Maryland County – Roofs off, paint falling off the wall, a derelict building, leaves littered the yard, the Cape Palmas High School is now of shadow of itself.
Report by Al-Varney Rogers [email protected]
Two years following an endless game of back and forth between the Ministry of Education and authorities of Maryland County, the fate of the renovation of the school continues to remain in limbo.
The county says the school renovation is the Ministry of Education’s sole responsibility, adding that the county had no say in how the contractor was selected.
But the Ministry on the other hand is blaming the KAHA International Construction Company for not living up to the terms of the contract.
“This institution is under the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education decided to put in some funding.
They contracted the services of a construction firm from Monrovia to come and do the job here without knowing where they were going.
:As I speak to you, over seventy thousand or more has been absconded,” Maryland County Inspector Henry Cole said.
Inspector Cole said the county provided funding for the renovation of the school but the contractor absconded with the money.
“The contractor came here to review the building and got over 60% of the money. A
s we speak to you, he received 100% of that money. Up till present he has not come back. We are concerned as a county,” Cole said.
In February, the Ministry filed a complaint against Musa Kanneh of KAHA International Construction Company to the Liberian National Police but since then there has been little or known effort by the MOE to remedy the situation.
In a release dated Feb 9, 2017, the Ministry confirmed that the contractor received 90% of the money, adding that the company failed to complete the work.
“Despite receiving 90 percent of the payments for the US$94,000 contract (US$84, 969), KAHA has failed to complete the work and appears to have abandoned the project,” the MOE release stated.
“The Ministry of Education sees this as more than merely a breach of contract.
These funds have effectively been stolen from the students of Cape Palmas High and the citizens of Maryland County and hence viewed as theft and total scam by the Liberian contractor who was awarded the Cape Palmas High School renovation contract following a competitive PPCC process.”
But Representative Bhofal Chamber questioned the process that led to the selection of the contractor, adding that if due diligence was done the current situation would have been the opposite, adding that the money stolen should be accounted for by the executive.
“So how did they go about recruiting such a contractor?
What is the reaction from central government to make sure the money is accounted for because it is the people money? We will try to make certain that that be addressed adequately,” he added.
Rep. Chambers said the lax attitude of the executive towards the school is responsible for the poor state of Cape Palmas High, adding that caucus is doing everything to have the school to its previous status.
“The Cape Palmas High has to do with the Ministry of Education and that has to do with the executive.”
The County Inspector said the county has taken the Cape Palmas school issue to the office of the President.
“The superintendent and the assistant has made presentation at the level of the Ministry of Education, we are hoping that contractor could be find that this building which is the pride of Maryland county can come back to life,” Cole said.
Taking over as Minister of Education, George Werner promised to take Liberia’s education system from mess to best thus introducing several radical reforms which led to the abrupt closure of schools for teacher training, the renovation of public schools and the introduction of the Partnership Schools for Liberia program.
As this administration is nearing its end, Werner reform might just be a dream.
Schools across the country are still faced with the same harsh reality and the abandoned Cape Palmas High is a presents a basket case of the difficulties schools in rural Liberia are confronted with.
Those hailing from the south east are no stranger to Cape Palmas high.
This school is located on Maryland Avenue. For several decades, the school unarguably has been one of the best public high schools in the region.
A youth leader, Adam Moore, said the school has been abandoned for over two years, adding that several attempts have been made for the county authority to address the school renovation problem.
Moore attended the Cape Palmas High and for him, it is saddening to see a school which was once a symbol for education in the county and the region abandon.