By Patrick N. Tokpah
Securities assigned at the National Transit Authority local office in Gbarnga have expressed grave concern over the abandonment of the bus terminal construed by the National Transit Authority in Bong County.
Previously known as the Monrovia Transit Authority, the NTA was transformed into a nationwide transportation system by an Act of the Legislature in 2009 but the Government of Liberia through the Legislature enacted into law on September 11, 2008, and approved by the then President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, on March 24, 2009.
Speaking in a very disappointed mood on April 3, 2023, Gwee M. Garbe, head of security complained that although the NTA terminal in Gbarnga, Bong has been completed, it has been abandoned by the transit agency.
He said the Gbarnga NTA terminal was constructed under former Managing Director Karmo Ville’s administration yet, its doors and ceiling are all being brought down by termites due to the deplorable condition while the NTA assigned security described the abandoned terminal as a waste of public funds and blamed poor planning.
According to Garbe, the government used a lot of public resources to build the terminal, and it has been abandoned by the NTA itself and the residents describing it as a complete waste of public funds adding, “The government cannot be spending a lot of money on something that is not conducive for the people. Now you see the people sitting under the rain, sun, and on the road awaiting car?;it is wrong.”
The Gbarnga terminal is located on the Lofa highway along the center of the Bong capital.
“If the residents were involved, they could not have allowed the terminal to be built in this area. If you want to carry out development for a group of people, involve them. Anything that is not done properly is not done at all,” Garbe noted.
Mr. Garbe lamented that so many government resources were wasted on buildings that would never be used injecting, “That money should have been used on something different that would have improved the lives of the people.”
Additionally, security Garbe said the NTA authority is indebted him some 52 months’ salary as the NTA authority has been paying him US$ 100 per month as a security; “If you do the mathematics for the 52 months the NTA authority owes me US $ 5,200. I’m feeling bad because my family and I don’t have anything to eat, so I’m appealing to the transit Management through the government for me and my friend’s salaries,” Mr. Garbe stressed.
He revealed that due to the delay in their salaries by the NTA authority, some of their colleagues have abandoned their assignment as security noting, “We were four securities assigned here but two of our colleagues left the job due to the delay in paying our salaries by the NTA authority. So we are only two here now and my friend is making little over US $ 89 and the government has not paid us for the past months.”
