MONROVIA – Anderson Miamen, Executive Director of the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL), has raised strong concerns over President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s decision to create a new structure to manage the government’s yellow machines, arguing that the move risks deepening bureaucracy and draining scarce public resources from critical social sectors.
Writing on his official Facebook page on Monday, February 9, 2026, under the title “Do We Really Need a New Structure to Manage the Yellow Machines?” Miamen did not mince words. “I don’t think we need an entire new structure, the Special Presidential Project Coordinating Committee recently established by President Boakai, to manage the yellow machines that should be paving roads across Liberia,” he asserted.
While acknowledging that the President’s intentions may be well-meaning, Miamen warned that the decision carries significant financial implications for the state. He argued that establishing a new board and coordinating committee would impose “extra financial burdens on the State in terms of providing logistics and core operational funds as well as potentially paying salaries and benefits to the leadership and other staff of the structure.”
Miamen’s central argument is that Liberia already has existing government institutions capable of overseeing the machines effectively. “Existing mechanisms and structures of government could be used more effectively and efficiently to oversee management of those machines,” he noted, questioning the necessity of creating parallel bodies to perform functions already assigned to line ministries.
He further criticized what he described as a recurring governance habit. “The culture of establishing new structures and creating new budget lines almost every time we want to achieve a particular result takes away from resources that should fund education, health, agriculture and other critical sectors and institutions,” Miamen concluded, framing the issue as one of misplaced national priorities.
Miamen’s comments come against the backdrop of a February 8, 2026 press release from the Executive Mansion announcing President Boakai’s establishment of the Yellow Machines Board of Authority (YMBOA). The announcement also named former Defense Minister Brownie J. Samukai as Executive Chairperson of the Special Presidential Project Coordinating Committee (SPPCC).
The creation of the YMBOA comes ahead of the expected arrival in Liberia of the first batch of 285 yellow machines secured from China. The equipment is intended to support massive road construction and broader infrastructure development across the country, a flagship promise of the Boakai administration.
According to the Executive Mansion, the YMBOA is composed of several key government institutions, including the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs as Chair, the Ministry of Public Works as Co-Chair, and members drawn from the Ministries of Finance and Development Planning, National Defense, Agriculture, Local Government, Information, and the General Services Agency (GSA).
Under the new arrangement, the Chairperson of the Special Presidential Project Coordinating Committee will serve as Secretary to the Board. The YMBOA’s primary mandate is to develop a rigorous policy and management framework for the efficient maintenance and utilization of the yellow machines.
The Board is also tasked with serving as the central authority for receipt, accountability, deployment, cost management, operations, storage, and maintenance of the equipment, effectively positioning it as the highest decision-making body on the use of the machines nationwide.
In addition to the Board, President Boakai constituted the Special Presidential Project Coordinating Committee, naming Brownie J. Samukai as National Coordinator, with Roger S.W.Y. Domah as Deputy Coordinator for Administration and St. Jerome Larbelee as Deputy Coordinator for Operations. A dedicated support staff is also expected to be assembled.
The SPPCC, operating under the guidance of the YMBOA, is mandated to manage, coordinate, maintain, and operate the yellow machines as a Special Presidential Project. It is also required to work closely with all statutory agencies represented on the Board.
One of the committee’s key responsibilities is to prepare and submit a National Deployment Plan to the YMBOA for approval and to report monthly on the status and activities of the equipment. The committee is further instructed to operate under a strict “Maintenance-First” regime to maximize value for money and extend the useful life of the machines.
Government officials have argued that these arrangements are necessary to avoid past failures in managing public equipment. However, Miamen’s intervention raises questions about whether tighter coordination could have been achieved through existing ministries, particularly the Ministry of Public Works and the GSA, without creating new layers of authority.
It can be recalled that early last month, Deputy Minister of Public Works for Technical Services Prince Tambah announced in China that the first batch of the 285 machines had already been loaded onto a vessel bound for Liberia, with arrival expected in Monrovia in late March 2026, while additional shipments are scheduled to follow.
