MONROVIA — The Director General designate of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC), Mohammed Ali, has expressed his determination to commission an HR audit and a holistic audit to address the rapid increase of employees from 189 in 2017 to 669 in late 2023 without a proper vetting process.
By Blamo N. Toe, Contributing Writer
Appearing before the Senate Committee on Public Corporations, chaired by Margibi County Senator James Emmanuel Nuquay on Monday, February 19, 2024, on Capitol Hill, Mr. Ali recounted that the general staff of the entity was at 189 with a payroll of US$155,521.66 in 2017.
According to him, by December 2023, the number of employees had surged to 669, increasing the payroll to US$384,160.18, thereby making the entity dependent on the Ministry of Finance and Development-Planning.
“One of our problems at the LWSC is staffing. In December 2017, the LWSC had 189 employees with a payroll of US$155,521.66 a month. By December 2023, the number of employees had grown to 669, increasing the payroll to US$384,160.18, making the entity dependent on the Ministry of Finance,” he added.
The LWSC Boss designate noted that the institution is supposed to contribute to the national budget but currently relies on the Ministry of Finance to service its payroll; a situation he vowed to rectify with the Senate’s support if confirmed.
He also indicated that on April 1, 2023, 154 persons were employed, while between July and November 2023, 20 janitors and 85 security officers gained employment at the public institution. He stressed that such employment was done without proper vetting to establish whether they met the requisite criteria, continuing to burden the entity.
To properly ascertain how those citizens were recruited into the entity, Mr. Mo Ali stressed that he does not intend to dismiss any Liberian, but he wants two different audits of the system for the effective running of the institution.
“Now let me say this, if we are confirmed, we don’t intend to sack people but we intend to commission HR [Human Resource] audit. We also intend to commission a holistic audit of the entire system to understand what is wrong and what can we change and how can we improve the entity,” he noted.
At the same time, Ali said his administration will regularize water supply across the country. However, there is a major problem with accessibility to water in Central Monrovia, as most of the pipes are built on by residents, making the task difficult.
The LWSC Boss designate further planned to outsource metering on a prepaid basis, similar to the Liberia Electricity Corporation, and ensure citizens pay for water. He indicated that if private entities handle the metering, they will collect the money and increase the efficiency of the supply.
“We intend to work with the Ministry of Public Works to ensure that we recover our pipes, and this can be done by firstly identifying where we have clots in our sewage system through our engineers with the provision of adequate equipment,” Mo Ali said.
