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| STC Style: Increasing Liberians’ Hardships |
| Published on May 30, 2007 | Email To Friend Print Version
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THE CHANGE IN government nearly a year and a half ago, came along with some economic prescriptions especially in imports of basic commodities. One of the areas of policy prescription was in the highly political commodity rice, where the government said rice importation would henceforth be restricted to a periodic bidding process amongst importers, with winners gaining the right to import and sell on the local market.
THOUGH THE LOGIC of the policy was questioned by some opposition parties, civil society organizations and certain members of the National Legislature as an unwarranted affront to the Free Enterprise System that is customary in Liberia, the opposition viewpoints did not shift the determination of the government.
AS A RESULT of the so described bidding process that had not been advertised in dailies, a relatively new name in the rice import market emerged, under the name Sinkor Trading Center (STC). The strong backing provided for the STC, was its alleged status as a Liberian owned entity, and that other key importers like Bridgeway Corporation, K&K Corporation and Fouta Corporation amongst others, had not forwarded acceptable bids.
MOREOVER, THESE OLD companies were seen as delinquent tax payers, whose misdeeds had come up during an investigation of rice importers by a committee headed by then, Governance Reform Commissioner, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, now President of Liberia.
HAVING WON THE bid, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the STC firstly did not have ample stock of the precious commodity when the government prohibited the importation of rice by other entities up to January 2007. The issue provoked legislative hearings in the rice matter, with Bridgeway’s manager, George Haddad outperforming the technocrat and Minister of Commerce, Mrs. King-Akerele. The lawmakers cautioned the minister to do the noble thing, by liberalizing the rice market.
FOR HER PART, the minister insisted that she had promised at her confirmation hearings that she would institute essential reforms, especially in redressing gross imbalances in the lot of Liberian businesses with foreign firms. She also said that a bidding process had preceded the selection of the importer, a procedure she saw as circumspect from which she could not budge.
SINCE THEN, THE STC has emerge from novice of the block to become a rice import czar, with absolute domination of the rice sector in Liberia. It imports and sells, as it wishes, with the only check being oversight of its political patrons.
MANY GRIEVANCES HAVE being raised against the company, but backed as it remains flexed in the economy, it has not winked a bit. One of the most critical charges against the company is that it had commenced rebagging and profiteering against the consumers by reducing the contents of each bag of 50 kilograms of rice that originally contained 120 cups of rice to 100.
PRESENTING THE FINDINGS recently before a record press conference in Monrovia, the Liberty Party said that the company was reaping substantial profits through such fraudulent means. Denials from the company rapidly followed in a more fashionable manner, but rising smoke of consumers testimonies continues to speak of concealed fire.
AND NOW, THE company has issued an announcement to the effect that it will increase the price of rice from US$20.00 to US$22.50.
THIS WILLFUL INTENT of the company to us has the ugly smell of autocracy and large-scale abuse of the consuming public. We think that market dominance by a single major importer, as the case of STC now stands, is tantamount to exacerbating the hardships and sufferings of the Liberian people.
THE GOVERNMENT, EMERGING from such a stiff competitive process, was never voted upon as an economic predator or vampire to prey on the suffering masses. The government must therefore not countenance any abuse of privilege by its chosen importer, at the expense of the Liberian people. This is our view on this vexing matter of the STC style.
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