Monrovia – Deputy Internal Affairs Minister Varney Sirleaf is challenging citizens to take ownership of County Service Centers (CSCs) being constructed in the counties.
The CSCs are service providers that are intended to decentralize some of government activities that citizens could not get in the counties but had to travel to Monrovia despite the distance and difficult road condition.
The centers are currently issuing birth, death and marry certificates, driver licenses and land deeds, among others, bringing in millions of Liberian dollars in support of the National Budget.
“This (CSC) is for us, let’s own it and let’s support keeping it in all of the counties,” Sirleaf told citizens when he appeared on the program “Decentralization Forum” aired on state-owned Radio ELBC Thursday morning.
He wondered how Liberians feel when they vandalize facilities financed by international partners, adding, “You cannot burn down a CSC simply due to slowness of the production of a document.”
Minister Sirleaf noted that facilities are results of finances sought by government due the tightness of the country’s fiscal space that are intended to address the needs of citizens and they must cherish and keep them safe.
He made reference to the recent situation at the Margibi County Service Center where angry crowd vandalized the newly-inaugurated center in the county.
He disclosed that government will construct a Center in River Gee where it has completed feasibility study for the project while it has completed the one in Harper, Maryland.
According to him CSCs will be linked to each other with internet connectivity provided by the United Nations Development Program.
Under the watch of the Unity Party-led government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, CSCs are now operating in Bassa, Bong, Margibi and a number of other counties while others are under construction with support from the UNDP, the Swedish Government, EU and other well-meaning partners of the Liberian Government.
“Once Liberian can keep what we are building, we all will have something to build upon to move our country ahead,” he said.
