By Our Reporter
Just days after he said the recent independent investigations into the missing 16 billions saga had “vindicated” his CDC government, President George Manneh Weah has requested the General Auditing Commission (GAC) to do an investigative audit into how the US$25 million given for MopUp exercise was expanded.
The Executive Mansion announced on Thursday that President Weah’s request was given through a directive to Justice Minister, Musah Dean.
It said that the directive grew out of the Presidential Investigative Team’s report, which calls for a ‘forensic investigation’ of the entire mop-up exercise carried out by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), and the report done by Kroll – an institution of international repute which was commissioned by the U.S. Government.
The CBL is part of the Technical Economic Management Team, which is headed by Finance Minister Samuel Tweah. And President Weah last Jusly ordered the EMT to carry out the exercise.
The Kroll Associates Incorporated report speaks of gross discrepancies and calls for ‘further understanding’ of how the exercise was conducted
The Presidential Investigative Team (PIT) report also speaks of gross discrepancies in the handling of the MopUP exercise and goes even further by said the implementation of the exercise bordered on criminality.
The GAC is given a two-week mandate to report on their findings.
In July 2018, the Liberian government approved the infusion of U.S. $25million into the Liberian economy in order to bring about stability on the market.
The Kroll report said: “Given the many discrepancies observed throughout the investigation in relation to the operations of the Central Bank of Liberia in executing its statutory mandate, there is a need to review the Standard Operational Procedures (SOP), banking supervision and internal controls of the Central Bank of Liberia to curb the possibility of abuse of the money supply of the nation; as well as, enhancing efficiency and productivity. 3.7 To further protect currency banknotes in reserve, the Central Bank of Liberia should consider discontinuing the use of the Vault at the erstwhile National Housing and Saving Bank.”