03.06.08 The 7th Organisational Consequence of Corruption

7. Institutional Amnesia or Memory Loss

Institutional memory refers to the collective set of facts, concepts, experiences and knowledge held by employees and other resources used to store that information.  The irretrievable disappearance of this data causes institutional memory loss or amnesia.  One way that such a predicament could happen is when corrupt officials who fear that their secrets could leak, end up burning buildings, destroying computers, deleting data, files or records in an effort to get rid of any evidence that would connect them to the vice.  Another avenue is where such crafty officials vie for the termination of knowledgeable employees, fearing that the latter could spill the beans.  For instance, when Daudi became the Principal of FUNDIMara, his fraudulent agenda led to the resignation of one of the best employees (Musa).  As you may remember, this happened just a few months after Daudi had joined the organisation, simply because the new Principal feared that his corrupt tendencies would be discovered and reported to the ‘powers that be’.  The DF left without training anyone to step into the ethical Director’s shoes; which, undoubtedly, must have led to a loss of the College’s memory.  And, even if Musa had mentored someone to take over, Daudi would have made sure that he frustrates the new DF all the same.  A glimpse of institutional memory loss can be found in Micah 3:11-12, a verse we just read, predicting a disaster that would leave no memory for future generations to refer to.  That scripture talks about plowing Zion as a field, making Jerusalem a heap of ruins and the mountain of the temple like bare hills.