Liberia's Public Works Minister Keeps President Waiting As Internal Tension Mounts

A sloppily-dressed Dr. Antoinette Weeks showed up for work Thursday almost midday and caused a stir at the ministry, not because she finally showed up, but because she kept the president of the republic waiting.
With Liberia in need of infrastructural development including roads, bridges, amongst others, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is racing against time, facing a massive headache to tackle head-on her reconstruction agenda.
Those plans however are being derailed or are at least on hold at the moment because the Ministry of Public Works, spearheading the reconstruction process is in complete disarray due to the handling of the affairs of the new minister.
Since taking over, acrimonious communications and other disagreements have existed between the Minister and other principal officials of Ministry souring the internal working relationship at the Ministry.
Three Hours Late
But it is the minister's disregard for punctuality which landed her into trouble Thursday. Employees and officials of the Government of Liberia as per law of Liberia are to work for 8 hours daily 9 am to 5 pm but despite the established working hours, many officials of government fail to show up at work as expected in many instances with some said to be running the affairs of government offices from their homes and others from outside Liberia.
Former President William R. Tolbert is known to have paid unexpected visits to ministries and agencies, taking actions against officials who failed to show up for work on time.
With the Sirleaf- led cabinet already divided as evidenced by recent secret recordings in which several officials of government were heard saying negativity about each other and that of the president, the President took what many Liberians describe at the Tubman-style of leadership, paying a surprise at the Ministry of public works Thursday.
The Liberian leader met yet another disappointment this time with the Minister spearheading the infrastructure drive of Liberia not showing up at work on a busy Thursday morning