Speaks Of Lack Of Transparency And Accountability @ The Port, Calls For NPA Boss Sekou Dukuly To Undergo Training At LIPA
As NPA Management Questions The Ombudsman Office Authority
PHOTO: (L-R) Cllr. Findley Karngar, Ombudsman Office head and Sekou Dukuly, NPA MD
By Frank Sainworla, Jr., fsainworla@yahoo.com
An investigative report by the Ombudsman Office has held the Management of the National Port Authority (NPA) guilty of illegally dismissing three employees, violating the National Code of Conduct, the workers’ rights and is calling for their reinstatement.
Findings of the Ombudsman’s investigation, contained in a nearly 15-pay report which is in the possession of www.newspublictrust.com, say: “The NPA’s dismissal of the Complainants was in violation of Section 4.10 of the Code of Conduct and Article 5 Section 2 (A) (I) of the 2022 Employees Handbook of the NPA.”
The investigation was conducted early this year, 2025.
The Ombudsman has rubbished the NPA management’s claim that this Ombudsman’s office doesn’t have the authority to investigate the NPA for any, and all, alleged breach of the Code of Conduct.
Management of the NPA is said to have told the Ombudsman Office that the entity was not a government agency.
In April 2024, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai appointed prominent human rights Lawyer, Cllr. Findly Karngar to head the Office of the Ombudsman along with other members. This office is charged with the responsibilities among other things, to enforce the adherence to the Code of Conduct, which over the years not been activated.
Those dismissed by the NPA are Madams Sema G. Tulay, Annett S. Nebo and Georgina Dixon, who complained that the NPA management violated the Code of Conduct as well as the NIDA’s internal regulations by dismissing them against the findings of an audit report.
Based on their complaint, the Office of the Ombudsman said it launched an Investigation, reviewed the matter and decided to probe it.
“At end of the investigation, the investigation finds the NPA management guilty for the violations Article 5, Section 2 (A) (I) of the NPA Handbook. Because of the multiple violations identified, the NPA management is to reinstate the dismissed employees and is required to implement the portion of the audit findings to enhance transparency and accountability. It is also essential that the NPA Management investigates claimants/customers who are alleged to have fraudulently changed bank slips thus depriving the Government of Liberia of the amount as mentioned in the said audit,” the Ombudsman report states.”
The NPA was later held liable for violating the Complainants’ right to due process.
According to the Ombudsman Office report, the Investigation cited the NPA management along with the complainants for a hearing.
But the report noted that the complainants appeared in-person for the hearings, while the NPA management declined to make physical appearance “on grounds that the investigation does not have jurisdiction to cite the NPA,” a claim the Ombudsman Office has since debunk.
The report further said: “The investigation decided the jurisdictional question based on Section 2.1 of the Code of Conduct (Code) and concluded that the it had jurisdiction over the NPA and the matter.”
In its conclusion, the Ombudsman Office is calling for reinstatement of the three dismissed NPA employees, noting that there is a lack of transparency and accountability at the Port, which is the gateway to the Liberian economy.
The report adds that: “The NPA takes a serious look at its internal system and addresses the issues of transparency and accountability. This exercise should be conducted as a matter of urgency.”
Meanwhile, the Ombudsman Office says it is necessary for the NPA Managing Director, Sekou Dukuly and the Port Authority’s Legal counsel to be properly trained in “administrative etiquette” at LIPA, the Liberia Institute for Public Administration.
“The Managing Director, Hon. Sekou Dukuly and his in-house counsel should sign up at Liberia Institute for Public Administration (LIPA), at their personal expense, for training in Administration. They both demonstrated lack of knowledge of administrative etiquette when the legal counsel of the entity responded to the Ombudsman instead of its Head claiming that the NPA is not a creature of the Liberian state,” the Ombudsman Office report concludes.