In an effort to reduce the huge sums government spends on contracting private security firms, the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) has disclosed plans to provide security service to government ministries and agencies.
Making the disclosure at the Ministry of Information regular press briefing on Thursday, Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee noted that the government spends over US$10 million annually on private security services which, he claimed, could be provided by the MCC for a lesser cost.
“We can deploy 2,000 of our officers at government ministries and agencies for US$1.2 million and government can use the rest of the money on other things that will positively impact the lives of the citizens,” Koijee stressed.
He lauded the ministries of Gender, Public Works and Finance for engendering such a brilliant idea, and that his institution is also holding talks with other government entities to emulate the examples of the three ministries.
He, however, noted that the move is not intended to take jobs from Liberians in the private security sector as the initiative is intended to allow the government save more money to carry out other development activities across the country.
According to him, the MCC will absorb private security officers who will express interest in becoming members of the municipal entity.
At the same time, Mayor Koijee disclosed that MCC is working with the Community-based Enterprises (CBEs) to create an address system for each home in Monrovia to be tagged and given an address to ensure the smooth collection of wastes from offices and homes in Monrovia.
