By Julius T. Jaesen II
Credible information coming in from unimpeachable sources confirms to us that part of the reason for President Weah recalling members of the National Legislature for a Special Session for “time-bound critical issues” is to rectify the hugely controversial High Power Exploration (HPX) agreement.
A month ago the Executive Branch presented to the Legislature a recast budget that had in it US$30 million, provided by HPX to support the national budget, when there is absolutely no existing legally binding agreement negotiated and signed between HPX and the Government of Liberia (GOL).
Ridiculously embarrassing, the government has been pitifully crawling on its belly under the cover of darkness, secretly taking money from HPX and promising them access to the rail and port facilities, ignoring the government’s own existing agreement with its biggest postwar investor, ArcelorMittal.
It must be noted that HPX only intend is to export the ore from the Samandou mine in Guinea, compared to AML which is willing and prepared to invest US1 billion to expand in Liberia.
According to reliable information, High Power Exploration (HPX) has given the government a three-month ultimatum to ratify an agreement masked in secrecy, which they entered into months ago.
HPX inserts into that agreement a clause that mandates the government to pay back $30 million she has so far given if the government fails to ratify their agreement from now to November 2022. Interestingly, the government is now under the weight of HPX’s pressure, given that it does not have the money to refund HPX if the November deadline reaches. So, the government has resorted to finding ways to have HPX’s agreement ratified by the Legislature before November.
Critical minds have warned that if the government ratifies HPX’s deal to give her access to the rail and refuses to first act on the third amendment to the AML agreement that will obviously prove dangerous for the country’s image to the outside world, especially to potential foreign investors that the country is not a country of law but a country of men, where laws are easily flouted with the government refusing in broad day to honor its own agreement with a global company.
The current legally binding agreement between the Government of Liberia and AML so far has a current lifespan of nine years, which provides AML with the exclusive right over the rail. So our government is aware that any attempt on its part to give HPX the access to the rail infrastructure without the expressed approval from AML will be a fragrant breach of AML’s agreement the government ratified years ago. But also true, AML has ever since welcomed the coming of HPX and encouraged them to come and help invest in the expansion of the rail.
Sadly, it is clear that HPX and its CEO, Robert Friedland, have zero interest to invest in expanding the rail and port infrastructures, other than trying to get rights over the rail to transport their ore from the Samandou mine to Buchanan port for export, and later they can sell that rights to the rail infrastructure to a third party in the future, which will eventually earn them lots of money as was done in Liberia with the Western Cluster.
It is only ArcelorMittal that has committed additional $200 million to expanding the rail and increase the port’s capacity to handle complex cargo.
Clearly, with the government’s hands being tied and exposed, officials close to the Office of President George Manneh Weah have hinted that, under the guise of passing the highly popular AML’s third amendment deal that is dubbed as Liberia’s biggest postwar investment deal, the President has decided to sneak in the interest of HPX and have both passed simultaneously.
The third amendment to AML’s agreement amongst other things, calls for multi-user access of Liberia’s rail and port infrastructures.
So, with this clause in AML’s agreement—pundits are saying it will now provide President Weah’s administration the leverage to ratify the AML agreement before that of HPX, without violating the agreement signed between AML and his predecessor, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. It must not be forgotten that it is stated in the AML existing agreement that no other concession or part can use the rain without the consent and agreement of AML.
