Your informative news platform, www.gnnliberia.com has vigorously resolved to independently investigate report that there are certain hands behind the clandestine advocacy for the tenure of the Chief Executive Officer of the National Road Fund not to be renewed despite his transformational administrative services at this very important institution of the Liberian government.
Information gathered during GNN investigation revealed that the current Minister of Public Works is said to be leading a campaign to abort any means for the renewal of the NRF tenure, even though it is required by an Act of the National Legislature that the head of this institution is eligible to be renamed or appointed that position for the second as the Act required.
Detailing his professional and committed services to the NRF, Boniface Satu, according to GNN investigation during his tenure which needs to be renewed, has extremely done well in supplementing the CDC-led government’s quest for improved road services, seems to be thwarted by detractors, who are allegedly advocating for another person to sit in the driver’s seat of the NRF.
The National Road Fund of Liberia (NRF) Act was established in December 2016 and published January 2017 by an act of Legislation to finance road infrastructures through maintenance and rehabilitation programs and management activities. The NRF key objectives are; To ensure that road assets are sustained, sufficiently funded for both periodic and routine maintenance are ensured, with adequate allocated funding for this purpose; Mainly to finance road, bridges, other maintenance and rehabilitation works and directly associated planning, programming and management activities etc.
The overarching aim is to allow maintained roads and bridges scale up trade facilitation, promoting local businesses and commerce, reduce cost of transportation of goods, people and services; improve access to markets, enhance economic integration, stimulate national competition and create employment. This drive is inscribed in Pillar two of the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD) as a 5-year National Development Plans (NDP) of the Government of Liberia.
Upon passage of the NRF Act in 2016, the Ellen J. Sirleaf government in 2017 through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning conducted a recruitment process which was not completed but continue and completed in May 2018 by the George M. Weah government. A rigorous recruitment and selection process involving the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of Transport and the Liberia Revenue Authority, GIZ, World Bank, MCC, European Union, USAD and Civil Society leading to the hiring of the National Road Fund Manager (CEO) Republic of Liberia Mr. Boniface D. Satu; who mandate as per the NRF Act led to the establishment of the Road Fund Office, institutionalized its governance into a transparent, accountable, effective and efficient organization capable of managing and financing road infrastructures through maintenance and rehabilitation activities. Mr. Satu is the first Manager / CEO of the National Road Fund, Republic. The NRF is the first of its kind in Liberia focusing road maintenance and construction financing.
Mr. Satu brought to this position a reservoir of knowledge and experience-skilled financial management expert and project coordinator with extensive experience in government, international development and private sector consulting (World Bank, World Health Organization & USAID). Approximately10 years of professional experiences working in the United States of America (USA)
both Federal Government and corporate entities and over 17 years of professional history working in Liberia, possesses deep knowledge of Liberian financial environment. Managed the World Bank-$18million funded Economic Governance and Institutional Reform Project at the Ministry of Finance & Development Planning (MFDP) and provided technical support in project management and financial management for the World Bank $16million funded – West Africa Regional Fisheries Project (WARFP). Served as Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) USAID Feeder Roads and Alternative Program (FRAMP) USD 25 million.
- Education: Master’s Degree Financial Management & Management Information Systems (MS), Master Degree Business Administration (MBA) / Finance; BBA and BSA Accounting & Finance, Certificate in Managing Strategy in the Global Market Place and Certificate Results Based Monitoring & Evaluation.
- Technical Expertise – 23 years in Finance, Operation, Administration, project management and information technology management.
- Management and Supervisory – 9 years’ experience in management roles as Project Coordinator, Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) for Finance & Administration, Technical Support Consultant, Comptroller, Finance Manager and Internal Auditor
- Project Coordinator of Infrastructure and Governance Projects:Served as Coordinator & Deputy Chief of Party for Implementing Partner Ministry of Finance Development Planning and Ministry of Public Works. I led the establishment of the Liberia National Road Fund in 2016 and currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer, implementing investment budget of $25 million per year
Prior to the establishment of the National Road Administrative Office, over the years’ maintenance has been a key issue for Liberia due to the fact there was not sufficient funds available for maintain its 11, 432 km road network causing
serious problem for trade and commerce throughout the country. According to a Road Condition Survey the first ever conducted in the country by the World Bank approximately 90% – 95% (ninety to ninety-five percent) of our 11,424 km road network were unpaved roads in the Country and 60% of the unpaved were in poor condition. Also, 565 or 5% of our road network was paved and 90% of the paved roads are in fair or good condition. The report also revealed that Liberia will need approximately 1 to 2 billion United States Dollars to build our road infrastructure to an appreciated international standard.
The National Road Fund Act requires the Fund Manager to work directly with the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee to facilitate, support and provide cooperation from all sectors and ensure all policies, procedures, are provided to allow the provisions of this Act to be achieved fully. In full guidance, the NRF manager initiated operationalizing the National Road Fund by hiring professional financial experts, technical engineers, season administrators and other specialists. To date through innovation, the CEO created employment opportunities for 30 plus employees, contractor’s companies and 3400 construction workers all Liberians.
The team and external consultants worked to established policies, processes and procedures affecting pubic financial management and procurement; developed a five-year annual road infrastructure maintenance programs and strategies for proceeding with intervention and financing.
Since its inception, the National Road Fund has been supported from fuel levies estimated in the National Budget and collected by the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA). In the last five (5) years, budgetary allocation has amounted to $125 million, collections by the LRA has amounts to $108 million and remittances to the National Road Fund in the same periods is $84 million. This suggests that 78% of its five years financing obligations to contractors has been executed through transparency and accountability. In this respect, the Annual Road Maintenance and Expenditure Program has financed the rehabilitation of 66.41km, maintained 948.44 kilometers and under the emergency program financed 57.5 kilometers of roads across Liberia.
In order to operationalized the NRF the CEO developed a strategy framework which gained the support from the international donor community which led to technical and financial support.
Working with AfDB – The African Development Bank (AFDB) procures 4 vehicles, office furniture and equipment for its office amount to approximately USD200,000.
Working with GIZ – German Government (GIZ) contributed one vehicle, internet modems and office furniture amounting to approximately USD100,000;
Working with WB – World Bank provided technical support and the acquisition of its financial management system (Sage 300) which has been operationalized producing timely financial reports amounting to over USD100,000. Operationalization of the National Road Fund (NRF): According to the World Bank Mission September 22-30, 2022 Aired Memoire “The NRF has installed and commissioned its financial management software and report generation will be fully automated henceforth. Further proposals for building its capacity are under discussion and will be rolled out in the coming months. A proposal to amend the NRF and make it an autonomous institution is also under consideration for submission to the legislature. The NRF Audit reports for the 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 and the management letter was submitted to the Bank on August 2, 2022. The review of the reports indicate that transfer of fuel levies is in delay by about 2 months as of June 2020. The audit its financial statements for the 2020/2021 past due and is still pending”.
Working with MCC – The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) provided one pickup, several equipment’s, office furniture’s and GPS for the office approximately USD250,000. According to The Millennium Challenge Account-Liberia report 2021, “since 2015, MCA-L has supported policies and provided support aimed at strengthening Liberia’s capacity to provide routine and periodic maintenance of paved and unpaved primary roads. The results included the drafting of the country’s first-ever Five-Year Road Maintenance Plan developed through the application of road planning software using updated road network data. In addition, after the successful passage of the National Road Fund Act of 2016 by the legislature, which established a National Road Fund (NRF) for road maintenance and rehabilitation, the project worked to support the operationalization of the NRF through the provision of equipment and training. The NRF is currently funded through the collection of fuel levies and remains a critical resource for sustaining national road maintenance”.
Under the leadership of its CEO Mr. Boniface D. Satu, the NRF remarkably participated in the acquisition and project development of the World Bank road
project (SECRAMP) Ganta to Tappitta(100km) road corridor contributing approximately 8million for Resettlement Action Plan (RAP), mobilization and Advisory Service (EY) fees for the first 30km and to start the entire project. Original this was a Public Private Partnership leveraging the NRF for an annual contribution of its revenue up to 8 million.
Under the CEO leadership in order to receive contribution from Millennium Challenge Corporations (MCC) 15million the CEO met 11 conditional precedents which qualified the entity to meet the requisite qualification to meet donors funding and qualify as a reputable institution.
Also, the CEO was able to acquire over USD8 million dollars from the United Bank of Africa (UBA) to finance the completion of the Marshall Road 6.1 km, finance the construction of so many community roads and bridges throughout the country. Additionally, the CEO was able to use bridge financing approximately USD13 million overdrafts from UBA for delays in transfers from GoL and funding gaps which has been payoff to the bank. Also, create guarantees for contractors to acquire banking instruments for mobilization funds. Established strong banking relationships locally to finance road works. Build contractor’s confidence for payment and value for money.
Provided and financed capacity building training opportunities for NRF, GoL Gender program and MPW staff internal and internationally.
Successfully, provided adequate financing for major road and bridge works across Liberia, Dry Rice Market (Barnesville), Pipeline Road, Bus rod Island, New Georgia Road, Virginia Neclast town, Grand Grand Bassa Buchanan Administrative road, Grand Bassa College Bridge, Resettlement Payment Roberts International Highway residence, Loguatuo (RAP), Clara Town, 540 Congo Town, Bishop Michael Road, Rehab road connections etc. Ganta – Tappitta, etc….
The NRF has gain membership and accreditation with two international bodies namely, African Road Fund Maintenance Association (ARFMA) consisting of 34 countries West Africa, East & Central Africa) and International Road Federation (IRF) based in the United States of America with 113 countries worldwide.
The National Road Fund (NRF) has received several awards including the Most Innovative Institution government agency and several civil society awards across the country. Voted by several local News Papers as One of the Most Performing government entities.
In October 2022, the General Auditing Commission of Liberia issued a two-year Unqualified Opinion report on the National Road Fund financial statement and
several other audits and peer review, making it one of the very institution in the Republic of Liberia excellent audit records, placing the National Road Fund as a
credible Financial Management institution void of misapplication, misappropriation, corruption and mismanagement of public fund.
Working with the Swedish Government – Established matching funds with the Swedish Government for Community Based Organization maintenance work in several counties creating employment opportunities for rural dwellers.
It is worth noting that Raymond Muhula Task Team Lead, World Bank Economic Governance and Institution Reform, (EGIRP) stated “This is amazing. We are very excited that this has been such an impactful project. And, Boniface has done an amazing job of pulling all the pieces together and getting the project this far. The EGIRP referred to as a Christmas Tree – by some, has been the mother of nearly everything we are doing in the public sector portfolio today. I am very happy to have associated with it I might not be there on this very important day – although – I would have loved to be there. But I wanted to let you know that the experience that Boniface D. Satu has accumulated in the course of managing this project could be very useful in other parts of your Government. I am praying that you don’t allow it to go somewhere else. Boniface has grown as a Manager, and more importantly as a Diplomat-navigating the difficult terrain of several implementing agencies, each with their demands”. This assertion by the World Bank Executive signified similar terrain the CEO is currently navigating with different players to include, Ministries, agencies, Legislature, civil society, etc. This is not strange considering the level of success under his leadership of the NRF.
With these gains Liberians across the length and breadth of this country are of conviction that there is a need that Liberian President to fully support and empowered the efforts of the National Road Fund Management and the Chief Executive officer to enable him complete it deliverables for the greater good of his second term bid and for years beyond.
In 2022, the management of the Road Fund undertook institutional reengineering and resilience building reform initiative and conducted reviews of internal workflows and designed end to end business processes that support, organization efficiency, accountability and transparency, established state of art IT system integrated with the Enterprise Resource Management Program.
The reviews attracted improvement across to all departments, enhancing performance management systems.
The Fund Manager / CEO secured one million USD from the World Bank to support employees’ capacity building in order to optimize productivity. In 2023, the Fund Management has also undertaken Domestic Resource Mobilization assessment to establish potential revenues streams to complement the fuel levy in order to continue financing road infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation-including axle load control capable highway toll bridges, vehicle registration, driver licenses, tax expenditures on roads projects. The additional revenues identified are estimated around 25 million in those additional revenue streams.
With these gains Liberians across the length and breadth of this country are of conviction that there is a need that Liberian President to fully support and empowered the efforts of the National Road Fund Management and the Chief Executive officer to enable him complete it deliverables for the greater good of his second term bid and for years beyond. And so with these many difficult challenges, CDC’S PRO-POOR Agenda must be completed before its targeted time under its current Legislative Act, which NRF Administration of Chief Executive Office Satu needs to be given additional time to complete phase two of his strategic plan “Additional Resource Mobilization” to ensure the government Pro Poor agenda is achieve.
Voluntarism
- President, YMCA Old Time Basketball Social & Athletic Association, YMCA Crown Hill
- Financial Secretary Trustee Board, St. John’s Baptist Church, Columbia Maryland USA
- Former President, Liberian Community Association (LCA) Washington DC Metro Area USA
- President Omega FA Inc. Columbia Maryland USA
- Member, Howard County Chamber of Commerce USA
- Former Chairman Marketing, Liberian Basketball Federation(LBF)
- Former Treasurer, Liberian Bankers Social & Athletic Association
Award & Recognition
- Investigative Journalist Association of Liberia – Certificate of Honor – Best Administrator of the Year 2014.
- Africa Watch New Paper – Certificate of Award – Outstanding Professional Service Personnel
- Union of Liberian Association in Americas – Certificate of Honor – Outstanding Community Service
- Omega Sports Association Inc. Columbia, Maryland USA Inducted Hall of Fame – Certificate of Honor – Outstanding Community Service
- Little White Chapel Church, Maryland USA – Certificate of honor – Father of the Year 2009
- Liberia Basketball Federation – Certificate of Award -Initiator of the Season
- Invincible Eleven Majestic Sports Association – Certificate of Award – Most Dedicated Player
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