Marylanders are concerned about a recent meeting between the county legislative caucus and the heads of three companies operating in Maryland.
By Patrick N. Mensah, Maryland County
Maryland, Liberia, November 15, 2024 – Following a two-day dialogue with top management of the Cavalla Rubber Corporation (CRC), Maryland Oil Palm Plantation (MOPP), and Golden SIFCA in Monrovia, several citizens within the county are questioning the outcome of the meeting.
The meeting with the companies was held in Monrovia, bringing together Senator J. Gblebo Brown, Chairman of the Maryland Legislative Caucus, P. Mike Jurry, Representative District #1 and Co-chairman of the Maryland Legislative Caucus; District#2 Representative Anthony F. Williams, also Secretary General of the Maryland Legislative Caucus; Austin Blidi Taylor, Representative, District #3 and member of the Maryland Legislative Caucus, Mr. John Lootvoet, Executive Director, CRC, MOPP, GSI, Mr. John Y. Barkamine, Consultant, CRC, MOPP, GSI, amongst other top managers and legal counselors of the concession.
Their gathering has drawn the attention of many citizens of the county and diaspora Marylanders in the U.S., who pointed out that the companies’ failure to implement their responsibilities and projects in about (13) years since 2011 should be questioned seriously.
T. Roland Taylor, a former Pleebo District Relief Commissioner who now resides in the United States of America, alleged that the legislative caucus’ invitation to the top management at a hotel instead of in Plenary to at least allow other lawmakers with expertise from across districts or counties to debate the issues, was never in the interest of the people’s but rather to eat Pizza and drink expensive wine while listening to bunch of lies and deceptions from those companies, who has taken away so much from the county in 13 unbroken years.
The former relief commissioner of Pleebo District alleged on his Facebook page that CRC and MOPP management were wrong to have informed the Caucus of Maryland in their two-day meeting that within 2024, they had lost about US$100 million in their investments, which is why they haven’t been able to build a single school, clinic/hospital, housing units for employees, and many other projects, as agreed upon in their concession agreements.
He described their statement as deceptive, emphasizing that the agreements signed in 2011 between the Government of Liberia and the management gave management the opportunity to start implementing products in their first year of operation. Unfortunately, today, the companies are complaining about losses after years of operation in the county.
He noted that despite their reported losses, management has alleged that they are not achieving or implementing their responsibilities due to low productivity.
He said management has also complained of massive theft, illicit harvesting of its products, and interference from the “country devil” whenever there are issues with employees, among many others.
Mr. Taylor termed such response from the companies as very funny and unfortunate, though they have made tons of millions of dollars in profits, saying citizens shouldn’t give such excuses attention.
He called on the Maryland caucus to strongly prevail on the companies because they have completely failed to address the suffering of locals within their concession areas.
Meanwhile, during the two days’ dialogue in Monrovia, the Executive Director of the Maryland Oil Palm Plantation (MOPP), Cavalla Rubber Corporation (CRC) and Golden-Sifca Incentives (GSI), John Lootvoet, stressed that they are overwhelmed with huge financial losses due to low productivity and bringing in of expatriates to perform key managerial and technical functions.
Mr. Lootvoet explained that despite the fact that they couldn’t achieve all that was written in the concession agreement, they made some achievements, such as building bridges, town halls, hand pumps, mini-clinics, paying tuition for employees’ children and dependents, and providing other benefits.
He said that due to these huge losses, they have planned to redundancy 90 employees from MOPP and 37 employees from CRC amid criticism from community dwellers and the caucus.
He noted that despite companies’ aim to maximize profits, massive theft and illicit harvesting of its products by youths, encroachments of concession land by citizens, community interference with workers’ issues (Country devil), and high expectations in projects-affected communities to get employment, amongst other things, are major constraints.
According to him, for both concessions and citizens to benefit and improve citizens’ livelihoods, Sifca management wants the Liberian government through the Maryland Legislative Caucus to Renegotiate the concession agreement, improve security (support from the National Police) in the concession areas to stop theft, provide supplementary funding support for primary education to buttress companies’ efforts, provide adequate health facilities for the communities rather than relying on companies’ efforts alone, create other livelihood opportunities to absorb growing demand for employment.
He also called for the strengthening of government institutions (Police, Immigration, Labour), improvement of infrastructure, especially roads and ports, and advice to community members to stop disrupting companies’ operations. Editing by Jonathan Browne
