Weala, Margibi County – The attention of the management of Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC), hereinafter referred to as the company, has with absolute shock been drawn to publications carried in the local print and electronic media over the past week, alleging malpractices by the company on various fronts, as a result of its rubber plantation operations in Liberia.
The company unequivocally and categorically rejects the allegations, and term them not only to be reckless, untrue, and unfounded, but intended to incite local residents, tarnish, and bring into public disrepute its corporate image that it has established over the years, since the commencement of its corporate existence as a subsidiary of the Socfin Group in Liberia, due to the dissolution of Weala Rubber Company (WRC) corporate life, and a merger with Salala Rubber Corporation (SRC) to create a single corporate entity in august 2007.
Since that time, the company has operated in strict compliance with the terms, conditions, and provisions of its concession agreement granted by Government of Liberia, in addition to other guidelines as required and set by concerned government regulatory bodies from time to time.
In the course of conducting its business operations in Liberia, the company continues to assist the government with its social economic efforts by providing employment, education, and health care services not only for its workforce, but also for residents from surrounding local communities.
In testimony to the foregoing, the company’s health center was the only one that remained opened and operated in District #5 of Margibi County throughout the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia, rendering services to all including community members without discrimination.
In addition to the above, the company is maintaining a healthy relation with its surrounding communities with a functional grievance mechanism in place for channeling their grievances which are addressed through the company’s Community Liaison Team.
Further, since 2013, the company has undertaken various social projects, as part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives, based on the expressed interest of the communities within and around the company’s rubber plantation, which are ongoing despite multitude of challenges in the rubber commodity sector.
As it has been experienced throughout the world, the company has also been affected negatively by the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, due to the lack of demand for rubber, and the resulting drop in price, and unfortunately as a result of which a series of redundancies had to be carried out, and a skeleton team deployed to look after the plantation while hopefully anticipating to restart its operations in 2021.
Finally, the company categorically rejects all of the allegations circulated in the local media over the past week, and calls on the general public, their local and foreign business partners not to lend any credence to those publications alleging malpractices by the company, as they lack any credibility, since they were published to foment conflict with local residents, to discredit the company, and that with all of the foregoing notwithstanding, the company remains a dependable, and valuable partner in the nation’s agricultural sector by providing employment opportunities, and social economic services to its citizens.