-Could be revoked by future Liberian government
By Matthew J. Wesseh, Minnesota, USA.
There is common Liberian saying that town trap is not for rat alone. Another common Liberian saying is that if you point you finger to someone, four of your fingers are pointed back to you. The wisdom in these statements are playing themselves out right in our faces in relation to how the government of President George Weah is proceeding with agreements and concessions signed by the past government versus how they are proceeding in concluding new agreements, especially the US$536 million ETON and the US$420 EBOMAF loan deals.
It can be recalled that one of the first major decisions taken by President Weah was to set up a nine-member committee comprising mainly top lawyers to review past agreements/concessions in order to “ensure compliance with the procedural and substantive requirements of Liberian law and to also evaluate the justification including benefits to the Liberian people and the nation for the tax and other incentives granted.”
Consequently, after the Review Committee presented its preliminary report, President George Weah on May 7, 2018 wrote the National Legislature withdrawing five concession agreements including the Dankote Cement and the Nimba Rubber Incorporated (NRI) agreements because they were not consistent with the laws of Liberia. In his communication to the Legislature, the President wrote, “I hereby recall these agreements from the legislature for reassessment by the National Investment Commission (NIC) to enable them meet fully procedural and substantive requirements, as well as value-for-money test, to assert the benefit of the Liberian people before possible resubmission to the legislature,” The President Weah added that the Review Committee had found that “several provisions of the amended Public Procurement and Concession Act of 2010 were violated” in those agreements.
I was one of many Liberians who hailed the President for this great move and felt that the Weah government was proceeding rightly. However, I felt sick and was very angry when the same President Weah who had withdrawn agreements because of their non-adherence to Liberian laws, especially the PPCC law, would himself decide to shamelessly and flagrantly conclude two questionable loan deals that clearly violates the same procurement laws.
In the ETON Finance US$536 million loan deal, the Weah government, without going through any competitive procurement process as required by the PPCC Act, handpicked a subsidiary of ETON Finance, MAEIL Construction Liberia Ltd, as the “Contractor”, who may choose to subcontract Liberian construction companies, without any competitive procurement process. The other problem here is that by being a subsidiary of the loan giver, ETON, MAEIL Construction will also be the loan recipient because it will be the one to whom the loan proceeds will go to finance the construction costs. Besides being problematic because of violation of our procurement laws, the ETON deal is problematic because of the potential conflict of interest inherent in having the loan giver serving as the loan recipient. With this situation, the incentive for hiking the cost of construction works in order to unfairly recover loan proceeds is very high.
The EBOMAF loan deal is even more troubling. In blatant violation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials, the Burkinabe owner of EBOMAF compromised the Liberian President by gifting him a private jet without “any strings attached.” One week later, President Weah sent another loan deal in the amount of US$420 million to enable his Burkinabe friend’s company, EBOMAF, to undertake the construction contracts. Again, the form and manner in which Weah chose his friend’s company openly and shamelessly violated the procurement laws of Liberia.
So here is the contradiction: Weah is withdrawing agreements from the Legislature for violating PPCC laws and is at the same time sending agreements in the whopping amount of US$1 billion, far in excess of the combined dollar value of all the agreements he has withdrawn, in flagrant violation of the same PPCC law. So is Weah saying to us that violation of procurement laws by Ellen Sirleaf is problematic, but violation of the same procurement law and our Code of Conduct by him is fine? In short, what this proves is that Weah knows that violation of the procurement laws of our country is wrong. So if he is the same one openly violating our procurement laws, it only proves that his actions arewillful and deliberate.
As obnoxious as Weah’s contradictory actions may seem, we need to take comfort in the fact that future governments of Liberia can take a page from Weah’s playbook to order a review and possible termination of the corrupt ETON and EBOMAF loan deals because they were concluded and ratified in blatant, willful, and deliberate violation of Liberian laws. Weah should not think that it is only he and his government that can review, alter or cancel past agreements.
The future governments of Liberia reserve the right to review, alter and possibly cancel these lawless loan deals in order to cut-off the chains of debt slavery that Weah would have put future governments and the people of Liberia in. Weah has already set the precedent for such action. ETON and EBOMAF should beware.
The agreements you are today concluding illegally with heavily bribed Liberian officials will be subjected to review and possible termination tomorrow! A HINT TO THE WISE