Monrovia – There is a criss-cross of troubling allegations bordering around the upcoming Presidential and legislative elections slated for October 10, 2017 here in Liberia.
Report by Lennart Dodoo, [email protected]
Recent of these allegations is the linking of a man believed to be the nephew of Vice President Joseph Boakai to the printing of the ballot papers for the elections.
In a press conference at its headquarters over the weekend, the chairman of the youth league of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) alleged that the Slovenian company – CETIS – that won the bid to print the ballot papers is represented in Liberia by one Earnest Boakai who they claimed their investigation showed is the nephew of the Unity Party standard bearer.
However, the media coordinator of Unity Party campaign team has debunked the allegation, claiming the UP Standard Bearer has no relative involved in international printing.
During their press conference, CDC’s Jefferson Koijee said, “the national youth league is on notice of the CDC that Earnest Boakai, a nephew of Vice President Joseph Boakai is [the] Country Representative of CETIS in Liberia and has assured his uncle and their allies in government that he would use his administration of this contract to provide alternative results and proof of it during the 2017 General and Presidential Elections.”
According to Koijee, the CDC has in its possession evidence to substantiate the allegation, and has therefore called on the National Elections Commission (NEC) and the Public Procurement Concession Commission (PPCC) to revoke the contract for the sake of peaceful, free, fair and transparent elections.
Koijee: “The league further questions the unprecedented speed at which the Public Procurement Concession Commission is believed to have gone through the awarding of this contract and notes with grave disfavor, that the PPCC failed to consider the peculiar nature of the contract being awarded, which required an evaluation beyond the least coast and internal conflict of interest factors normally considered to a comprehensive assessment of the links that any of the actors in the procurement has or have had in the nation’s political theater.”
He called on the United States Embassy in Liberia, UNMIL, ECOWAS and other stakeholders to prevail on the NEC and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for an immediate cancellation of the printing contracted awarded.
UP Reacts
Koijee’s allegation is not being taken lightly by the Unity Party. Their campaign media coordinator Kpadeh said the accusation is below the belt and shows that the CDC is not thorough in preparation process before publication.
“Is CDC suggesting that all the Weah in this are related to Goerge Weah? Weah is a Liberian southeastern name that can be found in Sinoe, Marylandd, Grand Kru and in all parts of the Southeastern region. “
“Now the name Boakai can be found in Cape Mount, Boakai can be found in Bomi, it can be found in Lofa and in Lofa it can be found among the Gbandi people and the Ksssi people. So are they suggesting that all the Boakai are related to VP Boakai, absolutely no; it’s totally rubbish and erroneous,” he said.
According to Kpadeh, the Unity Party is also concerned about the processes leading to free and fair elections. He bragged that it was the Unity Party’s engagements that to the smooth voter ID replacement exercise.
“On the issue of the Slovenian company, we don’t know the details but we do know is that the company bided here with other international companies. We are interested in knowing the details,” he averred.
Kpadeh maintained that Vice President Boakai has no relationship with Mr. Earnest Boakai and has no family member involved in international printing.
PPCC Clarifies
In response to FrontPageAfrica’s inquiry on the speedy nature at which the contract was awarded, the CEO of the Commission, Mr. Dorbor Jallah said PPCC evaluates all requests for approval of procurement contract award solely in accordance with the procurement legal framework and best international practice.
According to him, when an agency completes a tender process for a contract price exceeding the established threshold and selects a winning bidder, it submits a request for approval of contract award to PPCC along with all pertinent documents spanning the entire tender process.
PPCC then reviews and analyzes the submitted documents in order to verify that the tender proceedings are in compliance with the legal framework and best practice.
The law, he said, gives PPCC up to 14 days in which to respond to a request for approval of a contract award. (These facts can be referenced in Section 31 of the PPCA, 2010.)
Mr. Jallah: “Given the strategic national importance of elections and its precursory procurement activities, PPCC has elevated all issues of procurement of election materials to highest priority and has set a target of maximum of three days in which to review, analyze, and respond to all such matters from NEC, unless there are queries that NEC needs to address.
Even in instances where there are queries, these are handled on a very highly expedited basis. For this reason, staff that are assigned these tasks have had to work very late (sometimes up to 10 PM) and on weekends, and all of our internal resources (staff, time, etc.) are deployed to ensure timely response.”
He told FrontPageAfrica that in their analysis of the documents submitted to us by NEC for this contract we did not observe any mention of Mr. Ernest Boakai; nor did it mention anything about he being the representative of CETIS, nor of his being a relation to the Vice President.
He said it is true that NEC submitted the request for approval of contract award on Tuesday, 8 August 2017 and that PPCC completed its review and analysis on the evening of Thursday, 10 August 2017.
According to him, all procurement matters related to the upcoming elections are given the highest priority at PPCC.
“In this particular instance, the assigned technicians and staff worked very late on those three days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) of that week.
This level of efficiency at PPCC is due to our committed, hardworking and diligent staff, and has nothing to do with any plan.”
Earnest Boakai Holds the Line
When contacted by FrontPageAfrica via mobile phone, Mr. Earnest Boakai was hesitant to comment.
He failed to state whether or not he is related to Vice President Boakai or if he was representing CETIS in Liberia.
He told this reporter the allegation was serious and needed to be responded to professionally not via mobile phone.
Therefore, he requested that this reporter contact him on Monday [today] as he was out of time over the weekend.