By J. Mason Kollie
Authorities in Lofa County are utilizing County Development Funds (CDF) to undertake refurbishment of several public buildings including the official residence of the superintendent, the county’s administrative building, and the Voinjam City Hall respectively.
Renovation works are currently taking place at the superintendent’s residence, administrative building, and a city hall, all located Voinjama City, according to our correspondent in the area, who toured the rehabilitation sites recently.
Funding for ongoing renovation works on these public buildings was made available by the Government of Liberia (GoL) through the CDF.
Lofa County received approximately US$180,000, this fiscal year for development works in the county, according to our correspondent, who reports that of this amount, local authorities have disclosed that an unspecified amount is being used to fund the renovation works currently ongoing at several public buildings.
Different sectors in Lofa including the student community, the media, the office of the superintendent, the Tellewoyan Memorial Hospital, youth community, and many others, received allocation from the County Development Funds
The decision to use the unspecified huge sum of money from the CDF on the refurbishment of public buildings was reached by the County Council and several other institutions during the County Sitting recently held in Lofa’s capital, Voinjama City.
Lofa County Superintendent, J. Lavela Massaquoi, disclosed in a recent interview that funding allotted for the rehabilitation works on all three public facilities from the CDF will be used for its intended purpose.
Since the disbursement of funding for the ongoing works, Superintendent Massaquoi, bidding processes were carried out for the renovation of the various facilities, adding that contractors who won such bids are well advanced with their works and rehabilitation works are nearing completion.
Meanwhile, the Chairperson of the County Council of Lofa, Mohammed Kamara, has vowed to closely monitor all CDF allotted toward the ongoing works, and promised to give account every dime expended.
“We will make sure we monitor and people will account for everything received from the County Development Funds,” Kamara emphasized in a Rural Reporters News Network (RRNN) interview.
Kamara, who is also Chairperson of the Civil Society Council in Lofa, used the occasion to warn anyone wanting to mismanage CDF project intended funding, to think twice, as there would be serious consequences.