US Congressional Delegation Tours NPA

MONROVIA -- A United States Congressional delegation visited Liberia over the weekend, touring the damaged facilities at the National Port Authority (NPA) inside the Free Port of Monrovia.

The team is expected to leave Liberia today after meeting with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf at Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Bureau of Maritime Affairs (BMA) Commissioner and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NPA, Binyah C. Kesselly, described the tour as ‘strategic.’ He was joined by NPA Managing Director Matilda Parker to lead the Congressmen and women on the tour of the port facilities.

The tour took the team to the head offices of the NPA where they were briefed by Kesselly and Parker about the challenges and progress at the Freeport of Monrovia and other port facilities in the country.

The Congressional team is in the country to acquaint themselves with challenges facing the Freeport and to see how best they can win over support to get it up and running at full capacity.

Briefing the team, Parker listed the lack of electricity, the damaged pier, the lack of basic cargo handling equipment and communication technology as major challenges obstructing the port’s operation. In short, the NPA Director named a lack of basic infrastructure as the key problem facing the port.

She told the Congressional team that her mission as NPA Managing Director is to get the port fully operational and to restore its facilities to meet international standards.

Parker made a power point presentation of pictures depicting the successes gained and the challenges yet to be overcome at the NPA thus far.

Kesselly answered questions posed by members of the delegation and encouraged the U.S. to revisit its policy of directing funding through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to implement public projects.

The Congressional team’s tour also took them to the Freeport pier and the central command of the Monrovia Regional Maritime Coordination Center (MRMCC) on Coast Guard Base on Bushrod Island.

In a joint interview with the Daily Observer, Parker said the Congressional delegation had come to help develop lasting relations with the port as well as the maritime resources of Liberia. She described the conversation as ‘healthy’ and expressed the hope that the NPA would develop sister port relations with the states from which some of the Congressmen and women had come.

“We hope such relations will lead to the transfer of knowledge, equipment and other incentives,” she noted.

The NPA Director said one major accomplishment concerning the Freeport of Monrovia was that it was no longer blacklisted as security had improved, and again named the lack of infrastructure as the NPA’s single greatest challenge.

Kesselly pledged the Board’s commitment to supporting the NPA management in the achievement of its goals. “Without a doubt,” he asserted, “the Board is going to support the Management as it strives to move the port forward.”

Kesselly and Parker, in separate remarks, described as ‘strategic and successful’ the US Congressional delegation’s tour of the NPA.

The Congressional team members are Reps. Booby Rush, G. K. Butterfield, Steve Cohen, Lacy Clay, Gwen Moore and Sheila Jackson-Lee, all from the Democratic Party. They arrived in the country with a number of their family members and support staff from Capitol Hill, seat of the national legislature, in Washington, D.C., USA.