Capitol Hill — At long last, the House of Representatives has voted in favor of a comprehensive review of the contractual agreement between the Government of Liberia and APM Terminals.
The House also mandated APM Terminals to reverse its decision to increase additional tariff on all of its services rendered at the port and revert to the original charges.
The House took the decision on Tuesday following a sustained grilling of the top managements of APM Terminals and the National Port Authority (NPA) by Plenary.
It comes following the advice of the Managing Director of the National Port Authority, Bill Tweahway that the APM Terminals’ agreement was a bad deal and should be amended by the Legislature.
“The first thing I will tell you [members of the House] is that the APM Terminals’ agreement is a bad agreement. It is very bad and is not in the interest of our country,” he said while addressing Plenary.
“It needs amendment and it needs re-visitation. You have the authority to amend any law in this country. And this law, for me is the worst law to be crafted in Liberia. It needs serious visitation.”
Last week, the plenary summoned key players of Liberia’s shipping industry including the managements of APM Terminals, National Port Authority (NPA), Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and major shipping lines to state reasons behind the unprecedented rise of service fees, especially clearing of containers at the Free port of Monrovia.