Monrovia — In July this year, Senator Emmanuel Nuquay, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, who most recently was placed on sanctions by the United States of America, stood before his colleagues and made an unusual and passionate plea, asserting that autonomy for all seaports in Liberia - the Port of Buchanan, Greenville and Harper - is best practice and will ensure the growth and development of the ports and their host counties.
The push comes amid concerns from major international partners that while any lawmaker may champion such law, it is a crime to champion a law for one's financial or political benefit. "That would be abuse of power, undue influence, racketeering. It is wrong for lawmakers to use their power for personal benefit," said a legal analyst, familiar with the ongoing push, speaking on condition of anonymity.
During that July session, Senators went as far as to push forward an act to amend chapter VI of the Public Authorities Law creating the National Port Authority, and to create Seaports Decentralization and Modernization act and grant autonomy to the Ports of Buchannan, Sinoe and Harper.
Ironically, in recent months, some Senators, including Pro Temp Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence and Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon, have made trips to Turkey and most recently, China looking to find takers for not just to port of Buchanan but the port of Greenville and Sinoe respectively.
In August, the China Railway Construction Bridge Engineering Bureau Group (CRBG) concluded a day site assessment tour of the facility of the Samuel Alfred Ross Port of Greenville with the aim to enhance the possibilities for investing in the Port of Greenville by China Railway. In addition to the Chinese, the High Power Exploration (HPX) has also reportedly expressed vested interest in this modernization plan.
The Senators Argument
In putting forward its proposal, the Senate in its act establishing The Seaports and Inland ports Regulatory Authority, notes that it came to its decision after conducting series of stakeholder's engagements and hearings that included inputs from the NPA, Buchannan Port Manager, Hon. Alex Noah, former Manager of Sinoe Port and current Representative of Sinoe County and some members of the caucuses from Grand Bassa, Maryland, and Sinoe Counties.
During those engagements with the NPA, the Senate claims that the NPA Managing Director, Sekou Dukuly argued against disintegration of the National Port Authority. "That the world is moving toward decentralization of major structures which are complex, but such decentralization is informed by economy, population and other reasons that don't support the Liberian situation for disintegration of the port," the NPA reportedly told the Senate, according to the statement read by Senator Nuquay.
The Committee noted that it also spoke to some members of the caucuses from Bassa, Sinoe and Maryland counties, and that they all support the granting of autonomy to the ports of these counties.
The Senate committee concluded that the overly centralized system of governance in different sectors of the Liberian economy is counterproductive to the current decentralization drive of the country and serves as a hindrance to economic growth and development of the country. The Senate also concluded that the NPA operational control of the outstation ports has negatively impacted the growth and development of these ports.
According to the Senators, granting autonomy to the outstation ports will create investment opportunities for development and modernization of these ports. The Senators also concluded that decentralized and autonomous port operations in the counties of Buchannan, Sinoe and Maryland will provide options for port users and reduce the cost of doing business and create economic activities in the three counties through port autonomy which will create jobs, lubricate economic activities, and stimulate development in these counties.
NPA Management Against Autonomy
The plan by the Senate has been greeted with criticisms with the board of the National Port Authority recently condemning the move, arguing that the Act gives the NPA the authority to serve as a regulatory body overseeing the operations of the Freeport of Monrovia, the Ports of Buchanan, Greenville, and Harper. The NPA Board said the Senate's move to grant autonomy to outstation ports categorically undermines and disregards the NPA's distinct roles and responsibilities to regulate and supervise all ports.
The NPA Board called on the Senate to rescind its proposal to grant autonomy to outstation ports in Liberia, adding that decentralization does not mean autonomy.
The NPA Board said it strongly objects to the Senate's assertion that the inefficiency of certain ports in Liberia is due to the centralization of their operations.
The NPA Board disagreed with the Senate's claims that making outstation ports autonomous is geared toward providing jobs to locals in the outstation port areas, noting that the claims were false and misleading.
The NPA Board stated that over 95% of existing employees at these outstation ports are qualified residents of the counties that the NPA currently employs.
In the July 4 document put on the floor of the Senate on July 4, 2024, Senators highlighted the dire Marine Services and logistical issues at the Port of Buchannan while lamenting that if the Buchannan Port could be in such a dire condition, the same situation would apply to the Ports of Greenville and Harper. In an attempt to do due diligence to the issues raised by the Senator, the Senate Plenary mandated its committees on Public Corporations and Transport to probe into the matter and report to Plenary.
The timing of the push is raising a lot of eyebrows for obvious reasons. Besides the personal interests of some lawmakers reportedly eye big paydays when a deal is finalized on the autonomy of the three ports, there's also the issue regarding the dangers of a rush to autonomy now.
A Very Expensive Endeavour
For the NPA, the decentralization of super complex entities is usually informed by specific local factors, including population size, economic power of the environment, and other critically unique factors.
The NPA management says, its scenario is not supported by any of the above factors and any attempt to disintegrate the NPA at this particular time will only further hamper the already slow pace of growth. The NPA's system, which includes the four ports, operates in such a way that resources and other economic activities from one port serve as a cushion to support the short fall of another port. Even the Freeport of Monrovia, which is the biggest port in the chain, still relies on the support of other ports in different ways.
The NPA argues that the annual revenue generated by its system is the aggregate of activities from each of the ports. Even as consolidated as it is, the system, according to the NPA management, still struggles hard to make minimum capital investment in the various ports. For example, dredging the Freeport of Monrovia, the strongest of the four ports, has always been achieved by borrowing millions of United States Dollars either from a bank or from partners. Port operation is a very expensive endeavor, a cost that none of our ports standing alone can shoulder.
The NPA says Liberia has not reached to the level that calls for the decentralization or disintegration of the port system. A key reason lies in the fact that the national population is still below 5.5 million people. This puts the least populated country in the sub-region.
Additionally, the counties in which the out-station ports are located, Grand Bassa, Sinoe and Maryland Counties neither have significant population nor do they have unique economic activities or features that can attract foreign investment to exclusively support their autonomy. None of these counties fall amongst the top four most populated counties in Liberia.
According to the 2022 population census, Grand Bassa's population is set at 293, 689; Sinoe County's population as per the 2022 census is only 151, 149 and Maryland County census population as per 2022 census is 172, 587. The combine population of these counties is only 617, 425, representing only 11.76% of the country's population.
Aside from their respective small population size, the NPA, in its argument against autonomy, none of the three counties has any specific economic strength that relates to shipping activities that can support autonomy of the seaport. They have no exclusive independent features that can inform reasons why the ports should be granted autonomy status.
There is also sufficient data to show the numeric strength of each of the ports. For example, the cargo throughput for 2023 shows that the Monrovia port accounts for 95 percent while Buchanan comes second, simply because of the AML's iron ore activities and Sinoe comes in third. The Freeport of Monrovia reported 300 vessels in 2023, Buchanan reported 113, Greenville reported 58 and the Harper port reported zero.
For the NPA, if each of the three ports is granted autonomous status, it is only a matter of time before ports will begin to collapse, which obviously leads to the reversal of the collective gains made presently.
Pros vs. Cons
Proponents say autonomy of the ports will lead to more employment for local communities and the counties, develop the communities, attract investors, and increase vessel traffic in terms of import and export.
However, critics argue to the contrary that autonomy of the port will in no way increase the workforce as each port is currently staffed to capacity and will only create unsustainable expectation that could lead to crisis.
Regarding the argument that autonomy will increase investors, critics counter that investors are attracted by profitability opportunities, not nomenclature of a port. Thus, there will be no investors and no market for profit.
Thirdly, Vessel traffic is not driven by nomenclature, but by the size and strength of the market. There has to be a huge market base in order for more goods to be imported/exported by which vessels traffic can increase.
Additionally, some business analysts opine that port cities like Grand Bassa for example, will claim the national asset and tribalize it, dislodging all other tribes from the port, which may lead to full scale social crisis. The status of present pensioners will be in limbo because they were hired and pensioned by NPA, not by a port of Monrovia or a Port of Bassa, a recipe for crisis. This will also spell bad news for current employees who could be dismissed and forced to reapply for jobs swallowed by planned autonomy.
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Even more troubling, some say, if any single port could stand alone, it would certainly be the Freeport of Monrovia. The fact of the matter is, the Freeport and all other ports combined could not even reconstruct the berth in the Freeport. An investor, APMT came to the rescue to rebuild the berths in Monrovia.
Additionally, none of the ports has been dredged without management using the NPA's collective standing to borrow money to underwrite the cost. Standing alone, none of the ports appear capable of obtaining a loan of high amount to dredge or buy equipment such as tugboat, etc.
At the moment, the modernization plan for the Buchannan port includes Marine services/tugboat, modern containers parking, dredging and expansion of the commercial pier, training for employees to learn piloting of vessel sailing in and out, and construction of modern administration building.
What remains unclear is what would become of ongoing programs in play, programs in which companies like ArcelorMittal are using the Port of Buchannan for importing general goods and exporting iron ore. Similarly, Mira Gas and Gas imports liquefied gas and petroleum. Yingfeng Wood Inc. exports round log while Equatorial Palm Oil (EPO), exports palm and kennel oil. Additionally, West Water Group exports timber and round log, Capital Link imports cement dust while Stadium Inc exports round log. Another company, WAFDI also exports round log. In totality, the Port of Buchannan currently has Shipping Lines: AGL and OBT, all engaged in vessel shipment.
This is why many are unsure why members of the Senate have embarked on an initiative with a lot of unanswered questions looming. What is being done to curb kickbacks from such a deal? Which members of the Senate, flirting the businesses from Turkey, China and even Indonesia are poised to benefit from such a deal. These are questions diplomatic stakeholders are pondering. For a body engulfed in a history of corruption, greed - and a shady trail of questionable transactions in recent memory, the quest to autonomize the four major ports in Liberia warrants a closer look for a nation that has had its share of letdowns by elected and appointed officials, putting self above country to the detriment of s struggling masses.
