LISGIS trainers abandon work in Nimba

By Thomas Domah/ Nimba County

Trainers from the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Service (LISGIS) sent to Nimba county to train recruits boycotted work on Tuesday, 19 October in Saclepea in demand of salary and alleged discrepancy.

The protesters had been trained in Gbarnga, Bong County earlier to train enumerators and others hired by LISGIS to conduct census in all 15 counties. But since the end of September, they are yet to get salary from government.

Day two of the training was unable to take place because trainers who completed a week-long training in Bong County last month have not received payment.

The aggrieved trainers also demanded Daily Sustenance Allowance (DSA) which will enable them to feel themselves as they are yet to even get food and place to lodge.

According to them, they will not listen to anyone on grounds that they have engaged relevant authorities from LISGIS about their plight but yielded no result.

The training is to be held for five days after which the trainees will be deployed in the field for the census.

Several applicants seeking to serve as enumerators for the upcoming census had threatened to stage a nationwide protest on Monday, 17 October.

They alleged that LISGIS removed their names from the list of successful applicants,

contending that they successfully passed the aptitude test administered by the Institute.

On Sunday, 16 October 2022, some LISGIS applicants at King Peter Town on Bushrod Island, Montserrado District #15, protested demanding to be shortlisted.

Earlier on Saturday, applicants from several centers in Paynesville including the First Baptist Church also protested, expressing concerns as to why they were not shortlisted after allegedly passing the aptitude test.

In Grand Bassa County, hundreds of aggrieved applicants also staged a violent protest, setting roadblocks.

They stalled normal working, business, and academic activities, due to LISGIS’ alleged failure to select them.

 “We are over two-hundred persons that were short-listed and we sat for the aptitude test for the upcoming census. But sadly, all of us that sat for the test in Compound #3, Grand Bassa County can’t see our names”, they lamented.

Several of them have threatened to put a stop to the entire census training sections slated for Monday, 17 October 2022.

Speaking to this paper Sunday at the King Peter Town High School, an applicant named John Mulbah said he and his colleagues had gathered to express their concern to the government and the international partners over the alleged corruption and irregularities at LISGIS.

According to him, when LISGIS opened the application process, they applied online and they were allegedly accepted to come and do the aptitude test which would have qualified them for the census process.

“We did the aptitude test and after the aptitude test, we expected ourselves to be eligible for the process, but in the [end], our supervisor received calls from LISGIS and they said that they need the result of the test to [make] the final list,” he alleged.

He claimed that the final list included the names of people who didn’t sit for the aptitude test along with the aggrieved protesters. “Now we want to know what happened,” he noted.

Also speaking at the First Baptist Church in Paynesville, Ezekiel Morlue accused the leadership of LISGIS of allegedly replacing candidates’ names with girlfriends and family members.

According to him, there were 189 persons at the center that allegedly passed the aptitude test and were qualified by LISGIS, awaiting the training to be assigned.

He explained that when the final list came out, it only had nine persons who did not even write the test.

He described it as frustrating and disappointing because they have invested time and resources.

” If you know you have people already to do the work, why did you put out an application?” Morlue lamented.

“Why did you give us an aptitude test and tell us that we passed? They are doing this because of corruption, but we will not take it. They have replaced us with their girlfriends and family, but Monday, we will go to their office,” he noted. Editing by Jonathan Browne