MONROVIA – In the wake of widespread allegations against the Liberia Football Association (LFA) and how its President Mustapha I. Raji understated the cost of the LFA’s new headquarters in Congo town, a latest legal instrument originating from the Commercial Court at the Temple of Justice exposed the real worth of the project.
Earlier, the LFA boss misled the public by announcing that the cost of the project was approximately US$1.5m but his assertion was instantly debunked by the LFA’s former Secretary General, Isaac Montgomery, who also attended the open ceremony of the FA’s new home in Congo Town.
Montgomery claimed that an additional of US$319,045.28 loan was taken from GT Bank Liberia Limited, and therefore, the US$1.5m announced by his former boss was understated and misleading. Prior to the exchange of claims, it was alleged that Raji and some of the Executive Committee Members connived with CESAF Liberia to inflate the cost of construction by additional US$319,045.28 for their personal enrichments.
In a letter dated 27 October 2022, addressed to FIFA Development Officer for West & Central Africa, Montgomery notified FIFA that the FA was constrained to have borrowed from a bank and provided additional net amount US$319,045.28 to the company with regards to the completion the headquarters.
But the latest Action of Debt suit filed against the FA by CESAF Liberia Ltd, the contracting company, speaks volume of the many allegations against Raji and the FA.
Sports pundits are wondering that if the total worth of the contract signed between CESAF and the FA was in the amount of US$1,495,197.66, and an addition of US$319,045.28 taken from GT Bank Liberia Limited to facilitate the completion of the three-storey building project, why should the FA still be indebted to the contractors.
In the lawsuit filed against the local football house, the contractors are contending that CESAF Liberia Limited informs the “OWNER (Liberia Football Association) and owner’s representative (Design Builders Inc.) of the following obligations: that Pending Payment for Calculation of Delayed Payment Requests of One Hundred Fourteen Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-Three United States Dollars ten cents (USD114,233.10) submitted more than thrice that payment of retention of One Hundred Forty-Nine Thousand Five Hundred Nineteen U n i t e d S t a t e s Dollars and seventy six cent (US$ 4 9 , 5 1 9 . 7 6) was to be paid as per the contract.
The contractors further argued that they performed in accordance with the construction contract entered into by and between the parties and submitted payment requests to the defendant but up to the filing of the complaint, the Liberia Football Association (LFA) has refused, neglected and failed to honor its obligation to them.
According to CESAF, several demand letters were written by the contractors and its legal counsel, demanding payment of the principal plus eight percent (8%) interest calculated cumulatively, yielding USS2,678,718.09 as at August 21, 2023.
The repeated communications to the FA making demands for payment all felt on deaf ears as Mustapha Raji and his Executives could not fathom how to generate the remaining payment after taking US$319,045.28 loan in the name of completing the project. What has Raji and LFA done with the loaned US$319,045.28 is yet to be independently verified and this level of alleged non-transparent posture has prompted calls from the FA Former Chief Scribe, to prosecute Mr. Raji, for what he (Montgomery) termed as broad day robbery from the Liberian people.