The Civil Society Network of Liberia (CSNL) has recommended the immediate dismissal or resignation of all members, including the chairperson of the Board of Directors of the National Port Authority for what it termed as the board’s extreme silence and failure to exercise oversight over the management and operations of the entity by its Managing Director Sekou Dukuly.
The Board of Directors of the NPA is the statutory body charged with the responsibilities to guide and oversee the performance of the managing Director of the National Port Authority.
Contrary to this, the civil society network said the NPA Board under the chairmanship of Luther Tarpeh failed to act amidst the poor administrative management and massive financial disaster at the institution.
The Civil Society Network of Liberia expressed shock over how the National Port Authority has lost its status as the gateway to Liberia’s Economy in a short period of time under the Board of Directors, expected to provide managerial and operational policy for implementation by the Managing Director. “The silence of the NPA Board on several poor administrative decisions and instituted policies by Mr. Dukuly at the NPA makes them complicit into the vices occurring at the institution. In just a little over one year of oversight of the NPA, the Board seems to be aiding and abetting the woeful performance of the Managing Director, which has resulted into inefficiency, lack of accountability, lack of revenue generation and wanton increased in expenditure,” CSNL stated.
Though the NPA act empowers the Board of Directors to set policies and supervise the implementation of those policies by the Managing Director, the group said there is absolutely no essence to maintain the current membership composition of the NPA Board when there is an unprecedented surge in the wage bill of the entity from 800k to 1.4M monthly, the denial of employees’ just benefits, such as gas, rice and scratch cards.
More to that, the civil society network said, it is even much more disappointing that Mr. Dukuly is at the verge of laying off 400 employees just to accommodate the fat salaries of his cronies and surrogates and no action is being taken by the NPA Board.
The Civil Society Network said as if not sufficient, there is also a glaring silence of the NPA Board when MD Dukuly is violating the entity’s Human Resource Policy on Employment, Promotions and Transfers, as clearly stipulated in the NPA Handbook Section 17, which provides that promotions shall be based on MERIT upon recommendation from the Human Resource Department after employee appraisals.
“What is even more appalling and economically terrible is that the Rev. Tarpeh led NPA Board has neither spoken nor acted in the face of the National Port Authority’s wanton failure to remit expected subsidies or contributions to the National Budget,’ the group explained.
The group also based their recommendation on the what they perceive as the ineffective and lackadaisical oversight role of the Board which according to it, the NPA has made no contributions to the 2025 National Budget after making a mere contribution of US$2Million out of the US$7Million approved in the 2024 National Budget.
The CSNL wants to inform President Joseph Boakai that the Board of the National Port Authority is undermining his Government’s ARREST Agenda, based on its failure to properly oversee the operations of the port in making contributions towards the financing of the agenda.
“How can the UP Chairperson, Rev. Luther Tarpeh, be the chairperson of the Board of the NPA, and such important revenue generating entity cannot subsidy government’s projects. This is blatant neglect of duty and a failure to produce results, especially at the time the Government needs state-owned enterprises and public corporations like the NPA to be transparently managed to fund its projects and programs,” the CSNL wondered.
The group said it is ridiculous that the NPA under the current Board of Directors has allowed that entity of government to become a financial disaster and revenue generating failure due to the poor managerial skills of Sekou Dukuly as Managing Director.
