Thanks Chairman Bryant, But...

FOR SOMETIME NOW, some officials of government have cultivated the habit of taking properties of the government assigned to them as their personal property thereby, denying the government of Liberia its legitimate right to claim these properties from them even if they have to leave from government.

IN MOST CASES, the officials claimed to possess vehicles and other government’s office equipment assigned to them for their usage as their personal properties while they are serving the government.

AS A RESULT of their stance that these government properties assigned to them are theirs, these officials deliberately refused to turn over these vehicles and other office equipment when they are leaving offices on grounds that these properties are their legitimate benefits from the government

SUCH UNBECOMING BEHAVIOR of some public officials has claimed the attention of the head of the National Transitional Government of Liberia, Chairman Charles Gyude Bryant when he addressed members of his cabinet in the conference room of the Executive Mansion on Tuesday.

THE NTGL CHAIRMAN in an attempt to discourage this practice, reminded all that government vehicles and other properties assigned to its officials are not their legitimate properties but that of the Liberian government.

ACCORDINGLY, THE NTGL Chairman has instructed the General Services Agency(GSA), to properly mark all government of Liberia vehicles and other properties so as to discourage the practice by some of these officials to possess properties assigned to them by the government.

INDEED, WE WELCOME this move by Chairman Bryant and urge officials who would want to engage in such practice to now see reason by doing not claiming ownership of government’s properties assigned to them under the pretext that they were issued to them as their legitimate benefit.

IT IS AN open fact that the issue of government officials claiming cars assigned to them as their personal property has become rampant during transitional periods. We have seen government officials from previous transitional governments and even the elected Taylor’s government of taking away cars.

WHILE WE WELCOME the move of the Chairman, we hope that special restrictions would be placed on these vehicles to ensure that they are not used for commercial activities by certain officials. We have observed and continue to observe how some vehicles assigned to some officials have been used to generate funds for these officials.

CHAIRMAN, THANKS FOR this move, but institute policies to protect the vehicles from being misused for commercial purposes.