Development Specialist and Spoon-Talk lead panelist, Ambulah Mamey is calling on President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to delay signing the recently passed Liberia Sea and Inland Ports Decentralization and Modernization Act, as well as the Independent Sea and Inland Ports Act, citing serious legal and structural inconsistencies that could harm the country’s governance and economic landscape.
In a strongly worded statement released Wednesday, July 2, Mamey criticized the legislative process, warning that key sections of the new laws are riddled with contradictions, omissions, and potential governance failures.
“When emotions and ego take over reasoning in law-making, bad laws are passed and they hurt the country,” Mamey stated. “Forget about the port issue a bit ~ the final law exposes how careless those making decisions for our country can be.”
At the heart of his concern is the new regulatory agency that would oversee Liberia’s ports. According to Mamey, the legislation gives sweeping powers to a governing board that is not properly defined or established by law. He pointed out that while multiple sections of the Act refer to a “Board” that must approve management decisions, appoint or suspend executives, and approve penalties, there is no section outlining how the Board is constituted, its size, the appointment process, or tenure of its members.
Specifically, Mamey highlighted four sections in conflict:
1. Section 401 (6) — Grants the board approval authority over the regulator’s management decisions.
2. Section 203 III — States the Executive Director can be suspended by the board.
3. Page 14 — Requires board consent for the Executive Director to appoint officers.
4. Section 601 — Assigns the board the responsibility of approving regulatory penalties.
“This creates a legal void,” Mamey noted, “in which a board with sweeping powers has no legal grounding.”
Mamey also raised concerns about significant last-minute changes made to Section 55 of the Port Decentralization Law. The original version, passed by both chambers, envisioned that each port in Liberia’s counties would be governed by its own board. However, the final version now centralizes authority under a single 25-member board based in Monrovia.
“Every port will send budget requests, large contracts, major expenditures, and key decisions to this 25-person board in Monrovia for approval,” Mamey said. “Ironically, the same lawmakers who said they did not want the Port Authority to supervise the ports have created another centralized body to do exactly that.”
He also criticized the method of appointing board members, revealing that the law mandates county legislative caucuses to submit nominees, whom the President must appoint—a move Mamey believes politicizes an already convoluted process.
Additionally, Mamey flagged the law’s failure to include a clear timeline or structure for transferring assets and authority from existing institutions to the new regulatory agency. He compared this with previous government restructurings, such as the split between the Ministry of Finance and the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), and between the Ministry of Health and the newly created Ministry of Public Health.
“There is no roadmap. We saw how MFDP and LRA were separated professionally. We saw how NPHIL and the Ministry of Health were separated with structure and timelines. This law has none of that,” he said.
Mamey called on President Boakai to open the law for review by legal experts, stakeholders, and development professionals before giving his assent. He argued that the goals of decentralization and autonomy can be achieved without creating new, burdensome institutions or duplicating regulatory functions already assigned by law to the Liberia Maritime Authority.
“Let precedent and wisdom prevail—not emotion and ego,” Mamey concluded in his statement.
The two bills were passed by the House of Representatives on June 24, 2025, following Senate approval, and are now awaiting the President’s signature to become law.
