Duped On Roads

New Democrat (Monrovia)

20 May 2011

Amidst reports of several road projects aborted or delayed, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says she is disappointed with local contractors entrusted with the road building projects, according to an Executive Mansion press release.

“It (the Belle Yallah Road) should have been completed by now; we are facing problems with local contractors, not just for (the) Belle Yellah road, but several other roads,” the release quoted the President as saying.

Quoting the Ministry of Public Works, the President told journalists that the Ministry is addressing the delays by instituting measures which include the cancellation of contracts awarded to some local contractors, the release said.

“They (local contractors) don’t have the capital and lack the capacity, so because of this, they have been unable to complete those roads,” the release quoted the President as saying.

But with this, the Ministry of Public Work’s yardstick for awarding contract is placed in question.

Reports say a key problem is the alleged demand for kickbacks from government officials, in some cases up to 30% of the total amount. Some local contractors recently expressed their frustration over such demands and delays in payments, factors they said have caused them to delay or abort some projects.

There have been previous reports of extortion and malpractices that undermined many road projects.

Those reports said that some officials at the Public Works Ministry were “…bent on extorting money from contractors as a pre-condition to get other things done in an effort to accelerate their projects and find their way out in the Ministry…”

A local newspaper reported that: “…A contractor who was victimized by the Public Works kickback scheme was the Pealat Construction Company, contracted by the Liberian Government nearly two years ago to build the Belle Yallah Road…”

The paper said although Pealat’s management is tight lipped on the issue, one of the engineers who recently resigned from the company on the basis of the treatment the group is enduring from these Public Works officials, attributed the slow pace of work to the attitude of these officials, adding that he did not want to be blamed if the project fails…”

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