Paynesville, Liberia — The Federation of Building Trades Association of Liberia (FEBUTAL Inc.) Liberia’s only postwar civil society advocates for the construction sector workers, calling on the Government of Liberia to adopt a more sustainable, cost‑effective, and job‑creating approach to national infrastructure development by fully engaging Liberia’s large unskilled and small but growing skilled building‑trades workforce.
With the Government’s recent acquisition of 285 Yellow Machines, FEBUTAL commends the administration’s commitment to improving road networks and public works across the country. However, the Federation also recognizes the growing public concern regarding the long‑term financial burden associated with operating, maintaining, and staffing such a large fleet of heavy equipment.
This concern is not new. Since the end of the civil conflict in 2003, Liberia has repeatedly struggled to maintain government‑owned machinery and vehicles. Even the 1997 administration of former President Charles Taylor, which imported hundreds of MAN GI trucks from South Africa along with thousands of other government vehicles and equipment, faced similar challenges because of limited technical capacity and the absence of a sustainable operational framework.
FEBUTAL’s Recommendation to the Government of Liberia, GoL:
- GoL Work through the Ministry of Public Works, the sectoral agency of the Government, in partnership with the Association of Liberian Construction Contractors (ALCC), to place the 285 Yellow Machines into a National Equipment Pool.
- Allow ALCC members to execute government projects using the equipment, while paying for maintenance and gradually reimbursing the Government for its investment.
- Engage the Chinese as technical partners to manage the equipment pool to ensure proper maintenance, accountability, and sustainability.
This approach will prevent the long‑standing pattern of government equipment being misused for personal purposes, such as clearing private farmland or constructing private access roads at no cost. Under a loan‑based system managed through the MPW, the loaning Bank and ALCC, the equipment will be used strictly for public works and contracted projects, generating income, ensuring transparency and accountability.
Anything short of FEBUTAL’s recommendation risks repeating history:
- Equipment misuse
- Short operational lifespan
- Zero return on government investment
- Loss of national capacity and
- Waste of taxpayers’ money
Historical Commitment to Building Local Capacity
In 2004, the ALCC and FEBUTAL pledged their support to the Unity Party, UP Government, in waiting, with the hope of transformation, bringing the prewar war environment where major projects under the Tubman and Tolbert regimes were done by Liberian contractors like Alfred Mensar, Bill Cooper and others, while a few projects were contracted to foreign companies that subcontracted smaller Liberian contractors. That partnership contributed to the UP 2005 win, then Vice President Joseph N. Boakai, now President, served as Keynote Speaker at the ALCC Leadership Installation in February 2006 at its Du Port Office Hall. During that event, the late ALCC President Foday M. Kamara, Sr informed Vice President Boakai of the ALCC desire for a Construction Law inclusive of capacity building by Government projects.
That law crafting started thereafter, VP Boikai did contribute to the Bill reading in the Senate Chamber according to our record, the Bill finally got enacted in 2022, mandating the Government of Liberia to build the capacity of local contractors by awarding them public projects, while the MPW serves as the monitor of all Government construction projects.
FEBUTAL is reminding the GoL of the high unemployment rate across Liberia, in these difficult times, the ALCC member companies must renew construction licenses, underwrite overhead, pay taxes and provide for thousands of FEBUTAL members who worked as subcontractors that has families to take care of as well.
A Call to Action
FEBUTAL is calling on all Liberian construction contractors, members of the Liberia Chamber of Technical Services, LICTECHS, FEBUTAL tradesmen, and construction professionals to petition the Government to loan the Yellow Machines to Liberian companies in the database of the Ministry of Public Works based on their status. This single policy shift will create thousands of local jobs across all 15 counties, stimulate economic growth, and ensure that national development is driven by Liberian hands.
FEBUTAL since its founding mid 2000 has always been law abiding, in 2003, October 29th, FEBUTAL members in the hundreds marched to the Liberian House of Representatives and petition for the creation of jobs by hiring Liberians to execute all major Government projects, and to put an end the old order of “elephant can eat ants”, meaning major companies in the MPW category A were taking category E projects, depriving small contractors from growing, and to fully implement the Liberianization Laws of 1972 to ensure the Executive Branch of Government stopped undermining itself by selling the 26 set aside businesses to foreign business people with capacity over local small businesses.