By George K. Werner
Today, I watched on OK FM as the National Road Fund presented two vehicles to the Ministry of Transport. It left me asking a simple but important question: why?
The National Road Fund exists for one critical purpose — to maintain and rehabilitate Liberia’s roads. Safe, passable roads are not luxuries; they are the arteries of our nation’s economy, connecting farmers to markets, children to schools, and patients to hospitals. Yet, in a country where roads are deteriorating daily, the institution meant to fix them is handing out vehicles instead.
What makes this even more troubling is that the Ministry of Transport sits on the Board of the National Road Fund. This means an entity meant to provide oversight is now a beneficiary of the Fund’s resources. That is a clear conflict of interest and a dangerous blurring of governance lines.
We saw a similar example when the National Port Authority, another state-owned enterprise expected to generate revenue for the national budget, donated money to the University of Liberia. However noble these gestures may appear, they fall outside the statutory and fiscal mandates of these institutions.
What we are witnessing is not reform, but a culture of symbolic political gestures — acts meant to score points or please superiors rather than serve the public interest.
The consequences are far-reaching:
* Deviation from core mandates undermines effective service delivery.
* Conflicts of interest corrode public accountability.
* Fiscal leakages weaken the national budget.
* Erosion of trust deepens public cynicism.
Until Liberia enforces a return to discipline, mandate, and accountability, our institutions will remain trapped in the performance of progress — photo opportunities without substance, generosity without governance, and symbolism without service.
