By Ben TC Brooks
River Gee County | October 9, 2025 | A growing outcry is emerging from River Gee County over the abandonment of several government-funded infrastructure projects under the County Development Agenda (CDA), despite millions of Liberian dollars having been allocated for their completion.
From police depots to commissioner compounds and immigration service offices, numerous essential public facilities remain in disrepair or entirely incomplete, raising serious concerns about mismanagement, accountability, and the effectiveness of decentralized development in Liberia.
The projects, envisioned as part of the broader Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) introduced in 2008 during the administration of then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, were aimed at strengthening governance, improving public service delivery, and fostering post-war recovery in Liberia’s rural communities.
Under the leadership of the late Superintendent J. Karkue Sampson, River Gee’s CDA was crafted through participatory rural consultations, with local voices guiding priorities based on four central pillars: Security, Economic Revitalization, Governance and Rule of Law, and Infrastructure & Basic Services. But seventeen years on, however, many of those goals remain unfulfilled.
In towns like Cherboken, located in the remote Karford Administrative District, the shells of a police depot and a commissioner’s compound begun as far back as 2009 stand as relics of lost hope.
Despite local communities contributing labor and resources, construction was halted, and the buildings were left to deteriorate under the elements.
Similar scenes can be found in Glarro Free Town and Fish Town, the county’s capital, where public structures that once symbolized promise have now become monuments of neglect.
Local residents and community leaders are now demanding a comprehensive audit of the CDA funding, seeking clarity on how public funds were spent and why so many critical projects were left incomplete.
“This is not just a waste of money, it’s a betrayal of our trust,” said James Wesseh, a youth leader, of Tienpo Wooloken. “These projects were supposed to bring development, security, and government closer to the people. Instead, we’re left with empty buildings and unanswered questions.”
One of the key challenges highlighted by government officials in the past has been limited accessibility to certain rural areas, particularly during the rainy season, which hampers transportation of materials and workforce mobilization. However, critics argue that remoteness cannot excuse nearly two decades of project stagnation.
There are also lingering questions regarding contractor performance and oversight. It remains unclear who was awarded the original construction contracts, how much of the allocated funding was actually disbursed, and whether any monitoring or evaluation mechanisms were put in place by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission PPCC, or local county authorities.
Civil society actors are now calling for an independent investigation into the abandoned projects and for the government to publicly release detailed expenditure reports.
They argue that accountability is essential, not just to identify those responsible for possible mismanagement, but to restore public trust in development programs that were supposed to uplift marginalized communities.
“The County Development Agenda was built on the voices of the people. We told the government what we needed. To see those needs ignored after all these years is heartbreaking,” said Mary Kieh, a women’s leader in Glarro District. “We need answers, and more importantly, we need action.”
The abandoned CDA projects in River Gee are emblematic of broader challenges facing Liberia’s decentralization drive. While the framework for local development exists on paper, its execution has often fallen short, plagued by corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and a lack of political will to follow through on community-identified priorities.
As Liberians are looking ahead to its next cycle of national planning and development, the situation in River Gee serves as a sobering reminder: without transparency, accountability, and genuine community engagement, development promises risk becoming development failures.
