After the House of Representatives, Liberian Senate, Executive branch, civil society organizations and the media dispatched separate teams to the ArcelorMittal concession site to get first-hand information regarding what unfolds at the area, investigative reports emanating from the tour of the steel giant’s concession area prove unworthy of awarding the company another 25 years of mining operation in the country.
Investigation conducted by newsmen observed that those who petitioned their lawmakers not to grant ArcelorMittal a renewal deal could not be more objective, as the concessionaire has added no value to their area of operation, the residents of the area or the people employed with them. The living standard of those in the company’s area of operation is arguably below poverty line, with a handful of individuals allegedly benefiting from the crumbs of ArcelorMittal’s plunder of the nation’s natural resources.
Even though the company argued that it has met all its obligation under the mining agreement with the government, it has been proved that employees of the company are hosted in empty containers, as opposed to refurbishing structures built by LAMCO and giving the employees a better living standard.
Besides the roads paved by the former LAMCO concession, investigation has also revealed that ArcelorMittal has not done much in beefing up government’s effort to connect the people of the area by roads, leaving the government with the burden of taking on the responsibility of a multi-billion dollar company while the company continues its looting spree.
Liberia is a country rich in natural resources, with iron ore and rubber as its main export commodities, but could stand to be depleted with nothing to show if the Indian company continues its business as usual, with no long-term investment for the people of the country.
From empirical evidence, ArcelorMittal has abandoned all the physical structures that existed at the concession area without building any new structure; instead, the company has arranged a long chain of empty 40-foot containers as homes for the employees, leaving the concrete structures to rot in ruin.
Observers are saying that the company does not mean well for the country, but is prepared to go the extra mile in liquidating the pockets of few persons in government in order to get its agreement renewed for another 25 years.
They say the ArcelorMittal deal is a bad one, and has been so from the unset of the company’s arrival in 2005. However, they accused officials of the United States government of being the masterminds of the Indian company’s stay in Liberia, at the detriment of the ordinary masses who are “enslaved” by the company for survival.
An investigation conducted by an independent journalist into ArcelorMittal taking over of the former LAMCO concession area revealed that the deal was influenced by a former American diplomat who used his influence with the American government at the time to prevail on the Liberian government to award the mining concession to the Indian company. According to the investigation, this was done through coercion, threat and unconventional diplomatic maneuvering by then United States Envoy accredited near Monrovia. Apparently difficult for him to withstand the somehow intolerable pressure from the then US Ambassador, then Chairman of the Liberian National Transitional Government (LNTG), Charles Gyude Bryant, was left with no option but to award the franchise of what was left of the former Liberia Mining Company to Mittal Steel, a company that did not actually win the original bid proposal. To be continued.