MONROVIA – In an effort to resolve the gas shortage which has paralyzed the entire country, 11 additional tankers loaded gasoline arrived in the country on Saturday in addition to the already 11 tankers which came on February 14. Additional Road tankers are expected to arrive from Sierra Leone on Sunday evening.
These tankers of gasoline equivalent to 1,000 metric tons were entirely purchased by the Government of Liberia. Some Trucks (Road Tankers) owned by Aminata & Sons Incorporated were hired to transport the gasoline from Freetown to Monrovia. The cost of transporting the products were also borne by the Government of Liberia.
An LPRC designated envoy escorted the Trucks to Freetown to validate the actual number of purchased gasoline as well as to escort the tankers back to Monrovia for distribution to filling stations.
There are reports, that LPRC has also arranged the purchase of another consignment of gasoline from neighboring Guinea and Ivory Coast to race the government initiative to ease gas shortage. All of these are being undertaken as the expected vessels are due in Monrovia beginning Monday, February 17, 2020.
Reports further said the consignment of gasoline from neighboring Guinea and Ivory Coast, are expected to be brought into the country by Tuesday, February 18, 2020.
There are also reports that ‘gasoline ship’ is expected to berth at the National Port Authority (NPA), which Conex and Aminata & Sons are having 10,000 and 4,000 metric tons of gasoline respectively.
Meanwhile, contrary to reports that Mr. Bobby G. Brown, Deputy Managing Director for Operations ran away from an ongoing investigation of the missing of 2m gallons of gasoline and fled the Country. Mr., Brown was seen actively at work at LPRC on Saturday and Sunday. He laughingly denied reports and told FPA that he was on an official assignment on behalf of LPRC.
He indicated that LPRC has suffered operational loses of high volume over the past 14 years period. The independent Audit of the activities of LPRC is therefore welcome and necessary for an understanding of the realities as opposed to assumptions and accusations.
“Spillage, tanks ruptured, changes in reference height, decommission of storage tanks and water accumulation are some of the loses LPRC suffered over the formal logged years which has been presumed of missing millions of gallons,” Mr. Brown sad.
There are reports that over the years that there have been disparities in stock reports owing to operational loses and reports of requests to defray the costs of difference between book stock and bulk stock, also over the years.