By Christopher Yarwoe in Buchanan, Liberia
Investigations have unveiled additional information in connection with the scrap metals in Grand Bassa County, which are said to have generated over US$400,000.00.
Last week, it was reported that citizens in Grand Bassa County are demanding that county officials give an account of funds from the scrap metal program and the County Social Development Fund.
The concerned citizens, who are threatening civil action if nothing is done, are demanding forensic audit through a petition to the government.
The citizens said if the report is made available and they are not satisfied, they will do a law suit. I thought this would be good for you to update the story. I will also be doing a feature for the radio.
The Citizens’ demand comes in the wake of claims by the new county administration that they inherited a ‘broke county.’’
According to the Mineral Development Agreement that Arcelor Mittal and the Government of Liberia created in 2005 and amended in 2006, established county social development fund to be funded by an annual contribution of $3,000.000.00 by Arcelor Mittal. The beneficiaries of these funds are Nimba, Bong and Grand Bassa Counties. Grand Bassa gets $1,000,000.00 of that money.
In the 2016/2017 Fiscal Budget, the Ministry of Finance report showed that AML only paid half of its Social Development Fund to each of the three counties.
Arcelor Mittal, the World’s giant steel company argued that the mining industry was experiencing major challenges as a result of the significantly lower iron ore price.
Grand Bassa received US$519,250 out of US$1 million for that budget year, with the same figure projected for 2017/18 fiscal year.
In this 2018 – 2019 National Budget passed by the 54th legislature, Grand Bassa County has an allotment of 533,333.00 for County Social Development Fund.
Daniel Willie, assistant Superintendent for fiscal affairs, told citizens on July 4 that the previous administration did not leave any financial statements.
When he took over in June 2018, the County Social Development Fund had a balance of $US1, 262, 00 and $23,207.12LD and the county’s social service center had zero balance. The Scrap Metal Escrow Account had a balance of $20, 995.00
Superintendent Janjay Baikpeh told citizens that the 20,995,000 in the scrap metal account was made available through a resolution signed by the 54th Legislative Caucus of Grand Bassa. According to Hon. Baikpeh, the resolution states that the money was used to settle arrears the county owed to the Bassa Sports Association, PMC and county operations.
The money will be replaced in the Scrap Metal Account when the county receives CSDF from the national government, he said.
The Grand Bassa people want the present and past county administrations to explain how public funds were spent and show what impact they are having on the community.
Mr. H. La – Voltee Ndorleh, a resident of Central Buchanan and other citizens of the county said they want an audit of the CSDF and scrap metal funds.
Grand Bassa County had the total of three scrap committees. Mr. Sylvester Taylor, former Senior Accountant of the county served as the first chairman of the scrap committee from 2013 to 2014. It is not known how much Mr. Taylor committee generated from the sale of scrap metal before he turned over to Mr. Eddie Williams.
But, Mr. Williams, former chair of the scrap committee, said he turned $400,000 to his successor, Jerry Garyeazohn. Mr. Williams who served as chairman on the committee from October 2014 turned over in early March 2016 when former Superintendent Joseph Levi Demmah reconstituted the scrap committee.
When Garyeazohn resigned in March 2017, he deposited an additional $20,000 into the scrap metal account.
Garyeazohn said he was surprised to hear that the account was empty because he left money there. His resignation letter showed a deposit slip number 1306201 that was deposited to the scrap escrow account by North Star Industries Inc in august 2016.
Senator Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence, former chair of Grand Bassa Legislative Caucus told Journalists at Hotel Buchanan that she had no role to play in the administration of the scrap metal money.
Article 3.5 of the scrap MOU states that the people of Grand Bassa County, through their representatives and in consultation with Arcelor Mittal Liberia Limited are supposed to decide education and literacy projects that will be financed by proceeds from the sale of scrap metal. The total amount the county got from the sale of scrap is not yet known to the citizens.
Citizens interviewed this week said they have never met with county officials to vote on projects that will be funded by scrap metal funds. Most often, county officials decide how they want to spend the money.
Andrew Yolo Tarr, a resident of Fairground Community and Vice Chairman of the Harlandsville Atayea Shop including several other citizens said that the county leadership violated the MOU created between them and Arcelor Mittal.
The citizens said that the county was not fair to them so they will petition government to conduct a forensic audit and, if they are not satisfied with the report, they will end up with a law suit against those who misused their scrap money.
The MOU states that scrap metal funds should only be used for education and literacy projects, but most times county officials borrow money from the fund for other projects. In 2015 and 2016, former Superintendent Levi Demmah administration borrowed $130,000 from the scrap metal program to rehabilitate roads and educational projects without input from citizens. Magic FM obtained the information through a Freedom of Information request submitted to the Project Management Committee. So far, the citizens do not know whether the money is being paid back to the scrap account by Demmah administration when he served the county as Superintendent from February 16, 2016 to December 2017.
Back then, Demmah refused to talk to Magic FM on the issue and the PMC refused to comment without Demmah’s permission.
Demmah asked the radio station to file an FOI request. When the station filed the request, Demmah forwarded the information to the county’s former legal consul Cllr. Samuel K. Jacobs.
Cllr. Jacobs informed Magic FM that he was going to encourage Demmah to provide the information, but that never happened.
The new administration said the county will respond to citizens’ concerns about public funds.
Mr. Uriah Bryant, the PMC’s comptroller, said past and present Legislative Caucus signed several resolutions to transfer money from the scrap account to fund CSDF Projects because the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning is always delayed in disbursing CSDF money. Scrap metal funds have been used to finance nine CSDF projects. They include renovation of the Pavilion, Scholarship of the Grand Bassa University Students, Grand Bassa Education Foundation, Bassa Sports Association, PMC and county operations, Buchanan roads rehabilitation, Grand Bassa Community College Bridge, Grand Bassa Community College Laboratory rehabilitation and visit of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
He said those projects were done from 2015 to present.
Moses Henry, treasurer of the PMC said the county applied in November 2017 and reapplied both in March and May 2018 respectively to the MFDP for $1.2 million from the $3.6 million it owes the county in CSDF fund. The county leadership is in conversation with MFDP about the money. The amount covers a three year period, he said.
The PMC has not stated the total amount the county owed scrap metal program to the public. According to them, they have to check all the resolutions to know the total amount before informing the citizens.
When the money comes through the county will repay the scrap metal program and inform citizens in order to promote transparency and accountability.
The scrap metal program was created in 2013 when Arcelor Mittal Liberia Limited entered an MOU with the county to fund education and literacy projects with funds from the sale of scrap metal. The goal of the program was to clear up discarded structures and equipment in the concession area in order to pave the way for development for phase 2 of its operations.
Article 3.3 of the MOU mandates that proceeds from the scrap metal should be deposited in an escrow account at the Central Bank instead of at the local branch of LBDI in Buchanan.
The phase 2 operation was intended to expand the company project for the increase in the shipments to 15 million tonnes of iron ore with first production planned by the end of 2015.
But, according to http://corporate.arcelormittal.com/, due to the evolving situation of the Ebola virus outbreak those times in West Africa, contractors working on the phase 2 expansion project were declared force majeure which caused the company to move people out of the country.
“We are currently assessing the potential impact on the project schedule,” Arcelor Mittal said.
ArcelorMittal says its remains fully committed to Liberia and the intention is to re-start full construction of the phase 2 project at the earliest opportunity.
The Auditor’s General Report covering June 2014-July 30, 2016 found that the county misused funds from the scrap metal program.
It is not clear whether the money will be replaced, but history has shown that as long as the government fails to remit CSDF funds to the county, the caucus will always use scrap metal funds.
The only way that will change unless citizens continue to hold county officials accountable for the funds.