By P. Clarence Jackson in Gbarnga, Liberia
The Administration of the once troubled Bong County Technical College (BCTC) in the central city of Gbarnga, Bong County has announced plans to officially launch an endowment foundation both Gbarnga and the Liberian capital.
The Vice President for Academic Affairs at the College Mr. Frankie Cassel said, the foundation to be called “The Bong County Technical College Foundation”, seeks to assist the Bong County Technical College in the gathering of resources to ensure the development of the Institution
He said the foundation will ensure Bong County citizens in and out of the country contribute to the development of the College through human, material and financial resources to strengthen the operation of the College.
Mr. Cassell told the www.newspublictrust.com that although a representative from the administration will be part of the structure managing the foundation, it will be managed by a board that will be constituted and Independent of the College’s administration.
According to him, this will ensure transparency and accountability in the management of funds raise through the foundation.
Any payment to be made to the College from the foundation’s account will be at the description of the Board that will be set up to manage the Foundation, the BCTC Vice President said.
“We temporarily launched the Bong County Technical College Foundation in Suakoko on June 15, 2018 because of the historical importance of Suakoko, but the official lunching ceremony will be held both in Gbarnga and Monrovia,” Mr. Cassell said”.
The foundation will support the physical Infrastructure, human resources, scholarship and financial aid to students and general Institutional strengthening of the Bong County Technical College.
Mr. Cassell further that the administration of the College has set up a mechanism and in the process of recruiting Ambassadors who will go out and receive funds on behalf of the Foundation to be placed into the account.
He added that although there is no upper limit in contributing to the Foundation, it is expected that every citizen of Bong County in and outside of the country will make a contribution of at least One United States Dollars a month.
The Bong Technical College’s authorities say a system will be put in place to ensure contributors to the fund receive acknowlement that they have made contributions.
‘’ We will have several categories including the Silver and Gold medal as well as the President’s club, for those who have various amounts to be contributed and contributions will go directly to the account and only the board set up to manage the Foundation will have access to that account,” said the Vice President for Academic Affairs.
The administration of the institution is said to be working towards endowing the Institution with land.
“As a Technical College, we need to have land to do several things, where we are located on the Gboveh Hill, the access to land is limited because we want to have income generating projects through Agriculture to strengthen the College,” the institution’s Vice President explained
Established by an act of the National Legislature in 2014 and accredited by the National Commission on higher education, the Bong County Technical College is a four year degree granting Institution in the areas of Agriculture, Education, Health Sciences, as well as Civil and Mining Engineering and Computer Science.
The mission of the Bong County Technical College is to provide quality technical education for students admitted in its programs with the aim of impacting Liberia’s human resource development agenda in an ever- changing global work environment and high labor with huge youth un- employment.
Work on the construction of the BCTC complex has been stalled for several years now amidst controversies both at the College and in the Bong County’s political leadership.