By Lincoln G. Peters
The Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) has termed false, misleading, and diabolical lies, allegations from census applicants that their names were allegedly removed from LISGIS’s final list of successful candidates.
Several applicants seeking to serve as enumerators for the upcoming census have planned to stage a nationwide protest beginning today, Monday, 17 October 2022.
They alleged that LISGIS removed their names from the list of successful applicants.
The contending applicants also claimed to have passed the LIGIS aptitude test successfully.
Over the weekend, the aggrieved applicants staged a protest and set roadblocks.
But speaking on Monday, 17 October 2022 on State Radio ELBC, LISGIS Acting Director General Mr. Wilmot Smith said at no time did the institution ever remove qualified applicants’ names and replace them with realities and family members of the authorities.
Responding to the claim by the aggrieved applicants, Mr. Smith said many applicants that are claiming that they were not enlisted after making a successful pass in the aptitude test don’t understand that LISGIS had a targeted number of people that it was recruiting.
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He said more than the targeted number wrote the test.
“We have twenty-four thousand one hundred persons that sat the test. However, among that number, we only need seventeen thousand seventy-one people out of the exercise and aptitude test that was conducted,” he said.
“It’s true that you may [have] passed the aptitude test, but the finalist list may not capture you because we have a targeted number,’’ he noted.
Mr. Smith disclosed that the challenge they had with their supervisors was that people were posting names on the various walls that were not approved by the central office of LISIGIS.
He added that this is responsible for all the problems they are experiencing.
“We did not add any new names to the list that was released. For example, if you are living across and writing the test Fendell, Mount Barclay, if you can’t beat the traffic and [you inform us, we will allow you to take your test at the center close to you,” he said.
“That was the flexibility that we exercised [for which] applicants are accusing us,’’ he clarified.
Following the recent launch of nationwide recruitment for temporary census data collectors/enumerators for the 2022 National Population and Housing Census (NPHC), LISGIS released a preliminary list of 29,829 applicants.
“Out of the total number of applicants that applied, 9,908 are females and 19, 921 are males. Of these numbers, three hold PhDs, 114 Master’s; 4,311 hold BScs, 1,841 post-secondary, and 23,560 are high school students, respectively”, LISGIS announces here.
We all are humans, LISGIS can not tell us with prove that after administering an aptitude to over 24000 Applicants there’s is possibility of publishing successful cannidates names within a period of 24 hours.
Reason being,
1.The test was mannual not electronic
2. The test results needed to be collected from centers across the country before being forwarded to the head office. Because you said your Staff were not mendated to post result.
You needed more than 2 days to convert the test results from mannual to electronic for computerized filtering by creating functions that will track successful cannidates as you set the benchmark for the test. For God sake all of these processes could not be accomplished within 24 hours. The test was given on Wednesday October 12 and results were posted on your web site the next day. Tell me is it possible to come out with transparent results due to the time constraint? The time was short to go through all of these processes because training should start the same day of the test result. So I strongly believe that inorder to stick to your census calendar of events names prompt out by any means so that the process wouldn’t be delay. But what LISGIS filled to realize during the time of this decision was the consequences of it’s action. LISGIS did not realize that it was working with humans as applicant and thought it was working with object that wouldn’t respond to action.
Very sad for us in Maryland County. LISGIS official website listing after the pre test results is not being used. Many of us names had been removed.