Monrovia – With his departure as Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia imminent, Mr. Nathaniel Patray is said to be negotiating a US$500K retirement rollout package, FrontPageAfrica has learned. President George Manneh Weah confirmed speculations which have been in the air for weeks when he addressed the nation Wednesday.
Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
“The Executive Governor is scheduled for age-related mandatory retirement in the next three months. During that period, we will work to transition the bank to a new management,” President Weah said Monday.
The President said a new CBL leadership will be recruited by a vetting committee to be established and composed of an independent team of professional Liberians, to be named shortly. “Any qualified Liberian interested in becoming a part of this new leadership team may submit applications to the vetting committee, whether they are resident in Liberia or abroad, and regardless of gender or political affiliation. Meanwhile, I will also announce a new Board of Governors next week.”
While retiring governors and senior officials are entitled to a retirement package, a source familiar with the negotiations, prompted by the premature departure of the governor told FPA Wednesday, the governor is unlikely to get the amount he is seeking due to the dismal state of the economy. “He may get something but I doubt seriously it would come anywhere closed to that,” said the source speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Any qualified Liberian interested in becoming a part of this new leadership team may submit applications to the vetting committee, whether they are resident in Liberia or abroad, and regardless of gender or political affiliation. Meanwhile, I will also announce a new Board of Governors next week.”
President George Manneh Weah
According to Section 10(1) and 12(1) of the Act creating the CBL, “if a member of the Board of Governor dies, or resigns or is otherwise removed from office before the expiry of the term for which he has been appointed, another person shall be appointed in his place, within two weeks, to complete the un-expired period.” The Act states that the President may, however, “remove a Governor upon determination by a competent medical authority that he is medically unfit to execute his duties, or is permanently incapacitated. The Governor may be removed from office by the President or cause, upon the recommendation of the Board of Governors.”
Executive Governor and the Deputy Governors are appointed by the President for a term of five(5) years each from among individuals of sanding or experience in financial and economic matters, subject to confirmation by the Liberian Senate, on such terms and conditions as may be specified by the Board of Governors. The Executive Governor and the Deputy are eligible for reappointment once.
According to the Act, “A member of Governors can be removed from office only upon a bill of impeachment by the House of Representative, upon a finding by a majority of the Board of Governors and the recommendation of the President, for any of the following reasons: Gross breach of duty, misconduct in office, Conviction of a felony and being declared bankrupt.”
The imminent departure of the CBL Governor comes as the bank is in the midst of s serious liquidity crisis fueled by massive hiring of new staff since Governor Patray took over last July.
The International Monetary Fund earlier this year, raised the alarm that productive spending is being crowded out by a wage bill, including discretionary allowances, that totals about two-thirds of government-funded expenditure. “This is not a new issue—it has been a characteristic of the Liberian economy for a number of years. However, as grants and other external assistance decline, this is no longer a tenable situation. Freeing up resources in an equitable manner for pro-poor development will likely require effective actions to reduce the share of government resources devoted to this budget item.”
The Act creating the Central Bank of Liberia states that the President may, however, “remove a Governor upon determination by a competent medical authority that he is medically unfit to execute his duties, or is permanently incapacitated. The Governor may be removed from office by the President or cause, upon the recommendation of the Board of Governors.”
Two reports – the USAID-backed, Kroll Associates and the Presidential Investigation Technical Team (PITT) recommended forensic audits of the controversy surrounding the missing LD 16 billion and the US$25 million infused into the economy to curb the rising US exchange rate.
Kroll concluded that it was unable to reconcile the total value of disbursements for the period January 2016 to December 2018 with the total value of legacy and new banknotes disbursed for the corresponding period. “Kroll recommends that a full forensic audit of disbursements from the CBL for the period January 2016 to December 2018 is undertaken, which should include an exercise to verify, that disbursements from the CBL have actually been received in full by the stated recipients (using a risk-based approach).”
A report from the General Auditing Commission’s Report of Factual Findings in the application on an Agreed-Upon Procedures of the US$25Million Mop-Up Exercise Conducted by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) as Mandated by the Technical Economic Management Team (TEMT) recently concluded that Governor Patray indicated to the GAC through a documented review questionnaire that the Mop-Up Exercise was authorized by The Economic Management Team.
However, the Chairman of TEMT, Finance and Economic Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah indicated to the GAC that the TEMT did not issue the CBL a written instruction for the Mop-UP Exercise; rather, the Mop-UP Strategy was authorized by TEMT. Minister Tweah indicated in his documented interview questionnaire that TEMT authorized the CBL to re-infuse the Mopped-Up Liberian Dollars into the market through the commercial banks. The TEMT and the CBL did not provide evidence of the authorization to re-infuse the mopped-up Liberian dollars into the economy as per the MOU.
Former Auditor General John Morlu tore the report to pieces, telling FPA Tuesday that it was a farce.
Said Mr. Morlu: “Herein lies the circular logic/thinking. The CBL is part of the TEMT; CBL is supposed to be independent; LACC was part of PIT, appointed by the government; PITT including LACC and Kroll called for further investigations; President asked GAC to investigate; MoJ mandates GAC to conduct “AUP.”; GAC says it could have reached a different decision if not AUP; GAC supposed to be independent; MoF and TEMT say they authorized CBL; CBL says it was mandated; MoJ asked PIT member LACC to investigate mandate v authorize.”
On Wednesday, President Weah acknowledged that all of these reports and lapses point to a major lack of systems and controls at the Central Bank of Liberia, and call into question the ability of its present leadership to effectively revamp its internal mechanisms to provide greater accountability and professionalism, so that confidence and credibility would be restored to the institution. In order to provide the opportunity for the Central Bank to have a new direction, the President said announced that he has accepted the resignation of the Deputy Governor for Economic Policy, Dr. Mounir Siaplay.
The President also announced that his administration will shortly announce a series of policy measures that are intended to stabilize our economy in the short term, and position it for growth in the medium to long term. “We are working with stakeholders on measures that are intended to bring down prices. We are working to attract new investments in agriculture. And we are working to improve our business climate to reduce the costs and hurdles of doing business in Liberia.”
On the monetary front, President Weah said his government is taking actions to instill greater confidence in the Central Bank of Liberia and the banking sector at large. “The integrity and independence of the Central Bank will be assured and protected under my administration, and this resolve will be critical in the years ahead. In this regard, I wish to announce that the Government of Liberia, under my leadership, will no longer borrow from the Central Bank of Liberia for its short-term liquidity needs.”
For monetary policy to work, President Weah said, Liberians must develop confidence in the banking sector. “Today, most of the Liberian dollars in our economy is outside the banking sector. We are shortly going to announce new policy initiatives that should increase the confidence of Liberians in the Liberian dollar. These polices will provide strong incentives for Liberians to keep their money in the bank and for commercial banks to invest more in the Liberian dollar economy.