Cancellation Hangs Over Delinquent Concesssion Firms; House Probing

Cancellation Hangs Over Delinquent Concesssion Firms; House Probing

07/11/2010

Source: http://www.frontpageafrica.com/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=10997&z=3

Monrovia - Following persistent concerns in the public and of late a recent letter under the signature of a ranking member of the House of Representatives Bhofal Chambers to the full plenary of the House of Representatives that some concessions agreements ratified are not living up to the terms of the agreements, the House Committee on Concession and Investment says it will start inviting heads of various concessions that are deemed to be delinquent in living up to the agreements signed with the Liberian government.

House Committee Chairman on Concession and Investment Lofa county Lawmaker Moses Kollie told journalists that the body wants to exercise its role of having oversight on agreements that are signed with various companies in the country.

Kollie warned that the Legislature has multiple options available to it if it observed that the concessionaires concern are showing signs that they lack the capacity to live up to the terms of the agreement.

“We have a lot of concessions that we signed, the president approved and some printed into handbill but we have observed that most of these concessions have actually not been monitored and in some instances have not been committed because every concession agreement is a law. Gentlemen let me make this clear that we are going to be robust as part of our oversight.

As a matter of fact we have serious concern with ADA (African Development Aid). As chairman on concession and Investment, ADA is an embarrassment to this country because we have made some follow-ups and we have seen nothing besides makeshift structures and you also see people squatting in these areas, and so we are going to invite the head of ADA Mr. McIntosh and absolutely we are not going to accept any proxy because normally if you invite him, he will normally sent someone else,” The Lofa County Lawmaker told journalists on capitol Hill Thursday.

Few weeks ago a group of rural forest owners stormed the Capitol Building demanding that the Legislature revisit concessions mainly in the forest sector it signed with these companies. The rural dwellers complained that the companies in question have reneged on the various agreements it signed with the Liberian government by failing to implement various social agreement it said it would do in these communities.

Early this year the man Representing Foyah District in the National Legislature, Eugene Fallah Kparkar complained that the African Development Aid, operating a 30million dollar agreement to produce rice in the northern part of country has neglected the people and was failing on the terms of the agreement.

But the House Committee Chair have said if companies concerns failed on the terms of the agreement, a process of cancellations will start on Capitol Hill.

“We are not going to be embarrassed by anyone. If it is proven that these companies do not have the capacity, we will begin the process of cancellation here because this is a legal process and we are very serious and the Chief Clerk is now preparing the communications for Mr. McIntosh and other including the BRE and Alpha Logging and in fact Alpha Logging has been an embarrassment to this country. We have done an official complain to the FDA because we were in the position of reconditioning the feeder road in Salayeah but they assured the government that they could do that but unfortunately they have failed,” Representative Kollie maintained.

During the last hearing on the ratification of four forest management contracts, Civil Society Activist Silas Saikor told the hearing that nearly all the forest management contracts signed by the government of Liberia with various companies were standing on shaky grounds and warned that it would be dangerous for the government to sign new ones again.