ABEDNEGO DAVIS
Africa-Press – Liberia. Twenty-seven Liberian contractors hired by the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE) under the “Special Presidential County Tour Project” have resolved to file a legal action against the government for unpaid contract fees that reportedly amount to hundreds of thousands of United States dollars.
The contractors were hired to construct various facilities such as clinics, markets, schools, administrative buildings, and sports facilities in parts of the 15 counties.
LACE is the government entity responsible for implementing special presidential projects that include market buildings, sports facilities, clinics, and town halls across the country.
Lamin Kamara, speaking on behalf of the aggrieved contractors, accused the government of intentionally withholding payment for completed contracts, potentially to prioritize loan payments. He asserted that the government’s refusal to clear its debts with the contractors has forced them to contemplate legal action.
However, Kamar did not specify the exact timeframe for their potential decision to take the government to court.
Efforts to reach LACE’s senior management team were unsuccessful. Multiple calls and numerous SMS messages were directed to LACE’s executive director, Pepci Quiwu Yeke, and Monica DeWalt, the finance director, but they remained unanswered.
The contractors, through Kamara, claimed that some of the debts dates as far back as 2021 and 2022, claiming that foreign contractors and expatriate firms were being accorded preferential treatment by the LACE to the disaffection of their local counterparts.
He said that there is a need for a resolution to prevent further harm to the affected businesses.
“As we speak, 97 percent of contractors have packed out of various sites all because of LACE’s indebtedness to their companies, in the amount of hundreds of thousands of United States dollars,” Kamara alleged.
“The government is sitting so supinely as if nothing is at stake when the President has repeatedly boasted of saying Liberian businesses will not be spectators in their own country.
“We have talked about our monies and nothing is happening and we have been left with no other options,” Kamara said, adding that his company, like other companies, has completed about 90 percent of the contracts they bidding on, and is still waiting for payment.
Kamara claimed that in his agreement with LACE, his company was to pre-finance the project which is a market building in Bowein Town, Dowein District, Bomi County. Upon completion, the LACE is to reimburse the contractors, all twenty-seven of which are yet to receive payment.
He alleged that the agreed contract price is US$80k and he has completed about ninety percent of the work. “Out of the US$80k LACE had made fifty percent payment, and the project has gone to ninety percent completion, but the government has refused to pay the remaining fifty percent.”
He said he has made numerous visits to LACE’s office, and they have assured him of his payment, but Yeke and DeWalt have failed to uphold their obligation for reimbursement.
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