-As CDC Government pins some hope on IMF to navigate its way through current Economic Meltdown
By Our Staff Writer
Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) Executive Governor, Nathaniel Patray is to go in three months, while his deputy has already resigned in the aftermath of the General Auditing Commission (GAC) report, President George Manneh Weah announced in broadcast address to the nation on Wednesday.
“To provide the opportunity for the Central Bank to have a new direction, I have accepted the resignation of the Deputy Governor for Economic Policy. The Executive Governor is scheduled for age-related mandatory retirement in the next three months. During that period, we will work to transition the bank to a new management,” President Weah said.
But organizers of the planned June 7 protest (the Council of Patriots) are demanding not only the departure of Patray, they are also demanding the departure of Finance and Development Planning Minister, Samuel Tweah
In its report, the GAC said the Standard Operating Procedures developed to guide the conduct of the US$25 duties Million Mop-up Exercise did not address the issues of monitoring, segregation of, etc, according to the GAC findings.
There was a variance of US$ 1,466,783.00 between the summary list of beneficiaries and the detailed report per beneficiaries prepared and submitted by the CBL, the GAC report said.
The GAC report also said “Except for three (3) beneficiaries with a total amount of US$2,507,380.00 listed in the table below, no receipts were issued to the total number of beneficiaries contacted and interviewed during our field verification. Inquiry of past procedures for mopping up of excess liquidity conducted by CBL showed that instruments (receipts) were produced during sale of United States dollars for Liberian dollars.”
The US$25 million mop-up exercise was initiated by the Technical Economic Management Team (TEMT) headed by Finance Minister Samuel Tweah and implemented by the CBL.
President Weah told the nation on May 29, 2019 that the Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Cllr. Musa Dean has “now requested the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate these irregularities. The aim of this exercise is to determine criminal liability. All those found criminally liable will face the full weight of the law. “
“All of these reports and lapses point to a major lack of systems and controls at the Central Bank of Liberia, and call into question the ability of its present leadership to effectively revamp its internal mechanisms to provide greater accountability and professionalism, so that confidence and credibility would be restored to the institution,” the Liberian leader said.
He promised that a new direction will be charted by a new leadership of the CBL, which the President says will “be recruited by a vetting committee to be established. It will be composed of an independent team of professional Liberians, to be named shortly. “
President Weah then announced that a new CBL Board of Governors will be constituted next week.
The CDC government is now pinning its hopes on help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to assist it with getting out of the present economic crisis.
“Soon, we will welcome a team from the International Monetary Fund, coming to create an IMF program tailored for Liberia. Such a program will help us to take the needed steps to stabilize our economy, restore confidence in our currency, and offer technical assistance to continue social services,” the Liberian leader said.
Meanwhile, President Weah has made another promise to fight corruption, with a threat to recover all monies stolen from the country dating past to the past ten years.
“In the next several days, my Government will begin the review of all General Auditing Commission audits over the past 10 years, and will commence legal actions against every person that is implicated in these audit reports. Anyone found culpable will face the full force of the law. “
“In this same spirit, my Government also intends to contract international auditing and investigative firms to go after all monies and resources that were illegally taken from Liberia over the last 10 years. We must all take the fight against corruption to a new level as a form of social justice for all our people,” the head of the CDC government said.
Recently, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told the international media that her son, Charles Sirleaf, one of the CBL was illegal arrested and jail in connection with the 16 billion Liberian dollars saga. She also strongly defended her other son, Robert Sirleaf’s record at the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), which became insolvent during her administration. But she said her son did nothing wrong.
Mrs. Sirleaf, who ruled Liberia for 12 years and handed power over to Weah on January 22, 2018, had also previously come up in strong defense of her former ruling Unity Party (UP) government’s financial stewardship.
President Weah however said his actions will not just be based on speculations.
“But as we battle corruption, our fight will be based on the facts and the evidence of corrupt activities that is adduced by reports from audits that have been professionally conducted, rather than mere perceptions and unsubstantiated allegations,” he said.