MONROVIA – The Managing Director of the National Transit Authority (NTA), Mr. Herbie McCauley, has regretted and apologized for the incident which led to the paralyzing of normal operations of public transportation service across the country due to a go-slow action staged by aggrieved employees and contractors of the NTA.
The NTA is an autonomous agency of the Government of Liberia (GOL) that is responsible for public transportation service.
It can be recalled that aggrieved employees and contractors of the NTA recently staged a peaceful protest, demanding the improvement of their welfare and the removal of Mr. McCauley at the NTA for his alleged financial impropriety and his failure to provide the basic necessities needed to enhance their operations.
The situation paralyzed smooth and normal working activities at the entity and left thousands of citizens stranded to commute from one destination to another.
Mr. McCauley admitted to “issues” being at the entity but disclosed that the management team has been striving to address those issues.
According to him, the management of the NTA has agreed to address additional issues raised by the aggrieved employees and contractors in keeping with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed.
He pointed out that safety gears for employees and contractors have been immediately provided.
Mr. McCauley added that each employee and contractor was given a bag of rice to celebrate the Independence Day.
He, however, vowed to continue to work with employees and contractors at the NTA in a bid to help address issues confronting them and the institution to guarantee productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.
“I like to admit that there are issues here at the NTA that need to be addressed, but at the same time management has been trying over the last few years to address these issues. We were able to go into a discussion with the Union and agreed upon several issues that are supposed to be addressed”.
“I want to take this time to say whatever happened, I apologize to our customers for not being en route for the last two days. We started officially today. I want to also tell my employees that, I love them and we will work as a team to fix the problems”.
Mr. McCauley attributed the delay in the addressing numerous claims made by the aggrieved employees and contractors to financial constraints that have engulfed the entity over the years.
Not arrested
Last week, Mr. McCauley was escorted by plainned clothes and uniformed personnel of the Liberia National Police (LNP) and the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) to answer to scores of allegations raised by the aggrieved contractors and employees of the NTA.
Following the action, it was perceived and reported that Mr. McCauley was arrested and handcuffed.
The NTA boss clarified that he was not arrested and handcuffed, but was invited for a conference.
“Let me take this time to clarify that I was not arrested and handcuffed. I was invited to speak on a conference to some allegations”.
Mr. McCauley disclosed that the LACC conference is an ongoing process and as such, he will continue to make himself available to answer to these allegations
Scrap deal
Mr. McCauley further clarified that the scraping of parts from grounded NTA buses within the compound of the entity is being done in line with the General Services Agency (GSA) layout processes.
“We go through that process; we do not just get up and scrap buses”.