Commerce Minister Frances Johnson-Morris recently said that her ministry can't police prices of commodities. Just then and immediately after she made the statement, the prices of basic commodities including the nation’s staple rice, have soared in geometric proportion.

	• Cllr. Frances Johnson-Morris

Amidst these inflationary pressures, the country has started experiencing acute shortage of gasoline in the market.

This gasocrisis, as analysts term it, has so far worsened and there are indications that the assurances from Liberia Petroleum Refining Company are face-saving and cosmetic as it continuously loses grip on the situation.

As J. Nathaniel Daygbor and Mike Jabateh report, a lingering gossip is filtering suggestive of the determination of LPRC to skyrocket the price of a gallon of gasoline to US$5.00.An argument broke out in a mini-bus that was destined for Paynesville Redlight recently.

The occupants were locked into heated argument with a female, later identified to be a student of the State-owned University, in her middle 30s, assumed the posture of a lecturer:

“Nothing makes people smile anymore in Monrovia. There is no job and even if you have one, the pay is not commensurate with the problems that it has to solve. The dignity of labor is suffering lashes and soon may dissipate to give way to endemic mediocrity.

“See what is happening around us. If you have business to do in the single boiling spot in Monrovia – Broad Street – you will have to wake up as early as 4:30 am to book your “Titanic” bus (meaning the new businesses) or a taxi cab.

Just in case you were lucky to get a taxi bound for Broad Street, you should be prepared to pay anything, just anything the drivers charge $45, $50, 65 or $70. “They dictate the prices,” she said.

“As you know ladies and gentlemen, the Commerce Minister [Frances Johnson-Morris] had said recently that she is not the Director of Police to control the prices of goods on the Liberian market. Whatever her points are, what surprised me most is who in the world should be responsible? If Frances hands are off the escalating prices, who will control them?  

“Is that the problem we have with the price situation?” interrupted a gentlemen seated at the rear of the mini-bus. “I am not finished yet. Okay, just take a look at the filling station that we are passing. No fixed price – one station charges L$275 and another $300. What is that?

Oh yes you may want to talk about free market system, but you should remember that even in the United States of America that has the freest of market system, there is control on what is tagged on goods as price.”

The lady had hardly spoken long when she began wooing support in the bus, and then she was at her destination. Like the lady, this is a view that many individuals in the city and elsewhere, who are feeling the pinch of inflation share regarding the price crisis.

Gasoline and rice are considered political commodities in Liberia. For Liberians, rice keeps the citizens alive and gasoline keeps their wheels turning. But recent series of hikes in prices of the two commodities have created public outcry for redress of the anomaly.

Jesse Barconi, a petite trader on Carey Street, thinks the Unity Party-led government has lost its economic wand of putting in place a scrupulous system that would ensure that goods brought into the country are affordable.

Speaking of the fluctuating prices of the petroleum products, including gasoline, fuel, and kerosene, Jesse said, “We are experiencing a real backlash of poor economic planning by this government.

Whether or not the scarcity of commercial vehicles is being exacerbated by the acute shortage of gasoline seems to be nothing of a priority to those who are charged with the responsibility to oversee the commerce and trade of this country.”

Mr. Barconi’s comments find basis in the statement by Commerce Minister Cllr. Johnson-Morris that her ministry does not police price in the country. The Ministry of Commerce has disclosed plans to improve its inspectorate division.

Speaking at a one-day forum on the regulation of prices and monitoring of expired goods on the Liberian market at the YMCA auditorium on Crown Hill, Minister Frances Johnson-Morris said improving  the inspectorate section of the Ministry is aimed at building the capacity of that ministry.

The Commerce Minister said the regulation and monitoring of prices will be part of the inspectorate exercises, adding, “The exercise is intended to monitor prices on the market and to regulate it.”

But what is paradoxical, observers noted, is that the Commerce Minister intends to use the consuming public as the shield. She urges the consuming public to help the ministry by reporting incidents of price hiking.

Kona Debbah, an instructor of Economics, says “this is scapegoating”. Kona said it is unbelievable that the Commerce Ministry could not take a proactive measure to deal decisively with the present economic tragedy attending the livelihood of Liberians and is still waiting for complaints from the public before acting.

Our reporters who toured the city yesterday to assess the gasoline situation observed that not only that filling station are being selective in serving their customers, but they are also hiking prices of a gallon of gas from L$230 to $300.

Gasoline price has hit the Liberian market. Commercial drivers and passengers are finding it difficult to easily transact business on account of the transport price.

Some of the commuters believe that it is very difficult to get a car than to accept transport price. At Aminata Filling Station commercial cars were seen in queues to buy a gallon of gas.

At Aminata Filling Station, two gallons were sold to commercial drivers, who were not allowed to buy more than two gallons. Although the price of gasoline at Aminata & Son Filling Station is being sold at L$230, a manager who spoke to our reporter on condition of anonymity said they have begun to experience shortage in the reserve.

“Gas business getting hard in the country, so we do not want to sell all our gas,” he said, noting that they prefer to sell only five gallons to their regular customers and not any other person.

The Proprietor of the Aminata & Son Filling Station, Siakai Turay, also declined to comment on the gas situation, but only told our reporter, “We are not responsible for the gas shortage.”

The managers of the Dokan Filling Station located at the Catholic Junction indicated that they too are only serving their regular customers.  Meanwhile, as the gasocrisis deepens, taxi drivers are charging various fares from Red Light to Central Monrovia.

Our Gbarnga and Voinjama correspondents recently corresponded  with others saying that gas stations in the city are charging L$390 and L$400 respectively.

Using sources in Kakata and the surrounding communities, The Analyst gathered that gas is being sold in Kakata, Margibi County, for L$325.00 and Ganta, Nimba County, L$500.00.

In spite of the outcry, the Management of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company has claimed that there is no gas shortage on the market. A source told this paper that apart from the gasoline being sold, a ship has entered the territorial confines of Liberia to be offloaded.

In fact, our reliable sources said that a reason for the delay in offloading the ship is that the LPRC and importers have been holding meetings to devise ways of increasing the price of gasoline to US$5.00.

While the information is still scanty, but our source near the office of the Managing Director of LPRC told The Analyst that importers have complained that they are losing if they continue to sell gas at the present price.

LPRC is grappling with the proposal of the importers and is pondering what impact the increase would have on the consuming public. Indeed, it is a serious gasocrisis in Liberia.