-While Information Min Eugene Nagbe Says the PUL is “useless”
By Our Staff Writer
A key executive of the ruling CDC and one of President George Weah’s henchmen, Representative Acarious Gray has branded the Managing Editor of www.newspublictrust.com Frank Sainworla,Jr. as “anti-Weah”.
“I am disappointed in Frank Sainworla this morning…. Frank Sainworla that I know very well has been anti President George Weah,” said Rep. Gray as he spoke on the Fabric FM’s Christmas morning live phone-in talk show on 25 December.
Journalist Sainworla, a one-time Secretary General of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) during the regime of former Charles Taylor, was one of three live studio guests on Fabric FM’s popular breakfast program, NEW DAWN. He appeared along with the Minister of Information, Lenn Eugene Nagbe and the Managing Editor of one of Liberia’s leading dailies, FrontpageAfrica, Rodney Sieh to discuss the status of press freedom in Liberia and government-media relations.
Both Rep. Gray and Minister Nagbe attacked Journalist Sainworla for indicating that while no Liberian Journalist has so far been jailed by the CDC government and there was generally press freedom in the country, there were threats against critical journalists from top officials.
The one-time Station Manager of the Catholic-run Radio Veritas now Radio Maria, Mr. Sainworla said due to lack of coordination, coherence and inconsistency in public pronouncements from numerous spokesmen in the CDC government, the trust of the Liberian public in the Weah government was fast diminishing.
He cited a number of instances where truth telling has come into question in less than a year after the CDC government came to power.
Among other things, Journalist Sainworla cited the Gibraltar reroofing of hundreds of home of community residents initially said to be personally financed by President Weah but which later tuned out to be funded by public finances in the tune of over US$1 million; the conflicting accounts given by government officials about the missing billions saga; President Weah and his officials’ failure to declare their assets in line with the Code of Conduct Act.
In addition to that, Journalist Sainworla said the CDC government has been lagging in demonstrating transparency and accountability since it came to power on January 22, 2018.
Quoting Part 10 of the Code of Conduct law, the www.newspublictrust.com Managing Editor challenged earlier claims by Minister Nagbe and Rep. Gray that President Weah did not violate the law as he had earlier submitted his asset declaration as Senator and that his filing towards over six months after taking office (July 24/25, 2018) was in line with the law.
Article 10.1 Declaration of Assets and Performance Bonds, under the Liberian Code of Conduct Law states that:
“Every Public Official and Employee of Government involved in making decisions affecting contracting, tendering or procurement, and issuance of licenses of various types shall sign performance or financial bonds and shall in addition declare his or her income, assets and liabilities prior to taking office and thereafter: a. at the end of every three years; b. on promotion or progression from one level to another; c. upon transfer to another public office; and d. upon retirement or resignation.”
Meanwhile, Information Minister Eugene Nagbe on the Christmas Day Fabric FM talk show has described the PUL as a “useless” group; a characterization he was constrained to backtrack on towards the end of the radio program.
The Liberian Information Minister appeared visibly upset with the PUL for not condemning FrontpageAfrica newspaper story about the Ministers of State and Finance raising a US$182,000 voucher to pay questionable debt incurred during the regime of ex-president Charles Taylor.
The debt was owed to Rocktown Tool & Equipment based in New York, USA. However, a FrontPageAfrica investigation found that the company closed down in 2003 because it could not meet up with its tax obligations.