Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon says he has received information that US$20 million of the US$30 million paid by the government to East International as part of payment for the construction of the Roberts International Highway remains unaccounted for.
According to Sen. Dillon, East International is insisting that only US$10 million was paid to them, thereby, raising eyebrows on what happened on the remaining US$20 million.
Sen. Dillon: “My understanding is that the government has paid off US$30 million because that contract is supposed to be pre-financed. My inside understanding also is that EAST International is insisting that they got only US$10 million out of the US$ 30. Something is smelling.
“That is why every time we ask for a hearing on the RIA road project, people start to jitter. 2023 will be a tough year at the Senate because we will bring these things up and insist on logical conclusion and people will be prosecuted where necessary.”
Public works position on East International
Recently, while appearing at the Senate, Madam Ruth Coker Collins, Minister of Public Works, informed Senators that East International, the company doing construction work on the Roberts International Highway, had obvious frailties and was technically incapable to do the work in line with the contract.
The committee, chaired by Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe (IND-Bomi County), was keen to know why the project which started with so much promise was now wandering in a state of abandonment and becoming a serious hazard for motorists, now dubbing the highway a ‘’deathtrap”.
Skeptics have always had issues with East International’s qualification and ability to carry out such a major road project. Things got even murkier when motorists began riding into open ditches and putting their lives at risk.
Minister Collins apparently was left with no alternative but to acknowledge what Liberian motorists already knew: the road was indeed a death trap.
The minister went as far to tell the Senate committee that East International lacks the technical and financial capability to do the road within the 36 months required by the contract and called on the Senate to review the contract.
East also faced issues regarding its capacity to fund the project. Many were concerned that the awarding of such a huge contract to reconstruct the busy Monrovia/RIA road without having the capital to begin with was a stumbling block from the start.
On the flipside, the government awarded the contract to East Construction Company even as it faced criticisms over the contracting company’s ability to properly implement the multimillion dollars’ project, especially with the company already had a tainted performance record.
Additionally, questions also lingered over the inability of the company to attain the right machinery, equipment and funding to carry out the project.
FrontPageAfrica newspaper previously reported that the company had failed to perform on a number of projects, including a pre-financing agreement with the government in 2017 to pave 30 feeder roads as part of the Feeder Road Project across Liberia. To date, several feeder roads projects contracted to East Construction Company still remain uncompleted.
The East International Construction Company is said to be a joint venture of Liberians and Chinese, but the company has maneuvered its way in getting large contracts because of its contacts with senior officials at the Ministry of Public Works.
