BY Our Reporter
Speaking shortly after his arrival from a state visit to Israel, President George Manneh Weah told reporters that he was pleased with the findings of the US-funded international investigation, as it has “vindicated” his CDC government of any culpability.
“I knew this would have vindicated my government,” the Liberian leader claimed in response to Journalists’ question on his reaction to the report.
President Weah thanked the United States Ambassador and the US government for honouring his request last September to help in getting to the bottom of the 16 billions saga.
The findings reached by the Kroll Associates said although no container of 16 billion Liberian dollars went missing and that the billions of dollars of new Liberian banknotes printed abroad were put in the care of the Central Bank of Liberia before and after January 2018, there were massive discrepancies discovered found
Kroll’s analysis of delivery documentation provided by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) confirms that new banknotes totaling LRD 15.506 billion were received into the CBL’s reserve vaults. Kroll found no information to support allegations that a container of banknotes went missing.
However, Kroll raised concerns regarding the overall accuracy and completeness of the CBL’s internal records.
The report released last Thursday by the independent forensic investigation team also found discrepancies have been discovered in the CDC government carried out the US$25 mopping up exercise on the money market and “Potential for money laundering” was also spotted.
“Kroll has reviewed documentation that showed an order was placed on July 10, 2018 to draw down funds totaling USD 20.0 million from the CBL’s Federal Reserve Bank of New York account to fund the USD Mop-Up Exercise. The date of the order (July 10, 2018) was made several days in advance of the Board of Governors decree (July 16, 2018). It is not clear if the draw down was made earlier than approval was provided for the USD Mop-Up Exercise.”
“Kroll’s analysis of information provided by the CBL identified that LRD banknotes totaling LRD 2.3 billion (USD 15.0 million) were purchased for the USD Mop-Up Exercise between July 2018 and October 2018.”
“Kroll was not provided with documentation setting out how the USD MopUp Exercise was structured or implemented, or which organizations were targeted by the CBL,” the report says.
“Kroll has identified discrepancies at every stage of the process for controlling the movement of banknotes into and out of the CBL during the Independent Review, including: the Legislature approval for printing new banknotes; the procurement and contracting of Crane AB; the shipping of new banknotes to Liberia; the delivery of new banknotes to the CBL, and; the movement of funds within and out of the CBL’s vaults.
Kroll’s Independent Review has identified the following key findings, based on the documents provided during the scoping phase of work:
The CBL ordered new currency totaling LRD 15.0 billion from Crane Currency in two tranches in 2016 and 2017. Communications between the CBL and the Legislature indicate that there was no clear or consistent strategy driving the process to circulate new banknotes from inception to conclusion. As a result, this raised the risk of unintended negative economic effects, including high inflation and the rapid depreciation of the LRD.
Legislature approval was granted on May 17, 2016 for the CBL to print new banknotes totaling LRD 5.0 billion. However, Crane AB was awarded an initial contract on May 6, 2016 by the CBL to print new banknotes totaling LRD 5.0 billion, eleven days before the Legislature approval was granted.
Legislature approval was not granted in the same manner as 2016 for the CBL to print a second tranche of new banknotes totaling LRD 10.0 billion in 2017.
Crane AB was awarded the second contract in June 2017 by the CBL to print new banknotes totaling LRD 10.0 billion, four weeks before two officials from the Legislature requested that the CBL replace all legacy banknotes.
The CBL procured the services of Crane AB for both contracts without adhering to its own internal tendering policies for procurement.
The actual value of new banknotes printed by Crane AB to Liberia totaled LRD 15.506 billion, therefore new banknotes totaling LRD 0.506 billion were printed by Crane AB above the initial contractual amount of LRD 15.0 billion.
Records provided by Crane AB and its logistics company provided a documentation trail for new banknotes totaling LRD 15.506 billion having been shipped by Crane AB. Records also show that the CBL paid Crane AB for new banknotes totaling LRD 15.506 billion. However, delivery documentation provided by the CBL indicated that Crane AB printed and shipped a greater quantity of banknotes to Liberia.
Of the new banknotes printed and shipped by Crane AB totaling LRD 15.506 billion, the CBL had injected new banknotes totaling LRD 10.146 billion into the Liberian economy without removing from circulation (and destroying) the equivalent quantity/value of legacy banknotes.
Under the direction of the Minister of Finance, the President’s Economic Management Team conducted a separate USD 25.0 million exercise to “mop-up” excess LRD banknotes with USD banknotes. At the time of Kroll’s review, this resulted in LRD 2.3 billion (USD 15.0 million)3 being purchased by the CBL from local businesses and foreign exchange bureaus, in an attempt to address the depreciation of the Liberian Dollar. This action was undertaken by the CBL without a clearly documented strategy.
Kroll’s independent counts of the physical cash balances in each of the CBL’s three operational vaults could not be reconciled with the CBL’s corresponding financial accounting records.
The aforementioned key findings are summarized in more detail in the subsequent sections below.”