-Contradicts Justice and Information Ministers
-Attempts to use media as scapegoat
By our Staff Writer
Finance Minister Samuel Tweah on Thursday morning stunned the increasingly angry citizens by saying there are no missing containers with billions of Liberian dollar banknotes, as the Justice Ministry had earlier confirmed and the Information Minister told the media.
Speaking on the local OK FM live breakfast phone-in talk show, Minister Tweah described the reports of the disappearance of the billions of Liberian dollars as “fake news”.
But the media reports have been based on official press releases/statements coming from the Justice and Information Ministries.
He said Liberians should disregard information so far received from officials that ongoing investigations have to do with disappearance of 16 billion Liberian dollars brought into the country from November 2017 to August 2018.
Mr. Tweah acknowledged that the ongoing financial scandal has brought disgrace to Liberia saying that international financial and economic institutions have been calling him to find out what’s happening in the country amidst to wide local and international coverage.
However, contradicting previous official government accounts from Justice Minister Frank Musah Dean and Information Minister Eugene Nagbe this week, the Liberian Finance Minister indicated that the whereabouts of the containers of money that came into the country are not unknown.
Minister Tweah instead said the ongoing investigations being done by government has nothing to do with containers of money getting missing.
According to him, what is being investigated by the government is not disappearance of billions of dollars but the “credibility” of the financial and monetary system of the country over the last few years.
Here is full text of the initial press release from Liberia’s Justice Minister and Attorney General, Cllr. Frank Musah Dean issued on Monday, September 17, 2018 confirming media reports of investigations into the disappearance of containers and bags of up to nine billion Liberian dollars.
