But Can CBL Prints Money On Its Own Without Authorization From Lawmakers?
PHOTO: Former Speaker Nuquay leaving the Criminal Court ‘C’
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia- What seems to be a drama is going on in the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) 16 billion Liberian dollars saga taking place at the Criminal Court ‘C’ in the Liberian capital, as to whether the CBL can on its own without print money without any authorization from the Legislature.
Members of the former CBL Board of Governors and other officials are in court facing criminal charges for printing addition ten plus billion Liberian dollars banknotes. In fact, they had earlier been authorized by the Legislature to print only five billion Liberian dollars/
Last Thursday saw the appearance of the then Speaker, J. Emmanuel Nuquay in court to testify in the ongoing case.
Now head of the Liberia Aviation Authority, Mr. Nuquay said that the CBL never got authorized the CBL to print excess ten billion LD.
The former Speaker, who was Subpoenaed by Court last week Tuesday, said he has absolutely no information on the printing of the excess 10 billion Liberian Dollars Bank Notes by the CBL.
But he explained that what he knows is members of the House of Representatives had raised issues about mutilated money on the Liberian market, after CBL was given full authorization to print addition five billion LD banknotes through the joint resolution.
He said the mutilated banknotes continued to be on the marked, after the CBL had printed and brought into the country the L$5bn, which was intended to be infused into the market to replace mutilated banknotes.
During his testimony in Chief, Mr. Nuquay added that the issue raised at the time by the House of Representatives was to the effect that after the CBL had printed and brought into the Country L$5bn to replace mutilated banknotes, the bank was still giving customers mutilated banknotes.
He continued that contrary to the expectation that money had been printed and needed to be infused into the country, they were surprised that such was still happening.
According to the former House Speaker, the matter was brought before plenary to ascertain from the CBL as to the real issues for which mutilated banknotes were still being given to the Liberian people by different commercial banks.
At the end of the engagement processes, the Legislature through the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate, wrote a communication to the CBL requesting the CBL to do three key things.
That the government of Liberia through the CBL should continue to use the Liberian Dollars and United States Dollars until at such time when the country export based has increased significantly.
That the CBL was requested to replace the legacy notes (Liberty) completely with the newly printed banknotes so that there will be a single type of Liberian currency that facilitate proper control of money and supply.
Narrating further, former House Speaker Nuquay testified in open court that the third point in the communication sent to the CBL, was to introduce coins of lower denominations on the Liberian Market.
The request of the Legislature was predicted upon the information provided by the CBL that the former Executive Governor Dr. Mill Jones minted coins that were sitting in the vault of the CBL.
And to the best of his knowledge, former Speaker Nuqua said there is no paragraph or provision in that communication that authorized the CBL to print additional 10bn Liberian Dollars.
While being cross-examined by Defense lawyers, he was questioned to gave the nature of the July 19,2017 letter by the Clerk of the House of Representatives and Senate Secretary of the Liberian Senate.
In response, former Speaker Nuquay testified that the July 19, 2017 letter did not authorize the printing of additional banknotes. “If the Legislature contemplated the printing of additional banknotes, it would have expressed used the word print instead of introduce,” he told the court.
The word introduce as used in paragraph three was intended for the CBL to infused into the Economy coins that were printed and are being kept and even as we speak being kept in the vault of the CBL, the Speaker of the 53rd Legislature added.
Several communications were written to the then Speaker of the House of Representatives for the printing of an additional L$10bn, which he admitted of Receiving.
But he was quick to point out that the Speaker alone can’t make decision on his own and said it was the duty of Plenary through a joint resolution for the printing of an additional Liberian Dollars banknotes.
Meanwhile, after the testimony of foremr Speaker Nuquay, the Finance Minister in the ruling CDC government, Samuel D. Tweah has called on the opposition community “to apologize for tarnishing” their government’s reputation to both local and the international community, even though matter is still being tried in court.
Those currently on trial are the former CBL Executive Governor Milton A. Weeks, David M. Farhat, Elsie Dossen Badio, Kollie Tamba.
They were indicted by the state for the crimes of Economic Sabotage, theft of property, fraud on the internal revenue of Liberia, misuse of public money, property or records, theft and or illegal disbursement of public money, Criminal Conspiracy and facilitation.