-Lawmakers Rise, But Will They Bring Relief?
When it was announced that a partnership of Liberian NGO, ADA, and a Switzerland-based Libyan Investment Company, Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP), was pouring some US$30m rice development investment into the country, the publicity stunt was deadening because it was widely believed that the investment would take care of two vexing post-conflict problems: food insecurity and ballooning unemployment. Specifically, the people of Lofa County, Liberia’s traditional breadbasket province, were rest assured that liberation from the scourge of those problems was certain. But even before the first harvest of the relatively lucrative investment was assessed, the cloud has changed. They sunshine days of the people are turning into gloom, triggering tears and lamentations which the center of the people’s power, the Legislature, has heard and responding to. But will any good come out of Nazareth. Helroz Zorleh report.
Before ink gets dry over the pages of one postwar Liberia’s cherished investments so the truth color of the deal is emerging.
The coming of the investment was well-publicized when it was said back in 2007 that a Switzerland- based Libyan Investment Company, Libya Africa Investment Portfolio (LAP) was making available US$30m under a partnership with a local NGO, the Foundation for Africa Development Aid (ADA), to grow rice in Lofa County.
The mother company, the Libya Africa Investment Fund, said to have been created in 2006 by the Libyan government with a US$5 billion as initial investment to contribute to the Development of African countries in the areas of mining, agriculture, hotel, tourist, and telecommunications among others was reportedly behind the investment.
The Liberian agro investment by the partnership, according to local and national architects of the deal, was to provide an initial 908 jobs including managerial staff.
That was good news for a government that needed to make a political point over midway of its tenure and for Liberians whose staple is rice and menace is unemployment.
As if all was rhetoric, things have begun going awry and the people of Lofa County, the immediate beneficiaries of the promised goodies of the investment, are sensing a betrayal of their hopes, confidence and trust. And they are wailing.
The House of Representatives has got hold of the stunning developments and has instructed its committees on Agriculture and Concessions to fact-check incoming information that the local implementer of the investment, ADA-Commercial has willfully violated the concession law of the Country by failing to provide social benefits for the people of Foya in Lofa County.
Following deliberations on the matter yesterday, the House has finally decided to formulate two Committees--Agriculture & Concessions in order to immediately find out why the company chose to violate a legitimate agreement with the government.
The resolution by Plenary was approved when a letter written by Representative Eugene Fallah Kparkah on the matter was read and debated.
Speaking in the chamber of the House, Representative Kparkah revealed that section 18.11 of the concession agreement entered into between the ADA and the government of Liberia, which mandates the ADA to make an annual contribution of US$300,000 for the district development purposes, has been breached.
He said this agreement has been violated by the ADA, since the setting up of the company in the County.
Furthermore, the honorable Law Maker also reported that besides that amount, the ADA has incessantly failed to meet the terms of the Agreement as spelled out in section 7 of the agreement which, said, compels the ADA to construct sufficient latrines for the employees, housing facility, clean water, clinic, and elementary school, including the implementation of an adult literacy program--all, he said, have been “grossly ignored”.
Similarly, Representative Fallah revealed that the Company according to section 9 of the government which ADA ratified, the company was at the same time under bond to pay not less than US$50,000 (tax deduction) to train some Liberians at the college of agriculture at the University of Liberia.
Representative Fallah speaking wondered why the ADA has broken its commitment.
Other members of the House opined that the ADA be made to appear before the plenary of the House to give reasons, if any, as to why it has detoured from the terms of the agreement.
“The ADA is not alone in this irresponsible act; many of the concessions we ratified here are found in related acts. We must, therefore, have the ADA invited for inquiry,” Bong County Representative George Mulbah said.
Also commenting on the matter was Grand Gedeh County’s Representative Rufus Gbeor, who called on the House to summon the head of the ADA, Mr. Wendell McIntosh for full investigation.
He said the action reported was tantamount to undermining of the principles of the agreement he (Wendell) entered into with that of the government.
Meanwhile, there are also reports that the head of ADA, Wendell McIntosh, was engaged in “disrespectful act” against the people of the district. Representative Fallah has confirmed the reports but declined to make further comment on the matter.
Giving the political porosity of the National Legislature, there are suspicions that the matter would die a natural death.
Elections are in the corner, and many investors, have made friends in all spheres of Government such that harsh actions are unlike, according to an analyst who does not want to be named.
“My Lofa friends must leave their own with God,” the analyst said further. “If they want to know how well or worse social contracts are in Liberia, let them go to Grand Bassa County and Nimba to ask.”
In other countries, he said, you don’t play with social contracts, he said further. “But, again, this is Liberia--the great L.I.B. Let’s look and see.”
