Monrovia – It was just in 2017 when the leadership of the Legislature announced that they were undertaking a project to renovate and modernize the Capitol Building. This was when Emmanuel Nuquay served as Speaker.
Report by Henry Karmo, [email protected]
That project, according to the leadership at the time, was worth more than US$300,00. The amount earmarked for the project was to repair leakages, broken chairs, paint the inner part of the building, amongst others.
The amount budgeted raised concern from some critics who believed that it was just too astronomical for the project. With less than a year after the renovation, the Capitol, specifically the Joint Chambers is falling apart as the visibility of holes from broken floor and torn up rug is at first glance upon entry into the chambers.
Some maintenance staffs confirmed that the current leadership is aware of the situation in the joint chambers but are making no efforts to address those issue. “We told them but nothing is being done about it. Probably, they’re waiting for donor support to fix the problem,” one maintenance staff told this paper.
Like the hole in the chambers, some parts of the chambers of the Senate and Representatives are already leaking with the raining seasons just beginning. Getting water into the bathrooms is another challenge, despite the presence of running water in the Building.
In 2015, the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation threatened to cut-off water supply to the Capitol building if they failed to pay the huge amount of arrears.