Monrovia – The situation at the Liberia Extractive Industries Initiatives following the appointment of Gabriel Nyenka is degenerating into chaos as several stakeholder organizations are now threatening to pullout, which would have grave impact on the country extractive industry.
Report by Alpha Daffae Senkpeni – [email protected]
Following massive condemnation by the United Kingdom-based organization, Global Witness, President George Weah will now have to deal with a more critical situation as the only local civil society group on the board threatens to pull out.
LEITI is an autonomous Liberian agency that ensures transparency in Liberia’s forestry, oil, mining, and agricultural plantation sectors – the main revenue generating sectors of the country. The President has since insisted that he has done no wrong, ignoring calls to rescind his decision.
One legal expert, who spoke to FrontPageAfrica on anonymity, said President Weah’s action is illegal and once challenged at the Supreme Court it would be over turn.
The lawyer recalled similar situation when former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf erroneously appointed James Verdier at the human rights commission but her action was later overturned by a court, which ruled that the appointment violated the act that created the commission.
On Monday the Independent National Human Rights Commission (INCHR) advised the President to retract the appointment.
“The President has the power to appoint several Ministers of State without Portfolios who could be Cabinet Ministers but refuse to do so but rather chose to unilaterally make a pronouncement tantamount to lawmaking that affects the structure of the Executive branch, without any consideration for the Legislature, the branch responsible for lawmaking to play its constitutional role,” said Rev. Bartholomew B. Colley, head of the INCHR.
In the case of the LEITI, the Act that established the agency, states that only the LEITI Multi-stakeholder Steering Group (MSG) can appoint or remove the Head of Secretariat. This intends to uphold the agency’s independence, ensures that it is not dominated by any of its constituent groups or subject to external interference.
Cecelia Danuweli, chairperson of the board of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) – a civil society group on the LEITI board that makes up the MSG, says the group will withdraw its membership due to the violation by the President.
“The only solution for this problem is that we will pull out; PWYP is pulling out of the process if they don’t reconsider their decision. The good thing about this is that there can be no board meeting in the absence of the civil society representation,”Danuweli told FPA, adding,“ There can be any LEITI in the absence of the civil society which is the main arm of agency.”
She added that several other international partners, donors and observatory bodies that support the work of LEITI in the country are angered by the fiasco and are also threatening to pullout.
The African Development Bank, GIZ, the UNDP and other stakeholders are threatening to leave because of this action by the President, the PWYP chairperson said.
Said Danuweli: “The President has his right to do what he wants but one thing I know is that Liberia will be suspended or will be sanctioned soon and very soon because there will be no business done with Liberia. People don’t understand, if you get to understand the workings of LEITI the government will be so afraid to do the kind of thing that they are doing.”
“We will just ask that Liberia be suspended from the EITI process and all of those people who are pumping the President don’t understand. LEITI is about transparency, accountability. No company will come to Liberia to invest into this country if there is nothing like transparency.”
The former administration of President Sirleaf signed up to the EITI, the international body of which Liberia is a member, to ensure that the country’s extractive sector attracts foreign direct investment while upholding accountability and transparency.
The country has made meaningful progress since joining the EITI although there are several challenges.
Under the supervision of LEITI, since 2009, total government revenue reported from the extractive sector increased with figures showing that it surged from US$29.5 million US$100 million.
And In July 2016, government revenue of US$148.85 million showed that mining contributed 58%, oil and gas (exploration) contributed 23%, agriculture 14% and forestry 5%
With the ongoing saga, industry experts say Liberia risks losing its credibility within the international extractive sector something that might hamper potential Foreign Direct Investment and would lead to the decline in the country’s revenue generation.
Ahead of a validation process for Liberia this year, Madam Danuweli is afraid that the country would not make the cut and it would undermine the meaningful progress made in the extractive sector in recent years.
The validation process evaluates a country to determine that a member country is complying with the EITI standard.
Meanwhile, tension is brewing as the leadership crisis deepens within the administration of the agency as employees are split between two opposing sides.
One side is headed by Nyenkan, while the other is headed by Myers W. Saye Sr., the Deputy Head of Secretariat, who was appointed by the MSG.
FPA gathered that following the appointment of Nyenkan, the MSG convened an emergency meeting on March 13, 2018 and cautioned all staff members to stay calm and not be answerable to Nyenkan until the leadership statement is resolved.
Sources say this has led to infighting that is stalling operations of the entity and dismissal of two senior staff Ms. Joan Mendee/Procurement Assistant and Mrs. Joy Smith-Attah, Administrative Manager respectively.by Mr. Nyenkan.
The infighting was accentuated on Monday, March 26 when the Deputy Head of Secretariat, Myers Saye was arrested by the Liberia National Police (LNP) was arrested, charged for criminal mischief and detained for hours.
Saye explained that he was wrongly accused by Kennedy Kolubah for damaging his car and taken to the Police station and was ordered by the Police to repair the reported damaged car before he will be set free.
“Liberia will be suspended or will be sanctioned very soon because there will be no business be done with Liberia.”
“People don’t understand the work of the LEITI; if you get to understand the working of LEITI the government will be so afraid to do the kind of thing that they are doing.” – Cecelia Danuweli, Civil Society Chairperson, Liberia Extractive Industries Transparent Initiative (LEITI)
Reporters Gerald C. Koinyeneh and Edwin Genoway contributed to this story