His Excellency
Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr.
President-elect of the Republic of Liberia
Monrovia, Liberia
Dear Mr. President-elect:
I have the honor most respectfully to congratulate you on your election to the Nation’s highest office. Prior to your political campaign for the Nation’s highest office, serving in the capacity as the Vice President during the regime of Former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf 12years, I often heard you say:
A) “We pretend to say that we are paying the people, and the people pretend to say that they are working”.
B) “We need to enforce the rule of law; we should hold people accountable for the wrong they do”.
C) “Let us produce what we eat; and eat what we produce “
D) “And during your political campaign, you emphasized “on road, road, and road”.
On these notes, Your Excellency, kindly permit me as a Liberian citizen who has been following your political struggles since the 80’s, to advance a number of recommendations as a way of contributing to the rebuilding efforts of a new Liberia that envisages speedy social and economic transformation: The code of a Small but an Efficient Government, for your government kind consideration.
- That there is an urgent need for the Government of Liberia (GoL) to consider downsizing to create a more robust private sector-based economy. To this end, the privatization of key public sector – LWSC, LPRC, LEC, RIA, Maritime, etc.
- That the merger and/or abrogation of some of the Government’s ministries/agencies, for example, Information Ministry and LBS; Post and Telecommunication and the Liberia Regulatory Authority (LRA); Liberia Agriculture Regulatory Authority and the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), etc. should be considered.
3. That the Government of Liberia (GoL) should eliminate or cancel the positions of Assistant Minister across all sectors of government. The role of an Assistant Minister should now be ascribed to the Directors at these ministries/agencies. The directors are the highest senior civil servants who could make meaningful contributions, if they are properly trained and given better incentives and ToR. Note: In any case, that just a few persons in these ministries/agencies that are doing most of the jobs.
4. That the Government of Liberia considers abrogating the creation of new district, township, and county without any qualified demographic data; instead, let us encourage the creation of larger communities with the provisions of better social amenities.
5. That the concession agreement of the AMP Terminal be reviewed, particularly, its inflation clause and handling charges and the time allotted for the clearing of containers from the Freeport of Monrovia.
6. That the Government of Liberia should remove the CTN and other non-essential entities that are operating at the Freeport negatively impacting the cost of consumer goods.
7. That the Government of Liberia encourages destination inspections at the Freeport of Monrovia to eliminate the huddles businesspeople go through to import goods and services.
8. That the Government of Liberia considers removing the Central Street Cemetery (graveyard) and turn the area to real estate developers. In the same vein, the Government of Liberia should begin negotiating with private landowner in the city center – all vacate land should be developed to give Monrovia a facelift.
9. That for an inclusive economic growth the Government of Liberia should kindly consider the allocation of US$10m annually in the national budget over a three (3) year period to help jump-start small medium enterprises (SMEs). The proposed amount, if budgeted, should be channeled through the various commercial banks as a soft loan scheme with just a 5% interest rate to borrower, payable in 12 months.
10. That a Special Claim Court (SCC) be established to ensure that borrowers who default in meeting their payment schedules are prosecuted timely without fear or favor.
11. That the Government of Liberia considers the recapitalization of the Agriculture Bank to afford our local farmers to take loan at 3.5% interest rate payable in two (2) years. Honestly speaking, to speed up the recapitalization of the Agriculture Bank, the Government of Liberia should consider the reintroduction of the Rice Stabilization Form (RSF) by imposing US$0.50 on a 25KG Bag of rice that is imported into the commerce of Liberia. This is possible if the Government recalibrates the port charges, cost drivers, and eliminate all bureaucratic red tapes at the Freeport of Monrovia; the price of rice could be reduced to US$16.50 for a 25KG bag- inclusive of the RSF. Note: The lasting solution to this perennial “Rice Saga” is to produce rice ourselves.
12. That the Government of Liberia should consider a short-term employment for the vulnerable youth and vacation jobs for the students’ community. For example, the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) and other municipal authorities across the country could provide temporary employment focusing primarily on cleaning up the cities, engage in roadside brushing, and the painting of public buildings; and/or use the student and the vulnerable youth to provide janitorial services at the government buildings and at the various marketplaces.
13. That the Ministry of Agriculture, the Cooperative Development Agency (CDA), AFL Agriculture Unit, and CARI should be used as conduits for the temporary employment scheme by using these same very vulnerable youth/students’ community by engaging in large scale farming in cassava, pepper, plantains, and rice productions. Note: Besides the huge foreign exchange spent on rice importation annually- US$282.5m, Liberia also spends US$42m to import pepper, oranges, onions, and peanuts from our neighboring countries.
14. That the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) rescinds the practice of import restriction on the importation of key strategic items. For example, restricting the importation of steel to Sethi Brothers, Inc. and the importation of vegetable cooking oil to Fouani Brothers Corporation, etc.
15. That to accelerate trade and commerce, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry should encourage fair market competition; and moving forward, the continued imposition of the “Import Declaration Form” (IDF) which is somewhat a replica of an Import Permit Declaration (IPD) for the importation of rice, petroleum products, pharmaceutical products, steel rods, vegetable oil, etc. should be completely abolished.
16. That the Labor sector needs urgent attention! In the major concessions, let us put into practice what type of jobs, as per the law, should be reserved for qualified Liberian citizens only? For instance, Firestone, ARCELOR MITTAL, AMP Terminal, CITY BUILDERS, FUANI BROTHERS, SWAT, Inc., United Commodities, Inc., etc., besides the positions of Managing Directors, Financial Comptrollers and Operations Managers, the rest of the other senior manager positions like accountants, supervisors, sales managers, account clerks, drivers, computers operators, etc. should be reserved for Liberian Citizens with an appreciable salary. We cannot have more than 2000 young graduates from the various universities each year in the various disciplines without jobs when foreigners take away all the well-paid jobs. Our labor market needs some sanitization for a speedy and inclusive economic growth. What is more troubling is the different pay rates even in the United Nations system here in Liberia as compared to our neighboring countries.
17. That the Ministry of Public of Works be decentralized on a regional basis- Northern, Central, and Western Regions, if we must overcome the many attractable challenges faced with relative to deplorable roads. For it is an established fact that the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) now outsources most of its roads and other technical works.
18. That the Ministry of Public Works, in collaboration with the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) and other municipal authorities enforces the zoning law and city ordinances on the books throughout the geographic confines of Liberia.
19. That the Government of Liberia considers limiting the establishment of so-called degrees granting universities and focus more robustly on the establishment of technical, vocational, and scientific institutions base on an internationally acceptable standards on a regional basis. To this end, the Booker Washington Institutes, (BWI), located in kakata, Margibi County, should be elevated and given more budgetary support. The Government of Liberia (GoL) should engage friendly nations like Japan, China, the United States of America, South Korea, and the United Kingdom for the training of at least two thousand (2000) Liberians each year in vocational, science and technologies over a period of three (3).
20. That the Government of Liberia considers providing better emoluments to ALL Customs Officers assigned at the various border points. Your Excellency, it is totally ludicrous to pay a Customs Officer assigned at the border points below US$1500 per month when he collects thousands of United States Dollars on behalf of the Government and People of Liberia daily. To this end, the Government of Liberia should kindly consider introducing security cameras at the major border checkpoints for 24 hours surveillance to curtail corruption and any form of abuses thereof. This will ultimately eschew the influx of these long trucks crossing our borders without proper Customs check.
21. That the Government of Liberia kindly considers increasing the budget of the Liberia National Police (LNP) from US$20m to US$60m annually; police officer should not make anything less than US$200 per month. Because to enforce the rule of laws, the police play a pivotal role and must be given better incentives and staff emoluments.
22. That the Government of Liberia considers hiring a private fleet management company to control and manage the LNP fleet of vehicles; and that no police officer should drive any of the LNP’S assigned vehicles.
23. That the Government of Liberia considers reversing the wrong application of the petroleum PLATT’s regime used at the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC) wherein diesel fuel (AGO) is priced higher than gasoline (PMS). The continued application of the wrong Mediterranean Platt’s for substandard products. This PLATT’s regime was introduced at the LPRC by the Former Managing Director Edwin Marvin Snowe, now Senator of Bomi County. The petroleum products PLATT’s is being grossly abused and a complete kleptomania plod that must be corrected. To this end, the Government of Liberia should abolish the layer of distributorship, with a margin of US$0.06 on a gallon of petroleum costing sheet; and inversely, increase the margin for the petroleum retailers – from US$0.018 per gallon to US$0.25.
Kind regards,
Sincerely,
Steve Flahn-Paye
0886-516392/0777-960874