Monrovia – The Plenary of the House of Representatives has charged the House’s Standing Committees on Lands, Mines and Energy, Health, Investment and Judiciary to fully investigate the operations of Arcelor Mittal Liberia following reports of reneging on some provisions of the concession agreement signed over a decade ago.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh [email protected]
The House’s decision follows a communication to that august body by Nimba County District 3 Representative Joseph Nyan Somwarbi imploring his colleagues to cite the company’s management to provide the status of its operations with respect to provision of basic social services such as housing, system of water supply and the use of scholarship funds in the tune of US$200,000 annually.
Following a motion filed by Nimba District 9 Rep. Johnson Gwaikolo and unanimously agreed by his colleagues, Plenary ordered the Joint-Committees, with support by the Legislative Caucus of Nimba and both Chairs of Bong and Grand Bassa Legislative Caucuses to report two weeks after the Easter break.
Rep. Somwarbi also wants the management to initiate the realization of the review of the Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) signed between ArcelorMittal and the government in accordance with Article 36 of the document.
He further told Plenary that he has observed that ArcelorMittal was not living by the MDA and cited its management to a discussion but the company refused his request.
Part of the agreement calls for ArcelorMittal to take over and refurbish the assets left by the defunct Liberia-American -Swedish Mining Company (LAMCO) that once mined iron ore in the Nimba range.
He, however, noted that the company among other things has deserted the properties including housing units; leaving workers to live in unfavorable conditions.
“The assets taken over by the AML, as specified in Appendix F., have been deserted from observation. Up to now, the company uses mobile portable generators in very few quarters of the area as power sources; the central workshop and warehouse are yet to be renovated while using pre-fabricated tanks at these compound, the landing strips is not even considered as a need; less than 20 percent of the housing units are rehabilitated while few of the remaining units are partially renovated by some staff for unconducive living, and the rest of the staff considered as senior or important are accommodated in important containers which cannot accommodate family. This is a major contributing factor to high rate of abandoned pregnancies within the communities,” he stated.
In addition, the Nimba lawmaker alleged that the water purification plant is deserted; resulting in the total lack of safe drinking water for employees, contractors and residents of the community.
He furthered that the company currently distributes two sacks of the big bottle of mineral water to each employed staff per week without any consideration for bathing and family size which he noted, is contributing factor to cysts or pyelonephritis, a disease that damages the kidneys.
On health care, Somwarbi, who co-chairs the House’s Committee on Health, said contrary to the provision in Article 10, Section One of the MDA for health, the company is operating a 150-bed hospital below clinic standard with only one lab technician and no pharmacist among others.
“With this very poor quality of care being provided at this facility, when sick or injured staff leaves and seeks better treatment outside, said staff is dismissed,” he intoned.
Referencing section 9 and 11 of the agreement, the lawmaker averred that the term of private land use within the concession area as stipulated in article nine, section two of the MDA is not being adhered to due to the numerous complaints by residents.
He further told his colleagues that the provision of education is not being realized due to the current living conditions of the workers within imported containers; while the development plan for the refurbishing of the 273 kilometers of rail track from Buchanan to Yekepa is still incomplete.
He added that the company’s refusal to meet with him denied him the opportunity to get first hand information on these important issues penned in his communication.
In 2005, ArcelorMittal Liberia signed the first Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) to allow the company to begin mining iron ore in the Yekepa and Buchanan concessions.
The agreement was then renegotiated and amended in 2006.
The MDA carries stringent conditions regarding sustainable development, economic, social and environmental investments.
Its aim is to ensure that, while foreign companies can generate profit from their investment in the extraction of Liberia’s resources, the country and its citizens must benefit as well.