By William Selmah wselmah@gmail.com
The Speaker of Liberia’s House of Representatives Dr. Bhofal Chambers has said that former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a “person of interest” in the reported disappearance of billions of Liberian dollar banknotes.
At no time did the Legislature order the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) to print more than five billion Liberian bank notes, contrary to assertions by the CBL, Speaker Chambers said.
The CBL insists there are supporting documents that prove it had legislative backing to print the excess banknote, something the Speaker believes is farfetched.
At a press briefing on Thursday, Speaker Chambers lashed at former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for trying to use the missing billion saga to set the Liberian people against the CDC led government, saying “the Liberian people are not fools.”
But former President Sirleaf has strongly dismissed criticisms of her government’s action, saying that documents are there to prove that the printing of the Liberian currency was done in line with the law.
The Speaker is also demanding apologies from the former President to President Weah, and the people of Liberia for what he sees as recent disparaging comments to the effect that the current government did not understand the country’s GDP, when she broke silence on the hullabaloo surrounding the status of the excess money.
Chambers reminded Johnson-Sirleaf that what’s at stake transcends hauling and pulling about understanding or not understanding the country’s GDP.
“If the former President knew GDP, Ebola would not have spread throughout the country but would have been curbed in Lofa County” where the outbreak was initially reported.
The Speaker of the Legislature also questioned the President’s understanding of the country’s GDP during her administration when only two out of 68 contracts signed then were considered good and in national interest.
Speaker Chambers is meanwhile urging the former leader to stop shielding her son Charles Sirleaf during the investigation as he is a well placed person.
Mr. Sirleaf is the current Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) on fiscal matters; a post he also served when his mother led the country.
Dr. Chambers also pointed out that the alleged missing currency scenario shows some of the damaging effects of nepotism which is often detested in good governance.
There is an ongoing investigation to ascertain the whereabouts of some 16 billion minted Liberian bank notes.
Senior government officials have been making conflicting statements on the matter. Information Minister Eugene Nagbe insists the money was brought but never reported while Finance Minister Samuel Tweah and CBL Governor Nathaniel Patray maintain that no monies have gone missing.
CBL Governor Patray at a recent news conference: “Record from the Crane Currency of Sweden, which was contracted to print the money, shows that the Crane delivered 15.5 billion through the Freeport and RIA between 2016 and 2018 and that all these monies were logged by the CBL and delivered to the reserve vaults of the CBL”.
The U.S. Government recently offered to bring in internationally recognized experts in forensic investigations to help establish facts surrounding the currency issue.