Kla-Neufville Takes Over Harper Port -Warns Against Divisiveness, Other Ills

By: Henry N. Kolenky

MONROVIA: The newly appointed General Manager of the Port of Harper, Mr. A. Wah Kla Neufville, has assured the citizens and residents of Maryland County that he will move the port progressively to put it on a positive trajectory that focuses on unity, teamwork and employ administrative best practices amongst others, to achieve the agenda of national government just as he warned against divisive tendencies, including tribalism and gossips amongst others.

Speaking Monday, April 15, 2024 at the Port’s Conference Room in Harper City, the new general manager said through team work, the port workers and administration can collectively achieve their goals, and explained that corrupt practices and propaganda will not be tolerated in his leadership.

Mr. Neufville also called on both employees, contractors, and the port users to work together in order to make the port better as it used to be in the late 1970’s and 80’s. GM Neufville said the Port of Harper is not for his hometown Gbedeh (Grand Cavalla) neither is it for the people of Blejay (Whole Grayway) nor the home town of the outgoing Director William W. Wallace.

“We need to work together to make this port great and better again,: he advised, and pledged “I will not condone any form of tribalism and discrimination.”

The port, he reiterated, does not belong to any tribe, but is rather a workplace for the Liberian people and as such we should love, think Liberia and build Liberia in this new dispensation, the general manager cautioned port workers, pleading with them to be diligent to make this port more functional than ever before through team work.

Wah Kla Neufville, a lecturer of the College of Engineering and Technology of William V. S. Tubman University in Harper City, Maryland County, took over the Port of Harper having been appointed by President Boakai in a smooth transition of power during which the environmental and safety manager of the Port and the outgoing Officer in Charge, Stephen Russell were present.

In his remarks occasioned by the turnover of the gavel of authority, Mr. Russell described leadership as a stage where everyone will play their part, and that  once your part is over another person is allowed to take over.

He told a team of reporters on Monday morning that he was charged with the responsibility to take care of the Port through the recommendation of the newly appointed director Wah Klā Neufville three weeks before his arrival in Harper.

While presenting the gavel, the outgoing OIC described the transitional period as “crucial”, noting that the gavel signifies and constitutes authority that will be exercised by the new port manager.

“This port, excluding your new team of officers you brought, has forty two employees spread across the six major departments which includes the Liberia Sea Port Police LSP, the Operations, Technical, Finance and the Environmental and Safety departments” the outgoing OIC narrated to the incoming general manager.

According to Mr. Russell, employees at the Port, like in others in Liberia, are paid a flat rate regardless of assignment and role at work, meaning that every employee earns the same salary except the senior management staff.

“This is a cardinal issue that you will be inheriting today, we hope that you will look at it and talk with the MD and others in Monrovia to regularize the salary structure in the port of Harper. Some people are supervisors and statisticians including other positions that carry higher responsibilities, yet they are paid on a flat rate” Russell explained.

Russell lamented that the Security department has twelve personnel in which only the commander and his deputy are not paid on flat rate, but earning their regular salary in line with their employment status, adding that this department has one contractor while the remaining eleven are fully employed.

The outgoing OIC told the gathering that the Technical Department has four persons who are paid equal salary including their supervisor, adding that of the fourteen men, only eleven are employed while the remaining three persons are volunteers. He then indicated that the Port of Harper’s financial records are in the personal laptop of the finance officer and this department head used his personal money to buy a printer for the work of the Port.