A second group, calling themselves widows of deceased employees, also gathered and requested President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to give them their late husbands’ benefits.

The question immediately arises as to whether these questions were considered before the GOL awarded the concession to China Union, which now has the rights to mine the remaining iron ore in the Bong range.

In addition to the ex-workers and widows’ claims, the GOL has also been embroiled in protracted negotiations with another company, Geo Services, which during the war, under the leadership of Dr. Nathaniel Richardson (now deceased), started operations in certain parts of Bong Mines, including rehabilitation of the railroad and other facilities.  Geo Services were also involved in rail transport, crushed rocks (which they sold from a quarry), and scrap dealing.  When GOL granted China Union the concession to take over the defunct BMC, Geo Services immediately made claims in the millions of dollars.  The negotiations over these claims took years, stalling the China Union operations, and GOL had to settle with Geo Services a sum that remains undisclosed to this day.

Surely, we do not believe that the GOL would have granted the concession to anyone, knowing that there were all these outstanding issues, with Geo Services, with the ex-BMC workers and now with the widows of deceased workers.  Were all of these outstanding issues discussed during the negotiations with China Union?  Or did GOL give away this concession only to find itself saddled later with these horrific claims from Geo Services, the ex-employees, the widows and Heaven knows who else?

Where will government get the US$8.9 to pay the ex-workers?  From where, too, will it get the money to pay the widows and whomever else may show up demanding money for Heaven knows what?

This, it seems to us, is an alarming, exacting and rude wake-up call to the government to get its house in order and engage the brightest and most patriotic legal and financial minds possible before signing anymore concession and other agreements, for that matter.

Clearly, in this brand new administration, with a new Minister of Finance, new Minister of Lands, Mines & Energy, and so many other new faces in government, operating with a brand new set of budget priorities, it is difficult to see how government will get itself out of this one.  The ex-workers have said they will not leave the premises until they are paid their outstanding benefits.  China Union is already behind in its operational schedule; and government is only too anxious to have the company start operations so that the administration may begin to meet its most immediate priority, the creation of jobs for its hundreds of thousands of idle and hungry people.