By Bill W. Cooper
The Liberia Reform Movement (LRM) has strongly criticized the ongoing government vehicle inspection team, accusing them of being insensitive to the plight of struggling Liberians.
The group’s Executive Director, Alphonso B. Henries, also lambasted the team for their lack of empathy and understanding towards the challenges faced by the people, particularly during these difficult times.
In an exclusive interview with this paper, Henries said, “We have come here today to bring to the attention of our leaders the Ministry of Transport’s action of being insensitive to its citizens’ plight and ordeals.”
“In compliance with government’s policy and given mandate, the Ministry of Transport has rigorously been engaged with tracking vehicles to ensure they are duly registered, along with valid driver’s licenses in order to ply the various streets across the country.
We highly applaud this effort intended to generate revenue for government, as well as the State, as per law, but our attention is drawn to the aspect of the insurance, which we see as a calculated attempt to exploit citizens owning private vehicles for necessity and not luxury,” he said.
According to him, he thinks that the idea of compulsory insurance being imposed at all levels could be applied to commercial and institutional vehicles, which are regularly plying the streets with very high risks of being involved in accidents, instead of private vehicles, which are used occasionally for work and family use, with very less risk of encountering accidents.
He maintained, “We also observed that the annual Insurance per vehicle is two times higher than the government’s taxes, which more private citizens cannot afford, owing to the prevailing economic crisis we are currently faced with in our complex society.”
Henries added, “In the event where government will want its private citizens to subscribe with insurance companies, we think it will be prudent enough that private citizens pay the sum of 50 percent of the same amount of government’s tax for insurance purpose, and not twice the taxes being paid to government, and we will appreciate an audience with you to discuss this issue.”
