by Wonderr K. Freeman & Marc N. Kollie

Over the past years, as regime in Liberia shuffled between Unity Party (UP) and the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), the country has long been rocked by many corruption scandals – often flagrant and unconscionable. So many corruption cases, but very few cases of accountability[1]. In many cases (and on a sad note too), the culprits have been allowed to go with impunity. Meanwhile, Liberia’s socio-economic situation remain precarious. Liberia is still deemed as one of the world’s least developed countries[2]. Liberia does have a constitution, multiple statutes, and regulations relevant to holding its leaders accountable for the actions or inactions that are detrimental to the wellbeing of nation. But who will hold who accountable? Often the very perpetrators are the same ones wielding power and deciding whether or not there should be accountability. This is Liberia’s conundrum. How they get past this is the challenge for this generation of Liberians.

Notwithstanding this complication, as advocates, it’s our job to speak out on the need for accountability and appeal to the conscience of the nation, that peace, development, and prosperity do have preconditions, some of which include adherence to the rule of law, accountability, and putting an end to impunity. So, in this piece, as part of a series(s), we document top acts and instances of public sector corruption that we think are unforgiveable and for which there must be accountability. And this is also to remind the new administration of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai and his Unity Party Coalition that any failure to hold people accountable or render justice where it is due, will amount to dereliction of duty. So, here are the top corruption scandals for which there is still time to investigate and to hold people accountable.

1. Sale of Liberian [Diplomatic] Passports and Consulate Positions  

On September 10, 2020, the US government (State Department) barred Mr. Andrew Wonplo, his wife, and minor children from entering the USA, on grounds that Mr. Wonplo was deeply involved in a passport selling scandal (2018-2019) that rocked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Liberia)[1]. The US State Department claimed it was acting on credible information. The allegation was that Liberian passports and consulate positions (including official and diplomatic passports) were being auctioned off to fraudsters, money launderers and transnational criminals. One of such “diplomatic” passport a few years later, landed in the hand of transnational criminal suspect, Sheikh Bassirou Kante[2], who had executive-level contacts with Liberian government officials. President George Weah, as usual, announced an investigation. Liberians are still awaiting the outcome of this Committee’s work. In reality, the Ministry of Justice declined to prosecute Mr. Andrew Wonplo, and he was set free by the courts. Some of the accused persons are now senators, while others have other new government posts, and still yet others are roaming around scot-free. As for Mr. Wonplo, he contends that it was an executive-level passport-selling syndicate, and that he was made the sacrificial lamb. As far as we can tell, there is fire to this smoke. But the first step is a thorough investigation to know the depth of the scandal and people to hold accountable. The sale of a country’s passports and consulate positions is not something to sweep under the carpet. It is ipso facto illicit commercialization of the very symbols of our sovereignty. This is not something to continence or condone.  This is one offense against the people of Liberia that just must not be swept under the carpet. Those who sold off our passports and consulate positions must pay the price for their criminal conduct. That’s how you end impunity!

Conclusion:   Our passports and consulate positions were clearly sold to the highest bidder (and in some instance transnational criminals), and even as we write, no one was ever held accountable. This is a heinous crime against the people of Liberia and for which there must be accountability. These scandals and allegations need to be investigated so that such a disgraceful and unpatriotic act(s) may never again be repeated.    

2.0 Executive Mansion Unending Renovation & the Dark Money Syndicate at the Ministry of State 

As Liberia celebrated its 159^th independence, a fire gutted the Executive Mansion during the celebration. Now, this was a refurbished building, already, but due to the fire mishap, which affected the 4^th floor essentially. This unfortunate event opened up a new “chopping spree” in the Office of the Presidency. By August 2019, the Liberian government had dumped at least US$20m[1] in the “renovation”. News organs raised the issue and same was discussed even at the Liberian legislature. Notwithstanding millions in “renovation” costs, current President Joseph Boakai still can’t use this “renovated” Executive Mansion, because, as his government puts it, the Mansion is still in shambles. It is still unclear as to exactly how much was spent on Executive Mansion “renovation”. At the time the issue was raised in the House of Representatives, it was estimated to be $20 million (in the hole). To date, we don’t know exactly how much was really spent. And as for the 20m USD already spent, that money could arguably have built a brand-new “presidential palace”. Instead, we have $20m US dollars just for “renovation”. Clearly, something is rotten here, and it is incumbent on the government to find exactly what rots. The price tag is stupendous ($20m USD). Some people need to provide some answers. Something rots at the Ministry of State, where all this “renovation” occurred. We find it unsurprising that Nathaniel McGill was sanctioned by the US government for corruption at the Ministry of State – as that is the same Ministry of State that was responsible for the “renovation” of the Executive Mansion since the “fire” incident. Something rots over there, and we need to find out exactly what!

Conclusion:   We need to know exactly how much was spent on Executive Mansion “renovation”. At the last count, it was said to be USD20m. For $20m, we could have had a “brand new” Executive Mansion. We still don’t know what the full figure is. We owe this to the Liberian taxpayers. We need to know if Liberia was scammed. The notion that at least $20m has been spent and the Mansion is still not ready for the new President to occupy speaks volumes. It’s high time we got answers, and if there were corruption, some people need to give account. There is still time to have this accounting! And this accounting must be extended to the Ministry of State (in its entirety across all their operations). To do justice to this process such financial investigation and accountability must cover both the UP era and the CDC era.

3.0 The Case of Illegal Concessions – the LEITI/Moore Stephens Audit Revisited

In keeping with its statutory obligations, the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) commissioned an audit to investigate the “process by which each material concession, contract, license, and other rights have been awarded” in respect of forestry, mining, oil, agriculture, and other designated resource sectors of Liberia in order to determine whether each concession, contract, license, and similar right(s) was awarded in compliance with applicable Liberian laws. This was a laudable objective, but little did Liberians know that what sounded so mundane and innocuous would touch off a political firestorm and expose endemic grand corruption, that still reverberates to today. And for this mission, the international UK-based auditing firm, Moore Stephens, was hired. This special audit covered the following government ministries and agencies (MA’s)

Table 1            Scope of Audit, Contracts and Sectors Count[1]

Sector Agency	Nature of Contract	Count	Sector #
Ministry of Agriculture	Concessions	4 contracts	4
NOCAL	Production Sharing Contract	5 contracts	5
Forestry FDA	Forest Management	4 contracts	32
	Timber Sale Contracts	5 contracts
	Private Use Permits	23 contracts
Lands, Mines & Energy	Exploration Licenses	14 contracts	23
	Class B Minin Licenses	4 contracts
	Gold & Diamond Dealers	5 contracts
	Mineral Development Agreement	4 contracts
TOTAL Concessions & Contracts		68	68

The opportunity for a poor development country to sign a contract with an investor is a solemn obligation to raise the tax revenue, increase local employment and position the country to benefit from the extraction of its natural resources wealth – akin to what we see in Norway, Australia, UAE (Dubai) and other such countries. Instead, what we got was greed and graft on an industrial scale. Our leaders in both the Executive and the Legislature became ensnared in an elaborate scheme to schmooze with investors – to the detriment of the state, thereby leading to the most unfortunate situation in the economic history of Liberia where a staggering 97% of these contracts were deemed to be in contravention of Liberia laws. Now, in any normal country, heads would roll. But this national calamity turned into a political football in Liberia. To date, no comprehensive criminal investigation has ever been conducted to know which specific officials betrayed the trust of the people, and hence, who ought to pay for their crimes.

The LEITI/Moore Stephens’ Audit was a systems audit and, understandably, very limited in scope. Hence, having found troubling instances of non-compliance with Liberian laws, it was incumbent on the Government of Liberia (GOL) to commission a detailed forensic investigation (with a much-extended scope) to determine the nature and extent of criminal culpability. Sadly, we went from UP to CDC and back to UP, with no word yet of detailed investigation and accountability. The current socio-economic issues causing protests at concession area, causing injuries and worse yet deaths, are not isolated instances. They have their origins in lop-sided concession deals in which our politicians betrayed the trust of the Liberian people and, for which they have, so far, evaded accountability. As noted in the final document, this [audit] report relates only to the review of the award of concessions, contracts, licenses, permits and other rights of exploitation of diamond, gold, oil, timber, and agricultural resources of Liberia from 13 July 2009 to 31 December 2011 and [did] not extend to a review of the entire process of the entities granting Concessions. Any detailed forensic investigation of concession must have an extended scope and be as comprehensive as possible. The Moore Stephens audit necessitates that such detailed investigation must be conducted ASAP.

Conclusion:   This shameless compromising of the national interest by hordes of greedy politicians must not go with impunity. Given the limited scope of the audit (time and sectors), there is a need for a new audit with increased scope. We reiterate that the troubles at Bea Mountains and other concessions are not isolated. They have deep-seated origins in our class of corrupt politicians who abused the privilege of representing the country in these negotiations and signed bogus deals that hurt their own country. Such persons need to be identified and punished for the crimes.  UP (Ellen Sirleaf) ducked this obligation, as well as her fierce critic Mr. George Weah (CDC). And now their common critic is president (Mr. Boakai/UP 3.0), and he is yet to specifically address this humongous economic plunder that is the “LEITI” audit. The Liberian people deserves better from this government. The Liberian people deserves a comprehensive audit of concessions deals going back of the first UP government up to the CDC regime. We need full disclosure on all concessions deals to date. This government promised audit and investigations, and that must necessarily include the granting of concessions – for all intents and purposes.

4.0 Fraud in Government Funding of Business (SME) Loans – the Private Sector Development Initiative (Loans Scheme)

Private Sector Development Initiative (PSDI) Loan scheme was a government’s initiative aimed at empowering the private sector of Liberia. The program was agreed by the Economic Management Team (EMT), Cabinet and was approved in the FY13/14 National Budget of Liberia. The Program was actually headed by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP). It was arguably one of the worst business-finance failures of the decade. Dr. James Kollie, the former Deputy Minister of Finance for Fiscal Affairs and former head of the Liberia Maritime Authority, was held principally responsible for the mismanagement as per audit reports. In a blame game response in July 2017, Dr. Kollie accused the current Finance minister, Mr. Boima Kamara of masterminding a witch-hunt and prematurely leaking the report to the press.

This loan scheme had all the ingredients of a great economic support scheme to local businesses. To encourage and develop the private sector, the MFDP and LBDI signed MOU for the provision of funds as loans to vetted Liberians and businesses. In the end, as is the case with Liberia and its culture of impunity, the PSDI resulted to a laundering scheme in which politicians and their relatives paid themselves throughout the process, wasting millions of USD. The PSDI audit found fraud during the administration of the scheme. The matter is yet to be investigated for potential criminal responsibility and accountability. To put an end to our culture of impunity, such abuse of office and graft must be investigated, and culprits punished.

Conclusion:               Prior to this scheme and even now, businesses (the private sector) didn’t seem to be booming to complement job opportunities in the public sector. An empowered private sector will of course create opportunities and reduce the burden on the public sector as the biggest employer. Unfortunately, politicians corrupted this lofty project and used the loan monies for personal gains. What hurts even further is that fact all those that received the said loan didn’t pay back at all. Many public figures, including, for example, former Liberty Party Chairman, who is now host of the top talk show, Closing Argument, Ben Sanvee didn’t pay back and went with impunity. Ironically, he now pontificates on “Closing Argument” (talk show) on all the virtues of governance and accountability.  How about paying back that PSDI loan, Ben? And he’s not alone.  there were many, too many to mention, who took this money and just never paid. They are banking on Liberia’s culture of impunity. It is high time Liberia strikes back.

Unless this matter is fully addressed and a renewed approach is taken, the private sector will remain lagging behind and underdeveloped. And worst yet, if impunity remains as it is, what is there to stop others from engaging in similar misconduct? It is not surprising that similar accusations of embezzlement beclouding the Small Business Pro-Poor Development Loan under the CDC government. ***

*** In our subsequent write up we will delve further into the scandals that plague the CDC Pro-Poor Loan Scheme.

5.0 The Case of Bill Tweahway and Kanio Gbala’s Buchanan Port Corruption Scandal

Bill Twehway, then Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA) orchestrated the diversion of over $1.5 million in vessel storage fees from the NPA into a private account. Even more egregious, Mr. Twehway joined with Mr. Kanio Gbala who was Vice Chairperson of Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) at the time.  The pair and their accomplices secretly formed a private shell company believed to be Creative Developers Initiative (CDI) and leveraged their official position to unilaterally award a contract for loading and unloading cargo at the Port of Buchanan. The contract was awarded to the company less than a month after its founding. Twehway, Kanio and others used family members to obfuscate their own involvement in the company, while still benefiting financially from the company. Bill was a beneficial owner of the company.

Mr. Twehway’s brother owned 50 per cent of the CDI’s shares. The then Deputy Comptroller at the Port, Mr. Christian D. Brownell owned 20 percent shares, Sidiki Fofana, 20 percent while the sister of the former Vice Chair of the LACC, Cllr. Kanio Bai Gbala, Zarylee Gbala, owned 10 percent shares. It’s already clearly established that while he served as Vice Chairperson of the LACC, Mr. Gbala received monies from the company’s account directly without any evidence of work or service performed. Why is the Vice Chairperson of LACC and the Managing Director of the Port Authority setting up a private company to do business with the very government that they are top officials of? This is a flagrant conflict of interest and shows the extent of the impunity in Liberia. And sadly too, we are still waiting for a comprehensive investigation into this matter. Liberia lost well over USD500k, yet not a single person has been held to account. Why? When will this impunity end in Liberia to that development can begin?

Conclusion:            This presents a clear case of corruption, conflict of interest, economic sabotage and money laundering by public officials. This trend seems to be commonplace and as such, investigation and prosecution must be used as tools to discourage same. The economic impact is grave of course. When a public official uses his position and authority to loot public resources, the result not only embarrasses the country’s reputation internationally but also negatively impacts the economy and scares away investors. Also, this type of corruption prevents true businesses from engaging in such commerce, as the fraudsters and crooks are awarded government contracts. The way to end impunity is to begin to hold people accountable for their crimes. In this case, the evidence is overwhelming and available, but all the culprits are moving about scot-free. Impunity must end before Liberia can make significant progress. This is just no other way to make progress.   

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[1] LEITI, 2013, LEITI Post-Award Process Audit, Final Report, May 2013, pg. 4

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[1] See story at: https://newspublictrust.com/special-house-committee-to-probe-marathon-executive-mansion-renovation-under-ellen

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[1] See official public designation at  https://2017-2021.state.gov/public-designation-of-andrew-wonplo-due-to-involvement-in-significant-corruption/

[2]

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[1] Brownie Samukai, Milton Teahjay, Muna Sieh are a few exceptions where the case made to court and conviction was obtained and confirmed, but in almost all cases there was no incarceration and/or either the court took a softer line by asking for restitution (only). Samukai case ended with no restitution and a full presidential pardon.

[2] Since 1990, Liberia has been listed as one of nearly two dozen countries that are considered “Least-Developed Countries) – low-income countries facing “severe structural impediments to sustainable development”. See UNDESA Country Snapshot Report (2021), page 52-53

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