Weah is yet to appoint a Head at Standards Laboratory

  By:  Naneka A. Hoffman

President George Weah is yet to appoint a head at the Liberia Standards Authority at the Ministry of Public Works since it was transitioned from the National Standards Laboratory and endorsed on July 1, 2022.

A source at the entity disclosed that it has been nine months since the President signed the Act into law but the LSA is yet to function and a director general has not been appointed there.

According to the source, the President should have appointed Mr. Stephen Y. Manbu, as head of the institution but this is yet to happen.

The source notes that the enactment of the Liberia Standards Authority is not just for mere show but to address international barriers faced by business people in the country who are trying to compete with colleagues or competitors in the ECOWAS region, the African Union (AU), and Europe.

This paper gathers that often, goods and services from Liberia are denied because they don’t meet required standards or certificated hence, the LSA was enacted into law to break these barriers.

However, since then, it is dormant and has not staffed to perform its statutory functions.

Under the Act, Goods and Services coming into Liberia should be tested and verified by the Liberia Standards Authority in accordance with standards set by the World Trade Organization (W.T.O) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

But this is not happening because of  the dormancy of the LSA, which is not in the interest of the country.

As a result of the situation, staffers at the institution are demoralized and appealing to President Weah to appoint a head for the institution.

The Act establishing the Liberia Standards Authority provides a legal framework for the development, promotion and maintenance of standards in the country, including conformity assessment as well as calibration and promotion of quality in both public and private sector organizations, among others.

On July 15, 2016, Liberia officially became the 163rd member of the WTO whose Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) came into force on February 22, 2017, after ratification by two-thirds of the WTO membership.  Editing by Jonathan Browne