Monrovia – Former Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Amos Tweh, has reacted to the special audit report of the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) which established that several Presidential appointees who either resigned or were dismissed received their regular monthly salary for several months after their dismissal or resignation.
Report by Lennart Dodoo – [email protected]
According to the IAA report, US$31,228.40 and L$872,816 were recovered from Tweh which were paid as salary from May 2015 until January 2016.
However, speaking to FrontPageAfrica via telephone from the United Kingdom where he is currently on studies, Tweh said he was taken aback by the presentation of the special audit report in that he had alerted the President and the then Controller General of payments being made to his account by the Government though he was out of government.
Tweh: “As a patriotic Liberian the first thing I thought to do was to get the bank statement and after I got the bank statement I immediately alerted the Ministry of Finance and the President of the Republic of Liberia. I drove to her with my bank statement and I indicated to her that ‘Madam President, while I was out of job apparently your government was still paying me’.
I could have taken that money but as a young patriotic Liberian I thought not to do that because I have more responsibility to my country. When I showed my bank statement to the President she was shocked, she was surprised so she immediately commended me.
After that particular process, the President drove from her farm the following day and called me to her house to properly verify the information and she took the bank statement and I’m sure she called the Ministry of Finance team.”
According to Tweh, President Sirleaf indicated to him, “That because of your patriotic spirit I will try my possible best to ensure that we give you some kind of national honor because it is the first time in the history of my administration for a dismissed or a former official to come and turn this amount over.”
Tweh further told FrontPageAfrica that it was after his interaction with the President when she informed him that she was going to instruct the Ministry of Finance to initiate an audit to identify other dismissed or appointed officials of government who were still receiving monthly salaries.
“I must say to you that it was because of my report of the excess amount in my bank account that’s how the Government of Liberia instructed the Internal Audit Agency or Secretariat to commission that audit of all former or resigned government officials.
“It’s so surprising that James Kollie or the Ministry of Finance team or the Internal Audit Agency did not indicate that it was because of Amos Tweh that’s how today we managed to recover or know much was paid into the accounts of former government officials,” Tweh asserted.
In a related development, former assistant minister of agriculture, Ousman S. Tall, from whose account US$40,890.88 and LD$1,109,046.97 in a telephone interview from Paris, France told FrontPageAfrica he was out country when he was replaced on June 18, 2015.
He said upon his return, he realized that some amounts were paid into this account at LBDI Bank and later withdrawn without his knowledge. He said the bank debited and credited his account without alerting him.
“The paid the money into my account in my absence and even in my absence there was no reference made to me. They asked the bank to give the money back to them, the bank did not inform me of that and they did. So this is something that I knew nothing about.
The Assistant Minister, Alieu Nyei, is aware because when I got back I met him and we talked about it… He said we paid you and we just asked the bank to do a direct deposit back to us,” he told FrontPageAfrica.
According to Tall, he never received the money and that the picture should not be that he used the money and had to pay back to government.
The Executive Summary of the IAA special report on the audit of Presidential appointees payroll indicates that the Acting Minister of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), Dr. James Kollie requested the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) to conduct a review of Presidential appointees’ payroll and payment process from July 2014 – February 2016, with the aim of being accurately informed about payroll irregularities such as appointees being paid after termination of service.
The payroll of Presidential appointees is processed by the office of the Controller and Accountant General and the Assistant Minister of Expenditure at MFDP.
Presidential appointees receive 80% of their salary in U.S. dollars and 20% in Liberian dollars.
Because of its strategic location in the entities, its effectiveness and efficiency in executing such onerous tasks within a short period, the IAA was requested to conduct the special audit focusing on the payroll.