IDLE WARNING

"We  have not stopped anybody from entering the port, we are simply saying come here when you have something to do and we arranged the containers because of how congested this port was before, it is in the interest of the brokers and the management of the port." George Tubman, Managing Director, National Port Authority

“This place is not a hustle ground; it is an industrial area and not a place to have people who do not have business passing around looking for business people to work for. If people do not have any business to do here, there is no need to be roaming”, Managing Director Tubman told journalists at the NPA.

Major reforms underway

According to Managing Director Tubman, the port is embarking on a major reform he described as a giant step toward speeding up delivery to customers and making the port a “fast turn” ground for ships docking there.

The new policy introduced by the management of the NPA   led to a strike action by the Customs Brokers Association of Liberia that paralyzed normal activities at the port for a day as the brokers’ were protesting the new regulations.

Controlling of the parking lot by arranging the containers into blocks and mandating that only a single custom broker handles a container met stiff resistance of the brokers who insisted it was impossible to have a single broker clearing a container because of the formalities involved.

NPA George Tubman explained that the new measures were taken to bring about orderliness where during the clearing of containers, there would be no difficulty encountered and also for what he referred to as using the available equipment at the port efficiently for productivity.   

He stated everything in the port had been scattered making the port to appear like a garage serving as impediment to the free movement of container trucks and moving vehicles during operations.

In Brokers' interest, management says

UNFAIR INQUIRY

“Why is it that you journalists can not write about all the good things we are doing here, because we want to restrict this place, you want to talk about how I and the MD are at loggerheads, that is not fair to us." Mary Broh, Deputy Managing Director for Administration, NPA

“We  have not stopped anybody from entering the port, we are simply saying come here when you have something to do and we arranged the containers because of how congested this port was before, it is in the interest of the brokers and the management of the port”, Tubman stressed.

Madam Mary Broh who was recently sent to the port by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf accordingly to restore discipline and order after turning around the Bureau of Passports at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs laments that the port has long been overcrowded by people moving ups and down, doing nothing. But Broh was quick to squashed reports that she and her boss, Tubman were at loggerheads.

“Why is that you journalists can not write about all the good things we are doing here, because we want to restrict this place, you want to talk about how I and the MD are at loggerheads, that is not fair to us”, Madam Broh.

Although both Managing Director Tubman and Deputy Broh were prevented from answering a question posed by an FPA reporter concerning reports of differences between the two by the Public Relations Officer but during the brief interaction with journalists, the two NPA officials were seen comparing notes and exchanging ideas before speaking, dismissing reports of a feud between the pair.

Brokers chief: 'We're not hustlers'

Meanwhile, calm has returned to the NPA after a day long strike action by members of the Customs Brokers Association of Liberia who were protesting new regulations instituted by the management of the port.

Y. Weagba Seeboe, President of the Customs Brokers Association of Liberia told FPA members of his association staged the strike action because of disagreement over some of the new measures instituted by the NPA Management.

Seeboe named the sticking points as the mandate for one broker to clear a shipment describing it as impossible given what he called the different processes involved.

“We have cut off the strike after a meeting with the management of the NPA, they believe in consultation and after we expressed our dissatisfaction through the strike, they called us to a meeting and everything is now ok”, Seeboe told FPA.

The Customs brokers President disclosed the NPA management agreed for more than one person to clear a container and they (brokers) also agreed to avoid the park for their own safety.

MISUNDERSTOOD - 'HUSTLERS'

"Customs brokers are not hustlers and so we made it clear in the meeting that we are working people with families who come to work for the upkeep of our families and not hustlers and I think the NPA management has understood that by now." Weagba Seeboe, President of the Customs Brokers Association of Liberia

“Customs brokers are not hustlers and so we made it clear in the meeting that we are working people with families who come to work for the upkeep of our families and not hustlers and I think the NPA management has understood that by now”, the brokers head maintained.

The Customs Brokers head stated the association currently has 267 members whom he said are professionals, some with university degrees.

The National Port Authority has over the years served as a place where many unemployed Liberians go daily in search of contract especially in the loading and offloading of vessels as a means of getting daily meal.

Since the measures by the new management, huge crowd is seen daily in front of the main entrance of the port struggling to enter the port in some instances, Madam Mary Broh is seen chasing people from the entrance.

Rudolph Kolleh, a 28 year man expressed frustration over the new measure by the NPA management to prevent them from entering the port.

“Some of us have no job and everyday we come in the port to look for ‘jobu’ or contract from vessel owners and business people who come to clear their goods by totting it for them to paid us for us to be able to eat”, Kolleh told FPA.

Sue Nimely, 31,  said she has been working as a contractor in the port for the past years and because of the profit making nature of her job, she has never contemplated looking for another job. “Me I come here everyday to look for contract to park people goods and before I go home some day, I carry more than L$ 2,000 home and I can not even think about going to look for job anywhere, I am satisfied here but what they are doing is really trying to kill us”. Madam Nimely cried.

She said her 28-year old husband is also in the same business and if the NPA management does not change the decision to permit them enter the port, it means their two children will be out of school and finding food will be difficult.