By Alfred Kollie, alfredkolliejr92@gmail.com
The Management of Liberia Cocoa Corporation has taken the Liberia Anti-Corruption (LACC) and the Senate Committee on Agriculture to task, the group has said in a press release at the weekend.
The Corporation says it is deeply troubled that the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry and the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) would publish reports that contain not only gross misrepresentations of facts but outright lies against Liberia Cocoa Corporation and its CEO, Mr. Momolu Tolbert.
The LACC recently said that it is deeply worried about acts of corruption discovered at the Ministry of Agriculture.
LACC Executive Chairperson, Edwin Kla Martin, said:” The intelligence gathered by the anti-graft institution points to reckless disregard of the Public Financial Management laws by the Ministry’s top officials.”
Cllr. Martin also said he is baffled by the way officials have swept aside the Public Procurement laws and the Code of Conduct for public officials, at the Agriculture Ministry.
On January 10, 2022, the LACC announced that it has placed the entire leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture under full scale corruption investigation.
”The investigation is based on issues of conflict of interest, financial improprieties and other inappropriate awarding of contracts, amounting to millions of United States Dollars,” the LACC said
But in a press release issued in Monrovia over the weekend, the Liberia Cocoa Corporation said it is prepared to disprove each brazen lie presented by both the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry and the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission with documentary and photographic evidence.
The management of Liberia Cocoa Corporation however challenged the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission to make available to the management of Liberia Cocoa Corporation or to publish for the general public the “alleged contract” for US$1.4 million that was “allegedly” and “unilaterally” awarded to Mr. Momolu Tolbert by Hon. Jeanine M. Cooper.
Furthermore, the management of Liberia Cocoa Corporation wants the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry to make available to the management of Liberia Cocoa Corporation and/or publish for the general public any and all documents and or reports that support the Senate Committee’s claim that Mr. Momolu Tolbert brought into the country “all dead cocoa seeds that were not F1 Hybrid Cocoa Seeds”.
The management of Liberia Cocoa Corporation is confident that Liberia Cocoa Corporation and its CEO, Mr. Tolbert, will be fully vindicated from these shameless and politically motivated lies that the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry and the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission has falsely presented to the general public as “truth”.