The son of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Deputy Central Bank of Liberia Governor, Mr. Charles Sirleaf and others have been arrested by police hours after the release of the damning reports on the missing billions saga, state Radio ELBC reported Thursday evening.
The audit was conducted by the Kroll Associates hired by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the request of President George Manneh Weah last year, following reports that more than LD$16 billion brought into the country.
The US-funded independent forensic investigation and the Presidential Task force made the report public on Thursday.
Quoting credible sources, the government-run station also reported the arrest of the CBL’s Finance Manager, Mr. Dorbor Hagba.
ELBC also reported up to Friday morning that a team of Liberian police officer had also gone to arrest former Central Bank Governor, Mr. Milton Weeks.
So far, there has been no official statement from the Police or the Justice Ministry on the operation or which other official has been arrested.
“Kroll’s analysis of delivery documentation provided by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) confirms that new banknotes totaling LRD 15.506 billion were received into the CBL’s reserve vaults. Kroll found no information to support allegations that a container of banknotes went missing. However Kroll does raise concerns regarding the overall accuracy and completeness of the CBL’s internal records,” said the report which was released on Thursday.
“Kroll has identified discrepancies at every stage of the process for controlling the movement of banknotes into and out of the CBL during the Independent Review, including: the Legislature approval for printing new banknotes; the procurement and contracting of Crane AB; the shipping of new banknotes to Liberia; the delivery of new banknotes to the CBL, and; the movement of funds within and out of the CBL’s vaults,” according to the independent report.