GREENVILLE, Sinoe – A dispute between Sinoe’s county superintendent and the Sinoe County Service Center coordinator has resulted in a two-week closure of the key facility where many Sinoe residents access basic government services.
The center was established in 2015 and began normal activities in 2017 following major renovations at the facility. It has become an important institution that provides citizens with access to government services that were previously only accessed in Monrovia. Marriage certificates, business registration, deed registration, and other key legal documents were provided at the center. Now, this is no longer the case, after Superintendent Lee Nagbe Chea dismissed the center’s coordinator, Sorbor Wesseh.
The dismissal letter sent to Wesseh ordered him to turn over all properties belonging to the center and cited the reason for his dismissal as “administrative reasons.”
After Wesseh’s dismissal, the maintenance supervisor at the county administrative building, Edison Gbantan, said he was directed by the superintendent to seal the entrance to the county service center to prevent Wesseh and his staffers from entering. The county administrative building hosts the service center, in addition to other local government offices in the county.
However, Superintendent Chea disputes this account: “While it is true that my office issued a dismissal letter to Mr. Sorbor Wesseh, coordinator of the County Service Center, for administrative reasons we cannot tell you, the journalists, but we never authorized anyone to nail the office.”
Many Sinoe residents are not pleased that the County Service Center has been closed and they are calling for the timely intervention of Sinoe lawmakers and the minister of internal affairs.
One local businessman, Johnson Teah, said the superintendent should not have allowed his personal issues with the coordinator to prevent citizens from accessing essential government services.
“The superintendent should understand that by dismissing a person who is a civil servant without a concrete reason, but rather saying ‘administrative reasons’ is not healthy for the county, especially we who are businesspeople that [are] always going to center in getting permits papers and other services for our operations,” Teah said.
For Wesseh, the dismissed coordinator, the dismissal letter was a surprise, as he did not believe there had been any misunderstandings or complaints about his operations since he took over the County Service Center. He clarified that he was the county information officer who had been asked to undertake the additional duties of managing the service center without additional compensation.
Sorbor Wesseh, the dismissed Sinoe County Service Center coordinator. Photo: Teahwleh Clarke Geeplay
“My going to the service center came in during the recruitment of the United Nations Development Programme per county, where they requested a county superintendent to submit a name of one person who is already within the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ employ with at least a bachelor’s degree to manage the affairs of the center,” Wesseh said.
He noted that he was recommended by former Superintendent Prosper K. Brown, who now serves as deputy minister of technical services at the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.
Sinoe residents are hoping that the confusion can be resolved swiftly, as the arrival of the rainy season has left roads accessible, meaning that citizens cannot travel to nearby counties for those essential services.
Featured photo by Teahwleh Clarke Geeplay
