MONROVIA – Senate Public Works committee chairman, Edwin Melvin Snowe (IND-Bomi County), has said a site seeing visit on the Robert’s International Highway road construction has painted a different picture to the committee, which is contrary to what members of the Senate were informed by the Minister of Public Works Mrs. Ruth Coker-Collins.
By: Henry Karmo, henry.karmo@frontpageafricaonline.com
Senator Snowe made the statement Tuesday February 21, 2023 during a tour of ongoing road construction work being carried out by the EAST International Construction Company. He was accompanied by Senator Saah Joseph, (CDC-Montserrado County). He said their visit was a mandate from Plenary of the Senate.
Sen. Snowe said: “Contrary to what we were told by the minister, the independent committee is showing us something else and our independent visit is also showing us something else. The committee is a technical committee. So, after today’s visit we will put our findings together and submit our final report to the Senate plenary.
“What we see here today on our unannounced tour looks impressive. We also have engineers contracted by the committee who will also make another unannounced visit, but what we see here today looks impressive.”
In December of 2022, while appearing before the Senate’s Public Works committee, the minister informed members of the committee that East International, the company doing construction work on the Robert’s International highway, had obvious frailties and was technically incapable to do the work in line with the contract.
According to Senator Snowe, Preliminary reports received by the committee sounds conflicting to what the committee was told by the minister of Public Works.
“The committee will sit and look at the details but what I see here today I am impressed. I am impressed with the thickness of the base course done by the EAST International Company compare to what is existing.
“Another thing about the road is the wideness of the road. It’s going to look exactly like the Japanese’s road constructed on the freeway.”
Despite the committee impression and confidence in EAST International, Senator Saah Joseph stressed the need for the company to consider creating detours by rehabilitating community road, which according to him, would alleviate the traffic constraints faced by pedestrians.
Skepticism over EAST international capacity to perform
Skeptics have always had issues with East International’s qualification and ability to carry out such a major road project. Things got even murkier when motorists began riding into open ditches and putting their lives at risk.
The minister went as far to tell the Senate committee that East International lacks the technical and financial capability to do the road within the 36 months required by the contract and called on the Senate to review the contract.
East also faced issues regarding its capacity to fund the project. Many were concerned that the awarding of such a huge contract to reconstruct the busy Monrovia/RIA road without having the capital to begin with was a stumbling block from the start.
Despite the criticisms, the government awarded the contract to East International Company even as it faced criticisms over the contracting company’s ability to properly implement the multimillion dollars’ project, especially with the company already had a tainted performance record.
Additionally, questions also lingered over the inability of the company to attain the right machinery, equipment and funding to carry out the project.
FrontPageAfrica had previously reported that the company had failed to perform on a number of projects, including a pre-financing agreement with the government in 2017 to pave 30 feeder roads as part of the Feeder Road Project across Liberia. To date, several feeder road projects contracted to East Construction Company still remain uncompleted.
The East International Construction Company is said to be a joint venture of Liberians and Chinese, but the company has maneuvered its way into getting large contracts because of its contacts with senior officials at the Ministry of Public Works.
The road dilemma has prompted many Liberians to go public, expressing concerns over the RIA-Monrovia highway project. With the level of resentment from the public about East International Construction Company, the Ministry of Public Works continues to remain tight-lipped on the issue, which is raising fears like previous situations.
The contract for the expansion and pavement of Liberia’s only international airport road would eventually become a failed one, FrontPage Africa has observed.
Back in February 2020, President George Weah broke grounds for the expansion and pavement of 45km road linking Monrovia to the airport.
The project was implemented through a China-Liberia joint venture with East International Group and China Railways being the contractors, worth about US$95m.
As a result of the awful nature of the road, two people were admitted for treatment at a local hospital after a vehicle belonging to Deputy Transport Minister J. Darious Kollie plunged into a deep ditch along the perilous road few weeks ago.