Monrovia – When President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf donated US$100,000 for the construction of the headquarters of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), her desire was to see a modern facility erected for the Union as in other countries in the sub-region.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
That was back in 2008, the story of what happened to the US$100,000 is still unfolding. The Union is still without a fitting office that represents the nobility of journalism.
Despite the controversy over the US$100,000 and the inability of the leadership at the time led by George Barpeen to account for the US$100,000 to which they’ve claimed innocence to allegation of financial malpractice, the government of Liberia, this time round, has again shown benevolence to the PUL, this time on a higher scale by allocating US$300,000 for the construction of the headquarters.
Now, the PUL is working towards consummating another contract agreement which would likely lead the Union to experiencing a déjà vu.
The agreement, a copy of which is in the possession of FrontPageAfrica tends to award US$300,000 pre-financing contract to Civil Design Inc. without going through the Public Procurement Concession Commission process.
PUL Denial
In a reaction to a FrontPageAfrica’s publication on the contract agreement, Mr. Zoom Dosso, PUL headquarters project chair, said taking cue from the US$100,000 saga, the committee decided to find a company that would pre-finance the project.
In an email to FrontPageAfrica, Mr. Dosso wrote: “We have thought it wise that this time it should be a company that will do the work first before we give the money.”
“I have been to the PPCC office after being advised by the Speaker of the House of Representatives to do so. To pre-finance a contract is called single sourcing a contract.”
“We are going to do this under the supervision of the PPCC. Those who have started this game just don’t want the Coffey’s leadership to succeed where they have failed.”
Mr. Dosso said during a press conference on Thursday that the PUL has identified three companies that have presented their terms of pre-financing which they will also present to the PPCC for advice.
He said so far, they’ve not identified which one of the companies would be awarded the contract.
His assertions run contrary to previous assertions made to the FrontPageAfrica on Monday in which he said though there is a written agreement with Civil Design Inc., it is not consummated until the PPCC approves contract.
Dosso told FrontPageAfrica that he advised the PUL’s President, Charles Coffey to sign the contract before leaving for the states so that when it’s taken to the PPCC and when it’s approved, they can immediately commence work.
A Whole Different Story
Also speaking to the FrontPageAfrica on the issue, Rhodoxon Fayiah, a the co-chair of the construction committee, said the PUL has no dealing with the PPCC as they were working in line with the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE) which is responsible to carryout government projects.
According to Fayiah, the committee was called by LACE and advised to find a company they believe is capable of executing the contract.
“LACE said that since you people own the project, can you find a contractor…then after you people sign the agreement, you come to us [LACE] and LACE will sign a contract with that contractor and LACE will monitor the work,” he explained to FrontPageAfrica.
He said the contractor they chose who also works for LACE agreed and showed the capacity to pre-finance the construction of the Union’s headquarters at the cost of US$300,000.00.
“We told the President and the leadership that this is the company we have right now, we think that he can pre-finance this job; looking at his capacity, he can pre-finance this job.”
“That’s how the leadership went to investigate, they saw the reality and said we can go into agreement because President herself, the President of Liberia has asked us to get the headquarters because she wants to dedicate it before her tenure ends,” he explained.
He added, “That’s how the leadership met Darius, Octavin, Charlley including Daniel Nyankona that’s how we went to draw the agreement.
According to him, after the agreement was drawn, it was distributed amongst the leadership for perusal and onward signing.
“That’s how the President signed the agreement,” he said.
He told this paper that the PUL had no business with the PPCC because LACE was to approve the agreement signed between the Union and the contractor and then forward it to the PPCC.
The PUL Secretary General, Daniel Nyankona when contacted by FrontPageAfrica concerning the agreement said he had not appended his signature to the document because it had not been through the PPCC process yet.
He told this paper that he has no issue with whatever company the PUL was awarding the contract to, but it was be done with the confines of the law, especially so when it’s government’s money.
But Fayiah insists that whether Daniel signs the document or not, the committee and the leadership will go ahead with the agreement.
PPCC Says Otherwise
In an interview with Mr. Dorbor Jallah, Chief Executive Officer of the PPCC, he said there was no way he was going to permit single sourcing for the construction of a headquarters as it is not an emergency.
Mr. Jallah: “There are conditions that call for the award of single source contracts, most under the law they’re emergency arrangements. For the construction of an office building, how is that possibly an emergency?
You didn’t know that you were going to need office building? You just woke up and all of a sudden you needed the office building so you say it’s an emergency?”
He added: “Pre-finance or no pre-finance, ultimately it’s going to be the burden of the Government of Liberia; so how can you expend government’s money even if it’s pre-finance, and that pre-finance arrangement is actually a debt so we discourage people from doing that.”