Monrovia — The plenary of the Liberian Senate has cited authorities of the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning, Public Works, Mines, Energy, Natural Resources & Environment as well as the National Road Fund to appear before the “Committee of a Whole” on Thursday, November 10, 2022, at 2pm.
Plenary’s decision was based on a communication from Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon informing Plenary that the East International Company contracted to reconstruct and expand the ELWA to RIA Highway, clearly lacks the credentials, capacity and ability to handle such a contract.
The Montserrado County Senator further indicated in his communication that, the quality of work being done on the long corridor of the road from ELWA to RIA is poor and has become more like a “death trap” to commuters plying the route and is causing grave loss to business owners.
According to Senator Dillon, some stores may even shut down, if not already shut down as a result of the “embarrassment” already caused by the poor construction of the road.
Based on these reasons, Senator Dillon requested the intervention of the Senate Plenary to cite the above Ministries and Government agencies to explain to the Plenary in details the actual information concerning the ELWA-to-RIA Highway Road contract.
Meanwhile, the Plenary of the Senate also instructed the above Government Ministries and agencies to forward all relevant documents surrounding the ELWA to RIA road Contract to the Secretary of the Senate prior to their appearances.
The Roberts International Airport (RIA) highway is said to be endangering the lives of citizens and other foreign residents as a result of the stalled and snail-paced reconstruction works currently on-going and the lack of adequate monitoring and supervision from the Ministry of Public Works
It can be recalled that on February 20, 2020, President George Manneh Weah broke grounds for the expansion and pavement of the RIA Highway. The 45 kms link Monrovia to the airport.
The project, which is being implemented through a China-Liberia joint venture with East International Group and China Railways being the contractors, is worth about US$95 million.
Constructions works have been described as sub-standards due to the alleged failure of the Ministry of Public Works to supervise and thoroughly monitor the on-going works.