By Bill W. Cooper
The exchanges of invectives between two Representatives from Bong County brought the 36th day sitting of the House of Representatives to an abrupt end yesterday.
According to our legislative correspondent, Rep. James Kolleh of District 3 and Rep. Josiah Marvin Cole of District 2 argument nearly resulted to a fist-fight while in session.
Both lawmakers’ brutal exchanges were triggered as a result of an intervention Cole injected in favor of a statement made by made the Central Agriculture Research (CARI) Director General, Victor Sumo to plenary.
The plenary of the House of Representatives recently summoned CARI’s DG to address allegations of salary disparities and the harmonization process as it relates to salary as well as bad labor practices, among others, thus resulting into continuous acts of go-slow and rioting by employees of the entity.
The House’s decision was based on a communication from its specialized Committee comprising Labor and Agriculture that was setup to visit CARI and assess the situation in order to mitigate issues surrounding picketing, go-slow, and riot actions of employees at the institution.
The committee in its report to that body stated that the CARI boss refused to make himself available to the committee during one of its visit in order to resolve the matter; something they described as an affront and implored the plenary to invite him for questioning.
In his response to the committee’s allegation yesterday when he appeared before plenary, Dr. Sumo denied that he ever refused to submit himself for investigation and clarified stating, “There has been no reason why I will ever receive any communication from this body or the Liberian Senate and I did not honor it because by doing so, could lead me into trouble.”
Dr. Sumo however denied the bad labor practice allegation but attributed the delay in employee’s salary to low budgetary allotment, something he said is a major challenged for his leadership in running activities of the CARI.
He then called on the lawmakers to ensure the appropriation of additional funding in the tune of US$200,000 to enable him address salary situation at the institution.
However, Rep. Cole pleaded with his colleagues on behalf of the CARI’s boss on his failure to appear before the committee while at the same time attributed the salary problem at CARI to lawmaker’s failure to augment the institution’s budget.
“Mr. presiding, Mr. Sumo is not to be blamed for this problem at CARI because he inherited it. If we as lawmakers could have increased the institution’s budget, I believed this will not be happening and so it is now incumbent upon us to ensure that CARI budget is increase for its smooth running,” he said.
But in an angry tone, Rep. James Kolleh criticized his colleague for protecting and defending the CARI boss alleged mismanagement of the institution at the detriment of the employees for his (Cole’s) personal gains.
He further described his colleague’s intervention as embarrassing, disturbing, discouraging and unfortunate, adding, “I am totally disappointed to see Mr. Cole defend Dr. Sumo when our people are being marginalized and ill-treated under this CARI current boss leadership.”
Meanwhile, based on the intensity of the argument, the presiding officer, Deputy House Speaker, J. Fonati Koffa, later instructed that both lawmakers leave the session for the day.
Deputy Speaker Koffa then abruptly adjourned the session and call for an Executive but with a mandate that DG Sumo works with the specialized committee to ensure that the matter is resolved in the soonest possible time.
