By Augustine Octavius
There is uneasiness within the ranks of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) over claims by some soldiers that the Ministry of National Defense has failed to reimburse compulsory deductions from their salaries, but Minister Brownie Samukai has dismissed their claim.
The AFL soldiers have threatened to stage a peaceful demonstration if their money deducted is not given back.
According to the aggrieved soldiers, the Defense Ministry has been deducting money from their paychecks since the AFL was restructured in 2006 up to the present.
The soldiers added that it was agreed between them and the Ministry for 20 United States Dollars to be deducted from enlisted men, while 25 and 30 USD were deducted from commissioned officers.
Enlisted men are soldiers from the rank of Private to Lieutenant while Officers range from the rank of Lieutenant to General.
The soldiers explained that they were promised that the money, which has now summed to hundreds of thousands of US dollars, was to be given back at the end of the administration of the current President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
But when contacted by www.newspublictrust.com on Monday, Defense Minister Brownie Samukai dismissed the claim saying the deductions in question were used to establish welfare fund to assist soldiers in time of needs.
He clarified that the deductions started in 2009 and not 2006.
Samukai, who has been in this post since Sirleaf took office in 2006, explained that the amount summed up to US$700,000 and it was established to assist soldier since the government does not have any policy for catering for soldiers killed or injured in action.
According to him, some of the money was also used to bury the soldier that was killed in Mali, while another portion of the money was also used to pay the tuition of a soldiers whose leg was amputated as a result of accident.
Minister Samukai added that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the Transition Team of the CDC have already been informed about the AFL soldiers’ fund.
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