By Bill W. Cooper
Public Works Deputy Minister for Technical Services-designate, Prince D. C. Tamba, has decried the underpayment of trained engineers in the employ of the Ministry.
Tamba described as ‘disrespectful, a mockery, and unacceptable’, the US$300 to 400 given as monthly salary to each engineer of the Ministry.
Appearing for his confirmation hearing over the weekend, he stressed that Liberia has well-trained and professional civil engineers working at the Ministry without motivation, testament to what they take home monthly.
He lamented that despite the engineers being underpaid, the public and national government rely on them for a better result on the management of road projects, which he sees as an ‘affront.’
Tamba also frowned on the lack of equipment being provided by government to ensure that these engineers adequately and professionally carry out their work.
“But when anything goes wrong, they say where are the engineers at the Ministry of Public Works, not even knowing that engineers are not given the necessary tools, least to mention salary, to effectively do the job.
And the worst thing about it all is the fact that the resident engineers do not even have vehicles, while the site engineers that have vehicles lack fuel to adequately supervise their work,” he stressed.
Tamba disclosed that the lack of fuel for onsite engineers, coupled with the lack of motivation for the professional engineers, which sometimes leave them to beg contractors, is a clear conduit for compromise or corruption.
The Public Works Ministry Deputy Minister-designate disclosed that once confirmed, he will work his bosses to determine ways to motivate those engineers and give them some due respect to allow them to do their work as professionals.
He noted, “We have to support them even if it will cause us to come knocking at your doors asking you to provide additional resources to help us, just to make sure we motivate our engineers to work.”
Meanwhile, Tamba has also disclosed plans which focus on sustaining the country’s network, specifically the 13,000km of road across the country, once confirmed by the Senate.
He added, “Because sustaining our network would mean putting our money where our mouth is. We have to make sure to increase the budgetary allocation and consider roads as an asset.”
