Bility Decries Storage Fees Cut -Says LPRC Centralizes Power, Taking Citizens’ Jobs

MONROVIA – Representative Musa Hassan Bility’s incessant outcries and revelations that he was being targeted both politically and economically by the Unity Party establishment as a form of decapitation must have been dismissed by some individuals who thought he was being merely politically noisy. But the chicks have come home to roast—and in clear day light. What appears to be an economic war against him and other Liberians in business is simmering, and here is the Nimba County lawmaker alarming yet again. The Analyst reports.          

Representative Musa Hassan Bility’s incessant outcries and revelations that he was being targeted both politically and economically by the Unity Party establishment as a form of decapitation must have been dismissed by some individuals who thought he was being merely politically noisy. But the chicks have come home to roast—and in clear day light. What appears to be an economic war against him and other Liberians in business is simmering, and here is the Nimba County lawmaker alarming yet again. The Analyst reports.          

What the political leader of the Citizens Movement for Change (CMC) sees as an economic attack on struggling Liberian businesspeople is taking place right now, and he is once again calling on public attention to it. 

The Nimba Representative is reporting that he has received a communication from the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC) that the Government has decided to reduce storage fees payable to Liberian terminal operators from thirty five cents ($0.35) to two cents ($0.02) per gallon.

According to him, the LPRC administration is doing so while, at the same time, creating new ‘technical’ cost lines for LPRC, “the direct primary beneficiary of these cuts”.

The intent of Government’s action, Representative Bility conjectured, “is to divert money away from Liberian terminal operators and redirect to LPRC, with the intent to weaken Liberian ownership, silence Liberian innovation”.

He also said the net effect is to effectively shut down Liberian owned petroleum terminals, and centralize power in the hands of a few.

“This decision not only threatens our energy security, but also undermines Liberian jobs and families as there is no way that terminal operators can remain in business if the Government carries out this action,” he said, adding that the role of government is to create an enabling environment where private sector can flourish and where Liberian businesses can benefit.

The CMC leader also indicated that the current action by the Government is in direct contravention of that role and does not represent meaningful reform.

He described it a deliberate attempt to cripple Liberian entrepreneurs who have invested millions of dollars, much of which have not even been recovered, into infrastructure, technology, and workforce to stabilize the petroleum sector.

Bility maintained that investments by Liberian entrepreneurs have created jobs for Liberians, enabled stability of the petroleum market by ensuring product availability, and helped to strengthen Liberia’s economy—something facing sabotage from their own government.

He said he was speaking not only as a legislator but was in defense of the right of Liberian businesses to thrive in their own country and contribute to the growth and development of an already weak and stagnant Liberian private sector, but also as the owner of Srimex Oil and Gas Company, a company that has served the Liberian petroleum industry through importation and storage for over 15 years.

He continued: “The petroleum terminal business is one of the few sectors of our economy built and sustained exclusively by Liberians. No responsible government policy would sacrifice its own citizens’ businesses under the pretense of price relief.”

Bility is calling on the Government of Liberia to immediately halt this harmful maneuver, to engage in transparent consultations with terminal operators, and to ensure that any reform in the petroleum sector genuinely serves the Liberian people and the growth and development if the private sector, not political interests.