Yes, Math is Important!

I had the opportunity of acting as a "quantity surveyor" recently on our post-secondary school construction project. I was asked to measure the amount of work that the tilers had completed to ensure that they receive the correct payment.

If they receive too much, especially in Mozambique, they would still ask for payment when the work was actually done. It's important to not pay in advance.

Africans have short memories, especially when they're on the winning side of a financial transaction.

We have some contracts in this situation. Some workers have received more money than they should have for the amount of work done to date, and the result is foot-dragging for the rest of the project. Having already been paid, they have little incentive to work.

That cultural reality is perhaps at the heart of a World Bank report that recently re-affirmed sub-Saharan Africa’s standing as the most difficult region in the world to do business. Amongst these countries, Mozambique is no exception as it continues to experience the pains of emerging from its post-independence days as a single-party socialist state.

Mozambique did particularly poorly on the sub-categories of "Enforcing Contracts" (7th worst) and "Employing Workers" (18th worst).

On this day, the tilers were requesting payment for their work. Their contract stipulates that they be paid in three equal installments over the course of the project. With roughly two thirds of the work having been completed, they were asking for their tenth payment.

I calculated the value of the work done to date. Melvin, the site supervisor, calculated how much money they had received to date. The balance owing was a meagre $8.

"Math is important," the trade's supervisor told me, exasperated. "I asked for an advance here, and an advance there. I didn't know it would add up to so much!"

* * * * *

Record keeping is incredibly important in Africa. That's true anywhere in the world, but here it seems that if we don't keep records, nobody will.

This is true even for well-educated people, like my language instructor, Jeronimo. We discussed an hourly rate for the lessons, but never discussed how long they would last, and never entered into any sort of written agreement. When I told him that I was finished, he told me to tell him how many hours we had spent in class over the 12 week period.

I asked him if he had kept records as well. He said that he had, as a smirk grew over his face.

I then told him the number that I had recorded, and he wrote it onto an invoice for me to pay. Maybe he knew how many hours we had been together, but I'm not convinced.

* * * * *

I can say with confidence that the tilers hadn't kept track of how much they had been paid to date. A just person would pay the tradesworkers what they are owed for the work completed. A merciful person, seeing the worry grow across their faces, may pay them a little extra in advance.

Getting that balance wrong is one of the factors for which many construction projects, particularly those by humanitarian and religious organizations in third-world countries, seem to go over budget.

Where should the balance be struck?