Sh870m plan to curb graft at weighbridges

Some Sh870 million will be invested to automate the weighing of trucks on the Northern Corridor, as the government steps up the fight against corruption that has cost it billions in lost revenue.

This disclosure comes just days after a report by the Shippers Council of East Africa showed some firms were turning to Tanzania’s Central Corridor to transport goods to Kigali and Goma due to the high cost of moving cargo through Kenya.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission recently carried out a sting operation and arrested several officials, who included police officers over bribery claims at Mariakani and Mlolongo weighbridges.

“In carrying out its mandate for KeNHA, SGS has had to face the enormous challenge of well-entrenched corruption that existed at weighbridges for many years,” said SGS Kenya Ltd managing director Albert Stockell.

Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHa) says the solution lies in automation of systems to remove the officials’ discretion in dealing with overloading.

“In September 2013, we engaged EACC over graft at weighbridges but they took long, only managing a sting operation recently. We wanted a lifestyle audit on some officials suspected of corruption, but nothing has been done yet,” said Mr Muita Ngatia, the engineer in charge of axle load control at KeNHA.

GREAT IMPROVEMENT

He, however, said there was an improvement on when government officials managed weighbridges.

“The private firm is able to easily and quickly take action on matters of integrity. Over 100 officials have been sacked in the past one-and-a-half years,” said Mr Ngatia.

Some Sh114 million has been collected over three months — April, May and June — from 2,367 trucks found to be carrying goods above the recommended weight.

Statistics from KeNHA show 1.859 million vehicles with tare weight of 3.5 tonnes used the roads, out of which 747,625 were weighed.

Some of the loopholes in the system stem out of different sources of authority, which give police the discretion to divert trucks or wave them on at weighbridges.

“Only the police are allowed to stop vehicles on roads. Some of them let overloaded trucks pass, in collusion with some SGS officials. We have sacked some, but no police officer has been punished. We also keep rotating the workers to prevent formation of corruption rings,” said Mr Fredrick Nyale, who is incharge of Athi River weighbridge.

Mr Ngatia said this would end with automation of systems by January 2016.

It will include use of number plate recognition cameras, weighbridge management software, high-speed weighing-in-motion, multi-deck weigh scale, single axle-ware and traffic control.