“APRIL’S FOOLS  CENSUS”,—LISGIS applies  Christopher Columbus  style  to conduct  Census.

By Joseph Tumbey 

The workforce of the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo- Information  Services  to conduct  the 2022 Census  failed to attend  on the first  day of the process, November 12, 2022  due to  what the term as   failure of LISGIS to paid their  ten days training / or sitting  fees and the provision  of the logistics  to  properly  carry out  the counting  process. 

On the official  commencement day which  was declared  as a public  holiday  across  the Country,   Friday  November  12,  the day became  dramatic  as Citizens  across  the Country  waited  at homes but couldn’t see neither  LISGIS  enumerators nor Supervisors. 

Over the failed  commencement of the Counting process  to  determine the Country  population  with related  issues,  huge  crowd of citizens  claiming  to be the very  ones  to have done  the job  gathered  at LISGIS headquarters  in Monrovia  on the same day instead  of taking  their assignment  in various  communities  across  the  Country  to conduct  their enumeration  process .

Given the reason  for their actions,  they blamed  the government of Liberia  through  LISGIS  for failing not only the Citizens  but their International  partners. 

Accordingto them,  LISGIS  ealy lied to them to pay each  Enumerator UD$10 per day  during  their ten days training  process  but later harmonized  their pay US$5 but yet to receive  pay since  the process was  completed  over a month. 

Mr. Darwin Jlogbe, one of the  Enumerator  told our Reporter that the Association of 2022 Census  Enumerator told  the public  ealy  that the Commencement of the Census  was a fiasco  but the government  went about declaring  meaningless  holiday  in the name of a successful mechanism in place to have the process  done smoothly. 

“We were to receive UD$100 for our ten days sitting but they dropped it to UD$50 which  we are struggling  to receive.

Moreover   last night  was  a Census  night  where every  supervisor  and Enumerator  was to receive  the full kit including  our digital  devices,  notepads  ,jackets   to start  the enumeration  process  and communities engagement  but LISGIS  failed in all  to providing   the kits”, LISGIS  2022 Census Enumerator  Mr. Darwin Jlogbe asserted. 

However,  the Liberia  Finance and Development Planning Minister  Samuel D. Tweah Jr. late Friday  evening  paid a short visit at the LISGIS  headquarters  in the midst of the Census  saga but,couldn’t  respond  to the Media  during  the heated  interrogation.