Time To Expose The Dee-de-ba (Corruption)

When I used to work for Firestone the rumor was that Firestone had a lot of government officials on its payroll. It was difficult for us to prove it, but a lot of times we would see government officials in government cars or their private vehicles getting gas from the Firestone gas station in Harbel. It was a shameful, disgraceful, and embarrassing thing to see cars belonging to the government of Liberia being issued gas from a company that paid taxes to said government.

It became more apparent that those who were supposed to protect the Liberian workers were themselves sucking the life out of companies that hired Liberians.There was no time that I can remember the Ministry of Labor of the Republic of Liberia giving credence to any of the many grievances we had against Firestone. Government officials would always remind us to be grateful to Firestone for hiring us. With dried faces, these officials of government would tell us that we were lucky because as staff members of Firestone we made more money than those who worked for the government and so had no reasons to complain. What a group of protectors!

I wished then that these officials knew how hard we worked for Firestone, especially those of us who worked in production. All we wanted was for the company to treat us Liberians fairly. We could not use the assigned vehicles off the plantation after work, but few other Liberians and most of the expatriates could carry their assigned vehicles anywhere they wanted. We wanted the company to purchase vehicles for us and deduct the amounts from our monthly salaries. For the twelve years I worked for Firestone, this dream was never realized. All we did was to swallow our frustration and continue to work.

The news that government officials of Grand Bassa County are on the payroll of LAC is so disgraceful. How do you negotiate fairly with a company that gives you a monthly salary and a few bags of rice? How does the president feel about the war on corruption when those she believes in are undermining her every effort? What do Liberians need to do to end the corruption that continues to make us shame and petty?

With such transparent documentary evidence from LAC, those involved should disgracefully resign and apologize to the workers of LAC and the people of Liberia. And to those government officials on the payrolls of Firestone and Guthrie and Cocopa, just come out of the closet and expose the dee-de-ba.

Like we wonder in Liberia: Ey man, my people, what time your will stop this shameful behavior.