Monrovia – The Ministry of Public Works has returned a donation of traffic and street lights which it accepted back in February 2016 for installation to the donor, Mr. Henries Fubbi, a Montserrado County District 9 representative candidate.
Report by Edwin Genoway – [email protected] and Bettie Johnson-Mbayo, [email protected]
The ministry, however, came under a barrage of attacks on social media for returning the street and traffic lights after keeping it for over a year.
However, speaking to FrontPageAfrica, Public Works Minister, William Gyude Moore said the ministry was constrained to return the donation because they are not compatible with the current system installed.
Min. Moore added that the donor was insisting on specific areas he wanted the lights installed, which was unacceptable.
“I’m tired of people going on the radio and hearing people talking about it. He gave us lights that are not compatible to the system we have, people just bring in anything and give it to the country to be used.”
“But he wanted to dictate where he wanted to put it, you can’t tell the ministry where to put the lights, you bring the lights give it to the Ministry of Public works when we choose the place to put it, and we are doing the dedication you can come to make the speech.”
Damaged Traffic Lights
Currently most of the traffic lights in Monrovia are down, the ones at Rehab junction, Catholic Junction, 20th Street, 12th Street, Johnson Street intersection, Randall Street, Capitol By-Pass intersection and Freeport intersection have all been malfunctioning over the last three months.
The Ministry of Public Works, which is responsible for maintaining traffic lights, has said the lights have been off due to electrical failure.
The ministry, however, has failed to give reasons why the lights haven’t been repaired yet. Multiple attempts from FrontPageAfrica to get an interview with the Minister or a designated authority proved futile.
The solar-powered traffic lights were a gift from The People’s Republic of China to Liberia and according to our investigation; the engineers who installed them did not train Liberians to maintain them.
FrontPageAfrica, however, gathered from reliable sources within the ministry that there was no technician in town to repair the spoilt lights.
It is not clear as to whether there are no technicians to install the lights donated by Henries since February 2016.
The Ministry over the weekend called on the donor of the lights (Fubbi Henries) to come and take back the lights after being kept for over a year in the Ministry’s warehouse.
Officials of the Ministry headed by Assistant Minister for Planning and Programming, Margaret Sarsih did the turning over of the lights but refused to speak to journalists why the ministry was giving the lights back.
The donor of the lights expressed disappointment in the Ministry for rejecting the lights while all of the traffic lights in the city are down.
“When I did the donation, the Ministry requested that I do traffic count before they can do the installation of the pedestrians’ lights.”
“I did finance the process and took the report to the Ministry but up to now, I haven’t heard a word from them until they called me over the weekend to come and collect the lights because they were not using it, the ministry did not tell me why they were rejecting the lights,” he noted.
Outdated Technology
An Electrical Engineer Matthew Tompo told FrontPageAfrica that the system of traffic lights installed by the Chinese is obsolete.
He said the technology is no longer in use.
“I think the spare parts of those traffic lights are not available that’s why they haven’t worked on the light,” he said.
Tompo added: “How many countries use such lights for the battery to be placed under the pole,” he rhetorically asked.
The Challenge
Meanwhile, Min. Moore said the maintenance of the lights remain a challenge as there is low budgetary support to the ministry.
He disclosed that the money requested to repair and increase traffic lights weren’t fully given by the Ministry of Finance.
“We have obtained a US$100,000 from the Ministry of Finance and we are currently going through the process to at least maintain the traffic lights at all the intersection.
“The intent is to replace the battery that is better than the one currently in place, it is always the issue of money and what we are doing is that we have a road fund now that is to handle maintenance,” Moore said.
The MPW minister noted that the traffic lights, stop signs, road painting will be under the road fund.
“So now it will be regular unpredictable but again it is only because of budgetary constraints which is difficult for us to do,
“But it got to a place that we can’t put it out or ignore it even though the total number is around US$149,000.00 but we can begin with the US$100,000.00 and later get to finance for the last US$49,000.
He disclosed that the battery lights were good and lasted for 6 years adding that if the ministry had done maintenance it wouldn’t malfunction.
“Regarding the crosswalk we ordered the reflective paint because we didn’t want to use just regular paint.”
“As soon as the reflective paint arrived in the country it was the rainy season, it’s best to do the paint during the dry season instead of the rainy season.”
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