Monrovia – While ordinary Liberians are enduring the rigidity of the ongoing vehicle inspection exercise, many government officials including national security officers, lawmakers and friends of top brass of government are blatantly refusing to adhere to the process.
Report by Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, [email protected] and Willie N. Tokpah, [email protected]
The inspection team of the Ministry of Transport backed by the Liberia National Police and the Liberia Revenue Authority is now struggling to implement its mandate.
The inspection, which began Monday, June 11, is to ensure that vehicle owners conform to the revenue laws of Liberia and help expand the government’s revenue generation.
Several incidents witnessed by FrontPage Africa showed that friends of government officials were also refusing to submit to the inspection process, at the same time issuing threats against inspectors assigned across Monrovia to enforce the vehicle registration process.
Some of those putting up non-compliance posture are officers of the National Security Agency, Executive Protection Agency, Liberia National Police and several other government officials.
Unfair To Ordinary Liberians
At the same time, many ordinary Liberians are expressing anger that the team is selective in the enforcement exercise by releasing unregistered private vehicles of government officials.
“You guys are releasing other people cars because they insulted you. Today, I’ve been complying with you people and you are still keeping my car up to now, you have released cars whose registration document expired since 2016,” said a driver of a private vehicle.
Hundreds of ordinary Liberians relying on public transportation are feeling the burnt as commercial vehicles owners abandoned the traffic and troop to the transport ministry to validate their documents.
Joseph K. Roberts, Assistant Minister for Land and Rail Transport, described the action of officials of government evading the exercise as a “disservice to ordinary citizens who are going through the registration process”.
He said the entire process is to also ensure that safety regulations are properly observed in the country, which should not be boycotted by anyone.
Abraham Johnson, Director of Inspection at the MOT, added that interference remains a major factor affecting the exercise.
“There are others who think that because of their status in government, they should not be subjected to the proceeding which is very much ugly because this process should be seen as their own,” Johnson told FrontPage Africa.
“There are instances we’ve been encountering, where senior government officials do not want to comply with the registration process.”
Judge ‘Evades’ Inspection
FrontPage Africa gathered on Thursday that a writ was filed against an inspector of the MOT after he impounded an unregistered private vehicle belonging to a Judge of a lower court in the city of Monrovia.
The writ was sent by three sheriffs of the West Point Magisterial Court on Wednesday morning, June 14, said Assistant Minister Roberts, who encountered the sheriffs when arrived at the Ministry to serve the writ.
“One of our inspectors by the name of Amos Twah, who heads the SKD Complex inspection point, parked a vehicle that belongs to a judge two days ago because the operator of the vehicle never had driver’s license, insurance stickers,” he explained.
“Unfortunately, we received a writ from a judge from the magisterial court of West Point stating that he is the owner of the car and on yesterday three sheriffs came to arrest our supervisor.”
According to the writ, the Assistant Minister said, the inspector has no right to impound a vehicle that does not have third party insurance or driver license.
He stressed that these are incidents that are causing serious problem for the inspection and registration process.
“But we are saying that it is inscribed in the law that vehicle plying the streets must be insured,” he argued, claiming that the vehicle laws of Liberia do not give extra privileges to members of the Judiciary and that such action by an interpreter of the law hinders the revenue collection base of the country.
Lawmakers Summoned Transport Minister, LNP
Also, on Thursday June 14, the House of Representative summoned both Transport Minister Samuel Wlue and Police Inspector General Patrick Sudue to respond to query from the body about allegations of “grossly disrespecting” lawmakers Yekeh Kolubah of Montserrado County and Francis Dopoh of River Gee County.
The lawmakers were furious after the inspection team found that several decommissioned license plates are being used on vehicles of the Legislature. Some lawmakers have placed the pair of license plates intended for one vehicle on two vehicles.
Still Confident of Generating Revenue
However, Roberts says it is confident of succeeding in generating the necessary taxes through the enforcement and inspection process.
“We will not be distracted by the action of any branches of government; we remain focus to help generate the necessary revenue for government because we promised the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning that we were going to generate up to US$1.5 million before the exercise ends,” he said.
Within the last 12 days over US$526,000 has been generated due the rigorous inspection exercise.
“We are not going to be deterred, we are going to work with the police to enforce the law and we will regulate the transport sector, so all of the disruptions they are doing will not deter us,” Kollie said.
‘Role Model’ Public Official
While several officials are evading process, some public officials have committed to fully comply.
Emmanuel T Swen, Assistant Minister of Mines at the Ministry of Lands Mines who was seen in the queue going through the vehicle registration process, expressed disappointment in some of his colleagues.
“We don’t have to dwell on what has been even if it seems to be something that has become normal, as long as it doesn’t help the country we need to adopt a new behavior that sets the country on the right footing,” he told FrontPage Africa.
“As government officials we are public servants and we should be role model and set example.”
But he added that the inability of the MOT to decentralize the process is creating unnecessary delays and over crowdedness in the registration hall.
Snail Speed Registration Process
Vehicle owners who are complying with the inspection exercise are, however, complaining over the slow pace of the process and how it is affecting commercial drivers’ source of income.
But Minister Roberts attributed the influx of clients of the vehicle registration process is because of their urge to fast track their process.
He added that the Ministry is exploring possibility of decentralizing the process, and plans to produce approximately 300 plates daily.
“We have the decentralization component and after the Montserrado County enforcement exercise, we will be extending to leeward counties. We are working with our coordinators to get some of those strategic points at which, we will be operating,” added Inspector Johnson.