PHOTO: (L-R) Cutting of the ribbon and partial view of the building
By Moses M. Tokpah, mosesmtokpah@gmail.com
KAKATA, Liberia- The Administration of the Booker T. Washington Institution (BWI) headed by Atty. Harris Fomba Tarnue has dedicated a refurbished “royal” Administrative Annex valued at more than eighty thousand United States dollars (US$80,000) in Kakata, Margibi County.
It is situated some 75 miles east of the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
The building, which was being used as a residential area in a dilapidated condition, has now been transformed into a modern structure that will host several administrative arms of the Institution beginning this January 2020.
They include business and finance section, vice principal for administration section, internal audit department, a media center which will be responsible for the production of all instructional and public relation materials, storage, achieve, conference hall and latrines, among others.
The Principal and CEO of BWI, Atty. Harris Fomba Tarnue speaking at the dedicatory ceremony recently; explained that the vision is only part of the little that his administration has to set BWI to creating a module center of excellence adding, ‘because when you are in business with people they want to see the visibility’.
Mr. Tarnue who stated that the Institution is taking lot of contracts and sending proposals said, for him it has not been nice when people go for such purpose they be sent to the business office that does not represent a business office.
“I know all of us will agree to that, if you doubt us after this program go and see our business office right now, but we have a new day because this place has to go to a College or University level,” the BWI Principal said.
According to him, the BWI Administration has to put in place infrastructure that represents such future vision and to begin marching towards a College and University concept, they must begin to show that they are prepare indicating that this is one of the symbols of that preparation.
“As the matter of fact, 40-years behind when I was student here this building was a residential building and we felt that the location for a residential building was not ideal in the middle of the campus with all these other top administrative buildings around here; it was not ideal to have a residential building here it makes this place to look awkward whenever you pass by so we try to transform that into one of the most administrative building here at BWI,” said Atty. Tarnue.
Commenting on how funded was provided for the implementation of the project, the BWI Boss revealed that in 2017 the Liberian Government gave the Institution a little over one million United States dollars to be able to do renovation work on the Campus.
He narrated that most of the trade shops were being renovated from portion of the said amount and were given basic training equipments while one trade shop (Domestic Science Department) was constructed from the same funding.
Mr. Tarnue also noted that what his Administration did further was to create some saving out of which seven thousand United States dollars was used to begin renovating the Administrative Annex and what was used to complete it was the Administration innovation of internal revenue generation.
He averred that 15% of the amount used for the renovation of the building came from government funding while 85% of the amount came from BWI’s internal funding.
This tells that the Administration can do more if they put their hearts and heads together to work as a team thereby urging ever member of BWI to work together to raise the Institution to a center of excellence, according to Atty. Tarnue.
The Principal then thanked the construction team for the level of work done stating that what the building shows is that the students can now begin to represent the Institution as proficient technicians who can go out in the World and do building construction.
“We can recommend you, we can do proposals for you and we can ask you to go and undertake those proposals because your hand prints are here; anyone walking through BWI will now ask a question who did this building and all of us should say the students and the instructors of the general building trade department that’s where you’re recommending our products to the larger society in Liberia and beyond,” the Principal of BWI concluded.