In a powerful appeal grounded in professional expertise and patriotic duty, Engineer John Kpehe Boimah, Team Lead of Boimah Engineering Incorporated (BEI), is calling on the Liberian Senate to immediately and unconditionally cancel the proposed Pavi Fort – Al Associates (SL) LTD US$365 million road financing agreement currently before it for ratification.
This urgent call to action, he said, is made to protect Liberia from entering into another problematic infrastructure concession that risks replicating the pitfalls of past agreements, such as other high-way deals, which have historically burdened the nation with debt while offering limited tangible benefits to its people and economy.
Engineer Boimah noted that his position is not merely a critique but a constructive pathway toward responsible and inclusive national development.
At the heart of Engineer Boimah’s argument is the fundamental principle that Liberia’s development must be engineered by and for all Liberians.
He asserts that the proposed concession with the Sierra Leonean firm, Pavi Fort – Al Associates (SL) Ltd is structurally flawed and poses an existential threat to the empowerment, professional growth, and economic participation of Liberian engineers, contractors, and technical professionals.
“This is not about nationality; it is about capacity, credibility, and a proven track record,” Engineer Boimah stated emphatically. “The available evidence suggests that Pavi Fort – Al Associates (SL) LTD does not possess the demonstrated technical or financial expertise to unilaterally manage a project of this magnitude under a private financing arrangement. To entrust them with our nation’s critical infrastructure is an unacceptable risk. We must learn from history, not be doomed to repeat it.”
Instead, Engineer Boimah respectfully urged the Senate, otherwise known as the Upper House of the Liberian Legislature, to direct the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) to engage a competent, well-experienced international firm through a transparent, fair, and competitive international bidding process.
This approach, he said, ensures value for money, technical soundness, and, most critically, the inclusion of binding clauses for local content and capacity transfer.
Engineer Boimah’s analysis outlines five critical areas where the Pavi Fort concession threatens to undermine Liberia’s sovereignty and sustainable development: the systematic exclusion of Liberian professionals from national resources; the loss of employment and unavailability of professional empowerment; the absence of meaningful technical transfer and capacity building; economic disempowerment and the deepening of poverty; and the perpetuation of a neo-colonial dependency model.
Engineer Boimah’s appeal is a clarion call for the Legislature to choose a path of sovereign reason over short-term expediency.
“The Honorable Legislature must recognize that true, sustainable development lies in empowering Liberians themselves—not in outsourcing the nation’s future. The Pavi Fort – Al Associates (SL) LTD concession, in its current form, is a direct threat to our economic empowerment and technical sovereignty. I implore our distinguished Senators to act with courage and wisdom, to rescind this agreement, and to champion a new model of development that places Liberian professionals and Liberian capacity at its very core. Let us build these roads, but let us build ourselves in the process.”