Monrovia – The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Deputy Country Director said the payment of election officers was delayed due to wrong accounts details presented.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, [email protected]
Mr. Cleophas Torori said the agency is working with officers to complete the payment despite their wrongful bank pieces of information provided.
Torori stated that 5,448 officer names and accounts were given to UNDP to pay officers through the banks.
He dismissed the rumors that the money was given to Police Inspector General Gregory Coleman as has been reported by some media outlets.
Police officers previously claimed that their money wasn’t paid accusing Coleman of misappropriating the funds.
Also the National Elections Security Task Force, a conglomeration of various security agencies in Liberia, providing security for the 2017 Presidential and Representatives Elections informed the public that the general security atmosphere of the just-ended first round of elections went well without any major security breach.
“Such polite behavior exhibited on October 10, 2017 by voters, who turned out to exercise their constitutional franchise is commendable, and we therefore encourage all Liberian voters to exercise such high level of restraint during the upcoming run-off election expected on November 7, 2017,” Coleman urged.
He said despite the successful conduct of the polls, there were some minor challenges encountered by personnel of the National Elections Security Task Force in the payment of their Daily Sustainability Allowance.
“As you may be aware, the Government of Liberia received the amount of 1.14 Million United States Dollars from the Government of Japan to facilitate elections security for the 2017 Presidential and Representatives Elections.“
“This amount is being managed by the United Nations Development Program and not the various agencies making up the National Elections Security Task Force as it is being speculated in some quarters of the country, especially in the media.”
“The payment of officer’s allowances for the elections has been ongoing at nine different banking institutions in the country. However, some of the officers have not been paid since the first round of elections due to issues relating to the verification of their account numbers with their individual banks.”
Coleman said up to now, the National Security Task Force through the UNDP has been able to disburse the allowances for 5,220 officers at various banks, while 238 are yet to receive their allowances due to account verification issues. The verification process is being addressed.
“The leadership of the National Elections Security Task Force takes this opportunity to apologize to the affected officers as all is being done to resolve the problem.
We like to further assure our officers that their payments will be finalized in the shortest possible time. Meanwhile, we call on all officers to remain deployed as we prepare for the runoff election.”