A Nigerian, claiming Liberian citizenship, Praise Tony Lawal, Chief Executive Officer of the Praise Glory Lawal (PGL) Construction Company has reportedly filed a Five Million United States Dollars lawsuit against a local daily, The In Profile Daily for publication made by this outlet that he has again resolve to bid for a road pavement contract from the Ministry of Public Works following his failure to complete previous contracts worth millions of United States Dollars reportedly given his company, the PGL in the past are yet to be completed.
According to the purported lawsuit against the newspaper, an article it featured in one of its publications quoting directly from the GNN-Liberia website (www.gnnliberia.com) mentioned that despite of the PGL failure to complete road project contracts given it by the former government of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf that were never completed while missions of United States Dollars was spent pondered many as to why again that the Ministry of Public Works was about to award another roads contract to him (Lawal) and his PGL.
The paper quoting the GNN Liberia, a local news agency online expounded on several issues relating to the PGL and its sister company, the Pealat Construction Company, have been in business of taken taxpayers’ money from the government under the pretense of road construction, but yet to show any prove of its services to the Liberian people.
Recently GNN-Liberia gathered that Tony Lawal and his PGL was doing everything to secure a contract from the Ministry of Public Works in the tone US$10.138,000.00 for the pavement of streets in Kakata, Margibi County, despite of being in the center of many scandals and investigations by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) for his alleged involvement of illegal activities in Liberia, and his failure to complete road contracts given him by the previous government.
In 2017 GNN-Liberia published series of articles quoting documents from the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) calling the Ministry of Finance, Development, Planning (MFDP) not to make any payment to in favor of the Praise Glory Lawal (PGL) Construction Company until ‘The ongoing investigation surrounding circumstance leading to the award of a contract to the PGL Construction Company valued at Five Million United States Dollars.
The LACC document in the possession of this news outlet dated on May 13, 2015 and signed by the Program Manager/Enforcement Division also noted with keen interest that “Result from our preliminary investigation the PGL Construction Company has allegedly received One Million Nine Hundred Thousand United Sates Dollars for the rehabilitation of the Brewerville/Bopolu road project without submission of a Bill of Quantity (BOQ) to the Ministry of Public Works,” the LACC investigation revealed.
Based on all of these allegations against the PGL, a team of GNN-Liberia, independent investigators took up an assignment to publicly verify the authenticity of these communications from the LACC and other sources which gave rise to toured the entire road in question where unfortunately it was noticed that residents of the area (Brewerville/Bopolu) were in a constrained situation due to the deplorable condition of the road.
Also in the possession of this news outlet were the verification report on the Brewerville/Bopolu road project, a 5-page document from the Ministry of Finance & Development Planning (MFDP) described the poor performance of PGL on the rehabilitation of the Brewervill/Bopolu road noting, “PGL is registered under Code F4100 which is for the construction of building, instead of roads and railways”, this statement by the committee contradicts the role of the PGL in this latest report.
In its findings dated on June 27, 2017, the Committee said: “Physical verification established that from Kpo Hill to Bomnoma, there is no clearing of vegetation on the side of the road. From Gandima to Bopolu there is no evidence of clearing of vegetation.
We verified twenty three bridges and eight drainages; out of the eight, six are untouched, there were two drainages constructed by the Company (PGL) with incomplete wing walls causing erosion that undermines the culverts. Bridges on this road are still in deplorable state, meaning that they were not improved by the Company in accordance with the contract.
Approaching Winnie Town the culverts were poorly done which is resulting to the overflow of the water,” the Committee comprised of Ezekiel Korva; acting director, Accounting Service Unit, Steve Joe Joe; director, Physical Audit Unit, Juvenal C. Pearson; assistant director, Physical Audit Unit, Gabriel B. Nyenpan, II; Senior Compliance Auditor, Patrick S. Jackson; Senior Compliance Officer and Sando Adams Compliance Auditor.
Documents in the possession of this news outlet has revealed that PGL has defaulted in its contract with the Liberian Government for the rehabilitation of the concerned road project, this situation has compelled residents of the area to use detour route to travel due to its deplorable condition.
During a tour of the road followed series concern been expressed by the residents of the area, our team of reporters hired a 4runner jeep for the purpose of doing thorough investigation on the overview of the road, unfortunately, despite of the kind of vehicle that used for that road it was still difficult to go further as the road was inaccessible to vehicles.
Speaking to residents of the area, many of those interviewed by our staff expressed disappointment in the Liberian Government of been insensitive of their plight, making reference of the deplorable condition of their road.
However, with the 10 million dollars lawsuit being filed against the Publisher of GNN, Joel Cholo Brooks, the management says it is determine to bring to justice the management of PGL to book for defrauding the Liberian people of their taxes under the pretense of providing them with roads.
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