PHOTO: ‘Dismissed’ EPA Chief Technical Consultant hits back
In the aftermath of the change of government in Liberia this week, a row has erupted at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the Chief Technical Consultant, Benjamin Karmoh at the center the rift.
A press release from the EPA announced the dismissal of the Chief Technical consultant for what the authorities there called “criminal misconduct”.
The EPA claimed that On Tuesday, January 23, 2024, Mr. Karmorh led a group of people raising concerns and disrupting normal operations within the Agency. Karmorh reportedly told the staff that he was now the new head of the EPA and “had come to take over the agency because’ Prof. Tarpeh’s term is over.”
But Mr. Karmah has reacted strongly in a press statement saying, “let me in categorical terms rubbish and term as unfounded and baseless my dismissal which is mentioned in a Press Release.”
FULL TEXT OF HIS PRESS STATEMENT BELOW
Press Statement for Immediate Release
January 26, 2024(Monrovia-Liberia):
On 25th January 2024, the EPA through its Head of Media and Corporate Communications issued a Press Release on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Liberia social media page and also shared same with media institutions in the country announcing my dismissal from the EPA as Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) due to criminal misconduct.
In the release, it is asserted that I led group of persons to disrupt normal operations and orchestrated an unauthorized takeover of power at the Agency on Tuesday January 23, 2024.
Let me in categorical terms rubbish and term as unfounded and baseless my dismissal which is mentioned in a Press Release issued by the Environmental Protection Agency of Liberia, through its media and corporate communications head, which in my opinion, was written based on the instructions of Wilson K. Tarpeh in his desperate quest to continue holding unto public office at the EPA in complete contravention of the Act establishing the agency as outlined in section 16 which gives him no tenure powers. Mr. Wilson K. Tarpeh has no legal authority to dismiss me when he should have left office before the inauguration of President Boakai as mandated by former President George M. Weah. As enshrined the Executive order 123 Section 9 issued by former President George M. Weah on November 22, 2023, as of 22nd January 2024 “non-tenured presidential appointees shall be presumed to have resigned as of the date of the inauguration. Accordingly, the most Senior Civil Servant at all Ministries, Agencies, Commissions and State-owned enterprises, shall act as Officer-In-Charge pending appointment of their successors” Consequently, Mr. Wilson Tarpeh had no legal authority to dismiss me three days after his resignation.
My bogus and illegal dismissal by Wilson K. Tarpeh including his attempt to silence and get at many more staffers at the agency is a way of cleverly silencing professionals and technocrats at the Agency who are reading the EPA Act with a clear understanding.
We have worked with the EPA since its founding in 2003 with an impeccable and notable character which is an inalienable fact based on the record both nationally and Internationally. The records of our service to the EPA and our nation cannot and will never be tainted by an individual like Wilson K. Tarpeh who is only desperate to stay on at the EPA even without legitimacy.
We also want to call on the Government of Liberia that in the last 72 hours or more, the developments at the EPA instigated by a power thirsty individual like Wilson K. Tarpeh necessitates an immediate action to appoint or nominate an Acting Executive Director at the Agency to instill calm and order so that normal functions of the entity goes unhindered. The EPA is on the verge of a complete collapse if nothing is done to salvage the current situation under the aegis of Wilson K. Tarpeh’s who continues to perpetuate himself at the EPA in complete contravention of the law.
Signed:
Benjamin S. Karmorh, Jr.