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Liberia
is gradually becoming a place where everyone must play to the song of
corruption or suffer the wrath of desperate politicians who peddle on enriching
themselves at the detriment of the masses, oops ‘Asses’.
The
Nimba case in point where the County’s caucus, except for the distinguished
statesman Sen.Prince Y. Johnson is a clearly triumph of evil over good.
The
Superintendent and co enjoy the confidence of all Nimbabians as we all see they
are doing the right thing in the face of boldness and integrity.
Why
should Rep.Ricks Toweh, Sen.Grupee and others of the caucus have interest in
one fraudulent company (reportedly
theirs), Western Steel and Allied Industries over another company(North Star)
that was legitimately awarded certificate by PPCC as winner of the bid to scrap
the remnants left behind by LAMCO.
Is
this why Teeko Tozay Yorlay and his boss were filed a ‘Vote of No Confidence’
by our Legislators? Is this the Liberia we all want to see where few big shots suppress
our people with fake companies and constrain local authorities to award them
contracts which they have not legitimately won? Isn’t this even conflict of
interest at its highest!!
It
can be recalled that the President of Liberia sent a letter to the Nimba
Legislative Caucus (NLC) dated November 6, 2012 awarding the scrap to the
County of Nimba. The letter clearly outlines the procedure by which this
disposal should take place including:
1.
“A
transparent bidding process will be undertaken to obtain a contracted dealer
who will dismantle and sell the scrap at acceptable value;
2.
The
proceeds of the scrap will be deposited in a Central Bank escrow account with
full details provided to the people and leaders of Nimba County.
3.
The
people of Nimba, through their leaders and in consultation with the Management
of Arcelor Mittal, will decide on projects to be financed by the sale of the
scrap metal.
4.
The
Superintendent of Nimba County will advise the Minister of Finance and Minister
of Lands, Mines and Energy on the projects to be financed.
5.
The
Minister of Finance will authorize the Central Bank to release the funds to the
County to be managed similarly as the County Development Funds.”
In
the wake of said letter, Rep.Ricks Toweh and colleagues quickly established
Western Steel which has proven to be non-existent but meant to defraud the
people of Nimba their just benefits. Has anyone tried to find Western Steel’s
offices in Liberia or anywhere around the globe? Has anyone thought to gather
why Sen.Prince Johnson was fought at all lengths from his party to the caucus?
The
astute Nimba Senator announced to the public that a caucus meeting held at RLJ
Resort ended in deadlock over this same ‘Scrap issue’.
His
colleagues he said were seen sharing huge sums of money over half a million
which he refused to join in the gravy.
Sen.Johnson
said the money had reportedly been a bribe by Western Steel, a scrap company in
an effort to award them certificate as winner of a bid in the absence of a
legitimate bidding process.
This
was as far back as 2012 and since then, the Prince Johnson saga has never ended
with the entire caucus treating him as an ordinary person in Nimba.
If
this picture can give any reader why these lawmakers have ganged up against the
local county authority then so be it.
PMC
CHAIR SUSPENSION
The
Project Management Committee (PMC) Chairman,Mr. Clinton Layweh and former
Superintendent Christiana D. Dagadu
disbursed in the space of three (3) weeks US$300,000.00 to procure fuel from
Super Petroleum when they could not produce utilization report for even US 5,000.00
according to documents available. The
PMC in the same space of time disbursed another check of $59,925.00 for spare
parts. The parts are not available. All
requested from the PMC Chairman is to provide supporting documents for the
transactions as well as the utilization log for the quantity of fuel the money
was intended for as well as the spare parts procured. The PMC Chairman
requested for some time to compile the documents. The time came and passed. The
relevant documents are not available.
The
Nimba Legislative Caucus was informed about this issue, but claimed that the PMC Chair and the former
Superintendent had done no wrong as buying the fuel was sufficient than showing
prove of utilization and so the two (2) persons should be left alone. The
current County Administration informs that Nimba Legislative Caucus that
proceeding that way is wrong because the report for this amongst other
expenditures have been made without proof of proper usage of the fuel and
accountability as a result of which the Ministry of Finance has refused to
release to Nimba County since March of this year the amount of $400,000.00 of
its Social Development Fund President Sirleaf had ordered released to the
county.
The
prevailing situation is that Nimba County PMC Chairman cannot account for over
US$370,000.00, the County cannot receive any cent of her development money, the
Caucus is unconcerned about that, but is only interested in the return of the
PMC Chairman.
The
current Nimba County Administration is upset about the fact that progress is
stalled by that and took administrative action to suspend the PMC Chairman for
time indefinite without pay and the Caucus is upset that that darling PMC
Chairman is suspended.
By Reginald Dokie