By our Reporter
At least 27 vehicles belonging to the government of Liberia have so far been retrieved from former officials of the erstwhile ruling Unity Party (UP) government of ex-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Special Presidential Task Force has said in Monrovia.
Benedict E.E. Reeves, a member of the Special Presidential Task Force to Retrieve Government-owned Vehicles told the media on Monday that some former Ministers and other officials continued to illegally hold on to government assets, making it difficult for the new CDC-led government of President George Manneh Weah to operate.
Reeves called for the overhaul of the GSA fleet management, security and vehicle procedures at this government agency.
The Deputy Director General of the General Services Agency (GSA), Edriss Bility said some of the government vehicles were abandoned at various local garages and other reports said some of them have been hidden in bushes and parked at secret locations by former officials.
“President mandate is a law and enforcement is my duty,” says Edriss Bility.
Upon his return from a three-nation visit to Senegal, Morocco and France last weekend, President Weah gave a two-week ultimatum to former officials in the Sirleaf government to turn over all government vehicles and assets still in their possession or the government will go after them.
“People who worked with the former government are hiding and scraping vehicles they used in the past government. They are stealing all the cars leaving this new government with the burden to buy new vehicles. What is s car that you cannot be honorable enough to leave behind?” he asserted.
The Liberian leader thereafter constituted a Special Presidential Task Force to retrieve all government-owned vehicles still in the possession of former government officials.
An Executive Mansion press release said he mandated the former officials to submit within two weeks the vehicles to the Special Presidential Task Force.
The President has also directed that all former officials who had purportedly purchased vehicles from the General Services Agency (GSA) to submit these vehicles to the Special Task Force for verification.
He has further directed that the vehicles should be submitted to the Special Presidential Task Force on the Executive Mansion grounds.
The submission of the vehicles took effect immediately after the pronouncement made by President Weah upon his arrival in country on Friday February 23, 2018. The circular has accordingly mandated that failure on the part of former officials will result in the forwarding of their names to the Minister of Justice for prosecution.
Those named to the Task Force include Benedict E.E. Reeves, Chair; Patrick Sudue, Inspector General of Police; Sam Worzie, Member; Garmondeh Glaydor, Members; Isaiah T. Harris, Fleet Specialist and Robena L. Brown, Member.
When he gave the 2-week ultimatum, Weah made it clear that his action should not be seen as a witch-hunt but one in the best interest of the Liberian people, as return of the vehicles will prevent government from paying huge amounts for new vehicles.
“I am not here to make the news but to make an impact if I am given the chance.We don’t want people to start to accuse us of witch hunting and the best thing to do is to bring government property back. I am not a professor. I am a practical person,” the 51-year-old Liberian leader emphasized.
Repeating the warning in the Church, President Weah said: “All of you who took government properties, you have two weeks to bring them back if not we will come for them. You have two weeks. We have to be true to our government. I am glad that I am saying it in a church. You got two weeks or we will come for them to be used for the benefit of our country.”