-Says NOCAL did nothing wrong and he left US$18m in coffers
By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
The NOCAL management that negotiated the Oil Block 13 contract with Exxon-mobil did nothing wrong and the process was transparent, the former head of the National Oil Company of Liberia, Robert Sirleaf said on Thursday.
Robert Sirleaf, former Board Chairman of the now insolvent NOCAL, is one of the former and present government officials named in the Global Witness report for receiving fabulous bonuses in the deal.
Global Witness investigative report said: “One recipient was Robert Sirleaf, who was the oil agency’s Chairman and, as son of then-President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, was reportedly working pro bono. The oficials state that these large payments – which amounted to 160 percent of a minister’s salary – were “bonuses” authorized by the oil agency’s Board of Directors. The payments were probably made from the same bank account into which Exxon had just deposited $5 million for Block 13, although there is no evidence that Exxon itself directed or knew about payments to oficials.”
The Special committee of inquiry set up by President George Weah recently completed its work, finding the action dubious (with some individuals getting US$35,000 each) and recommended that Robert and others be made to pay back the huge bonuses they took.
The son of former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf admitted to the disbursement of bonuses of up to US$500,000.00 reported in a recent Global Witness investigative report, but said it was done with the approval of the NOCAL Board.
“The Board deliberated and approved the decision to pay bonus to the members of the HTC, Board of Directors, Senior Officers and Staff of NOCAL. The decision was documented in the Board Minutes and a Board Resolution was drawn up and approved by the Board of Directors authorizing the transaction,” Robert Sirleaf said in a statement released to the media on Thursday.
“The Global Witness report that precipitated the current discussion, and the discussion on social media reflects little understanding of the facts underlying the decision of the Government of Liberia to enter into that contract,” Mr. Sirleaf said.
According to him, in May 2017 the General Auditing Commission (GAC) completed the fiscal audit of NOCAL covering the Exxon-Mobil transaction during the period covering July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2015 when the Exxon-Mobil transaction.
“To the best of my recollection, the disbursement of the bonus to each category of people named above followed NOCAL’s internal financial disbursement procedure and was drawn on NOCAL’s operating account held with ECOBANK,” Ex-President Sirleaf’s favorite son said.
Mr. Robert Sirleaf, who did not say whether or when he will pay back his US$35,000 share of the bonuses, however said he was “pleased to have cooperated” with the special presidential committee of inquiry.
“I answered the questions asked by the committee and provided the necessary information to aid the committees in its investigation,” the former NOCAL boss stated.
Meanwhile, Robert Sirleaf has dismissed claims in some quarters that the dishing out of the half a million US dollars bonuses and his milking of NOCAL plunged the state oil company into bankruptcy.
Instead, he claimed to have left close to US$20 million in the NOCAL coffers when he resigned as head of the Board.
“I would like to point out that NOCAL had approximately US$18,000,000 in its accounts at the time I resigned in September 2013, after the payment of the bonuses, and received an additional $8,000,000 in connection with the renegotiation of certain seismic data revenue sharing agreements in late 2013.That’s a total of a documented $25,000,000 it had at its disposal after I left the NOCAL Board,” Robert Sirleaf claimed.
However, reports have said subsequent audit carry out at NOCAL discovered that more than US$32 million were unaccounted for and the institution became virtually insolvent, with the departure of the former head Dr. Randolph McClain and other top officials leaving with hefty severance pay.
Former President Sirleaf is on record to have publically said she took responsibility and no one was brought to book.
Details in subsequent time