As one of the measures to combat looting of public funds through shoddy procurement deals, President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday ordered that procurement officers across all government ministries, departments, agencies and parastals must undergo fresh vetting, including taking polygraph tests.
The goal of a polygraph test is to see if a person is telling the truth or lying when answering certain questions.
According to the president, the test which he wants conducted by the end of June, will determine the integrity and suitability of the officers to serve.
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The president said the exercise, popularly referred to as lie detector test, is part of the raft of measures the government is implementing to tackle corruption.
“Those who shall fail the vetting will stand suspended. I expect this exercise be concluded before the start of the new financial year (FY 2018/2019). You will hear of other tougher actions in the days to come,” Uhuru said while delivering his Madaraka Day speech at Kinoru stadium in Meru.
This begs the question, what is a polygraph test and how is it useful in combating corruption?
To answer that, let's take a look at how procurement officers may advance corruption in the course of their duty.
On May 27, the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti presented ten files to Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji concerning the alleged loss of Sh8 billion at the National Youth Service.
Haji said the investigations had proven that Sh468 million were paid out to individuals and companies for goods that were never procured.
For instance, Ann Wanjiku Ngirita, 30, admitted to detectives investigating the theft that she was paid Sh59 million for supplying nothing.
In fact, she said she has no idea what procurement entails.
This inevitably points to procurement flaws at the youth agency where procurement officers conspired to lie by preparing fictitious bills which they then passed off as proof for delivered goods.
And just like that, billions were lost yet nothing was delivered.
To help prevent loss of public resources through such deceptive ways, the President feels dishonest people should not be procurement officers.
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How does a polygraph work?
A polygraph is a machine in which the multiple (poly) signals from the sensors are recorded on a single strip of moving paper (graph).
When a person takes a polygraph test, four to six blood pressure sensors are attached to him - mostly on the chest and fingers.
The machine measures and records physiological body reactions such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while a person is responding to a series of questions.
A polygraph machine detects these physiological changes and looks for signs of lies.
It operates on the premise that if a person is telling the truth they will remain calm.
Under normal circumstances, the heart of a person who is telling a lie races and he may start to pant.
Thus, if a person is lying, his blood pressure will rise, the heart beat will increase and jolt the polygraph machine to register unsteady elongated wavy lines on moving paper.
Very basic questions in what is known as ‘Guilty Knowledge Test’ are normally asked during polygraph tests.
The GKT is a psychophysiological questioning technique used to assess whether suspects conceal “guilty knowledge”.
For instance, a person may be asked if they have ever stolen anything in their life.
Assuming they have but they choose ‘No’ for an answer, this will register on the polygraph as elongated wavy lines.
The interpretation here would be that he lied.
However, there is a theoretical problem when it comes to using a polygraph machine.
An honest person may be nervous when answering truthfully and thus fail the test while a dishonest person may be non-anxious and pass.
Again, no one is under any legal obligation to take a lie detector test in a criminal investigation, even when threatened to do so.
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