LTC To Regain Its Status
-As MD Prioritizes Salary Payment

 

 

Forum
Monrovia, Liberia

Distributed by

The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia

October 13, 2004

Plans are under way for the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation (LTC) to regain its lost status over the years; writes Josiah S. Hallie.

Speaking to LTC workers recently at their compound on Lynch Street, Monrovia, the Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL), Charles Gyude Bryant, said efforts are being made to revamp the system. According to him, he has asked the management, board and technical people to detail to him the equipment needed to get off Telecom again.

Chairman Bryant indicated that once the people detail the kind of equipment they want “we will find the money; we will cost it and then they will tell us how much it will take to pay the money back so that Telecom can resume its status and dignity.”

To the delight of the workers, the NTGL Chairman immediately gave instruction to LTC management on that day (Wednesday) to pay for two months of salary arrears owed the workers, and promised that they will get their two month benefits due them in United States dollars by tomorrow.

Upon arrival on the compound amidst the chanting of the slogans: “We want our pay; our children need to go to school,” the Chairman immediately proceeded upstairs where he held a close-door meeting with the top management team before coming down to address them.

He also informed the workers that judging by what he gathered at Telecom, he has given order for a team of auditors to audit the place at once.

Meanwhile, LTC’s Managing Director Amara Kromah, said his priority would be to settle the salary arrears owed the workers. According to Mr. Kromah, it is the right of the workers to demand for their pay once they work.

He said before the Chairman could visit their office, they had already planned to pay salaries, adding, “I can say today that we have started disbursement of salaries for two months (June and July).” According to him, they hope to pay for August and September not in too distant future.

LTC, once a viable public corporation, became dormant when former President Charles Taylor created a parallel administration by appointing his former NPFL Chief of Staff Isaac Musah to collect the corporation’s telephone bills and report same to his (Taylor) office.

---