Prosecution awaits reckless officials

General Services Agency or GSA Director General, Madam Mary T. Broh, has threatened to take legal action against any government official caught misusing State properties, including vehicles and other logistics.

She warns that anyone, who burdens the government with the pressure of funding the cost of servicing vehicles that are already possessed by functionary of the Government of Liberia, will face prosecution.

Addressing reporters Thursday at the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism’s daily press briefing on Capitol Hill, the GSA boss explained that she has written every governmental institution, including Ministries, Agencies, and Entities of the legal action pending by the Agency against any official of government, who tries to misuse government vehicles and other national assets.

She said the GSA “finds this attitude of double dipping unacceptable and must be discounted forthwith.”

The tough-going GSA Director General also vowed to, thru the print and  electronic media, Name and Shame Abusers of GOL Assets, particularly vehicles and motorcycles, saying, “We are working with the Liberia National Police (LNP) to identify people who abuse and misuse GOL vehicles by driving recklessly, especially during rush hours. 

She said these are efforts to support austerity measures aimed at saving the government of desperately needed resources that could be channeled to other priority areas of the national development agenda of the country.

Madam Broh stressed that the misuse and abuse of vehicles and other mobile equipment have increased to an unacceptable level at significant cost to tax payers.

 According to her, empirical data available to the GSA shows that the use of government vehicles and other mobile equipment is completely out of control and their support cost is significantly more than the benefit received by the Government of Liberia, something, which she says prompted the GSA to introduce the fleet management policy.

She said the policy was developed in 2009 to provide guidance to government institution on the procurement, registration, use, maintenance and management of vehicles, with the fundamental objective of providing a strategic framework for reducing capital, maintenance and running cost of Government Fleet and mobile equipment, while ensuring mobility and operational efficiency to Government Employees.

 Meanwhile, the GSA Director General has disclosed that the Agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Non-Governmental organization, Riders for Health based in England to development vehicle management systems for health care delivery in Liberia.

“The objective of the MOU”, she said, “is to ensure that the Ministry of Health and its partners have an uninterrupted capacity to deliver health care to very man, woman and child in Liberia in a way that is not curtailed either by preventable breakdowns or by retirement-for whatever reason-of vehicles have no replacement due to lack of preplanning for replacement. This agreement is very important owing to our most recent experience during the Ebola outbreak which imposed numerous challenges on our healthcare delivery system.” 

By Lewis S. Teh