Land Secured For Ministerial Complex Government says it has finally secured a spot to construct $US60 million Ministerial Complex promised by the Government of the People’s Republic of China, Information Minister Lewis G. Brown announced in Monrovia Thursday at the Ministry of Information regular press briefing. The Government of the People’s Republic of China last year announced that it would help build a ministerial complex for the Liberian Government that would see about ten government Ministries being hosted into such a compound, but bickering over which area to carry out the construction work has been a setback for the project. But speaking to newsmen at Thursday’s press briefing, Information Minister Lewis Brown announced a breakthrough in the dispute, saying, “I want to inform you that the Government of Liberia has finally secured a land for the construction of the Ministerial Complex. The Government has already purchased the land and we have the deed to it.” The land, he added, “is in the vicinity of the New Defense Ministry in Congo Town.” Minister Brown could not however say who the land was purchased from, neither did he mention the exact amount that the GOL paid for the spot. “I cannot tell you how much the Government purchased the land for, but I think you need to find out from the Public Works people,” Minister told journalists Thursday at the MICAT press briefing. He said experts are already in the country to determine the layout and design of the anticipated Ministerial Complex, and clarified further that the complex would not affect people living on the ‘Peace Island’. “No responsible government would want to make its people displace and put them in the open without a plan to relocate them,” Minister Brown said at the press conference. Adding: “The experts are already in the country. I can assure you that the government has already secured the land and we have the deed for it. That work is going to start this year.” Though not independently confirmed, reliable sources in government say the GOL loses over US$5 million each year in rent payment alone to private individuals whose properties the government is using as Ministries and other autonomous agencies. There are several government ministries and agencies currently being housed in individual homes, something which has caused a considerable sense of uneasiness in the public domain. The Ellen Sirleaf led government like its predecessors, is often accused of wasting taxpayers’ monies to individual pockets through rent payments. As a way of remedying the situation and taking government out of private buildings, the GOL and the Chinese Government agreed US$60 million deal in 2012 to build a Ministerial complex that would host over ten government ministries and agencies. --Varney M. Kamara
Posted on: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:13:15 +0000
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