the Tapera truck to return, revenue services won't get taxes on time to implement government projects, much needed FOREX will be stuck else where, cost of living for thousands of people won't improve.
Consider this situation for millions of business across africa, how government officials can frustrate a simple process so they can eat petty money for a day while they watch the world decay in the filth of corruption.
I'm just 1 business man, let's say no to procrastination and corruption!
WashingtonFellow2014 | BiofuelsExpert | Zambia
Skype: toba851