Monrovia-The buses the Liberian government is endeavoring to bring into the country, two of which are in country for ‘test drive’ have been abandoned or parked for the protracted period of eight years in Accra, the Republic of Ghana, information from the West African nation revealed.
Government through the National Transit Authority (NTA) with assistance from key players at the Executive Mansion is keen to introduce the buses as its way of findings solution to the transportation challenges citizens go through, but the buses in question are laden with so many controversies, including overstayed, mechanical issues, road worthiness and durability.
A Liberian based in Accra who only identified himself as Davies told Spoon Talk Tuesday that the buses were imported to Ghana by a Portuguese Company in 2016, but could not be used due to link compatibility, which is to say that Ghana, as developed it is, does not have the link the buses can ply on because they were made for a particular terrain or environment.
About 245 of those buses are currently parked, with just five of them plying between Accra and another city because of the technical and other issues surrounding them, Davies said, thus heightening public anxiety about the way government is going about the buses issue, trying to impress upon Liberians that it is committed to delivering on promises made.
The Portuguese company behind the importation of the buses, according to him, is currently indisposed, and that the person the government is dealing with is like a second party trying to steal the show, to make use of the opportunity out of the loss incurred to be able recoup something because the buses have outlived their usefulness.
“What they are trying to do is to get something from their losses incurred over time. And so, they are trying to impress upon Liberia to be able to get something (get some money back from their losses),” Davies said, and also argued that the buses might have been manufactured about 20 years.
Shockingly, he also revealed that the buses have been resprayedor morphed with different colors to make them look new and convincing to the government. “That is what they did and that’s why you see NTA initial on them,” Davies indicated.
According to him, what the guys are only trying to dump the buses in Liberia considering that they are not pliable in Ghana because of the different issues associated with them.
He said in as much the government is interested in getting buses to Liberia is good, but they should apply efforts to doing due diligence, especially when it comes to the buses in question that have been abandoned for such a long period of time.
The NTA recently said the government has not entered into any agreement with a particular company for the acquisition of buses, and that the two buses brought in country belong to a “Brazilian Company” based in Ghana that has expressed interest in supplying buses to the government.
Upon arrival into the country, the two buses were taken to the Executive Mansion where they were inspected by the Political Advisor to President Boakai, Mcdella Cooper and other senior officials. Whether taking the buses to the Mansion was a publicity stunt or not, the NTA said the highest office of the land was “the only visible and accessible place” at the time to take the buses.
