Monrovia – The special taskforce set-up by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to investigate and prosecute those named in the Global Witness report on allegations of bribery has said it will not investigate her.
The 58-page report, The Deceivers, implicated Sirleaf and her son, Fumba, among a host of current and former government officials, including House Speaker Alex Tyler, Grand Cape Mount County Senator Varney Sherman, Bomi County Senator Morris Saytumah and Professor Willie Belleh, who chairs the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission.
“Delta had a controversial history in Liberia. In 2008, it had missed out on one of Liberia’s biggest iron ore concessions, the Western Cluster, after its winning bid was disqualified amid bribery allegations.
“But in a closed-door meeting at the presidential mansion, Delta had struck a deal with the government. Officially cleared of corruption, Delta and its new shareholder Sable were now convinced that they could get Wologizi instead,” the report insinuated.
But addressing a regular Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism press briefing on June 9, Cllr. Fonati Kofa said Sirleaf would be exempted from all inquiries.
“I am not sure we’ve got to the level of closed-door meetings in the president’s office. We’ll not be investigating the president because that’s a different process but we’ll investigate anything around the president’s office.
“As you will recall, there are a number of individuals named in the Sable Mining report that were in close proximity or in the president’s office at the time. Those individuals have not been indicted. The investigation continues.
“So to the extent that it requires the asking of the question you are talking about, I am sure the investigators will get there. I am not sure what is the point the question is making but I think that is the answer,” Kofa said.
Constitutional implications
Article 61 of the constitution says the president shall be immune from any suits, actions or proceedings, judicial or otherwise, and from arrest, detention or other actions on account of any act done by him while president of Liberia pursuant to any provision of this constitution or any other laws of the republic.
The president, it continues, shall not, however, be immune from prosecution upon removal from office for the commission of any criminal act done while president.
But article 62 says the president and the vice president maybe removed from office by impeachment for treason, bribery and other felonies, violation of the constitution or gross misconduct.
According to article 43, the power to prepare a bill of impeachment is vested solely in the House of Representatives and the power to try all impeachments is vested solely in the Senate.
So can Sirleaf be impeached on accounts of the report, which has served as the basis to indict some of those named in it?
Dr. Jallah Barbu is a constitutional lawyer, who teaches at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law in Monrovia, Liberia.
“Impeachment proceedings are very serious trials. Pieces of convincing evidence must be brought forth. How is the House of Representatives going to draw-up a bill of impeachment? What’s going to be in there? Well, Delta had this controversial relationship in Liberia and later Delta was given the opportunity to come and begin to pursue another concession agreement.
“And Delta was official cleared of this [corruption and bribery]. So, on that basis we are drawing-up a bill of impeachment for the president? What is it that the House of Representatives is going to be accusing the president of doing that is inconsistent with the president’s constitutional duty? Is it the holding of a closed-door meeting? Is that the basis for drawing-up a bill of impeachment?
“Or is there something that really says that the action of the president was contrary to her constitutional mandate? Did she violate the constitution? If the legislature can determine that the president violated the constitution or laws of Liberia, of course, it is an impeachable offense. Until then, it is going to be difficult,” Barbu told our reporter in an exclusive interview on June 17.
Barbu, who co-authored Liberia’s first constitutional commentary and authored Liberia’s first constitutional law course book, said a deal may not necessarily mean bribery.
“We have to be careful how we interpret words. You and somebody may enter a deal. That particular entry into an arrangement called a deal may not necessarily be bribery. We have to go beyond that because a deal, by itself, doesn’t mean bribery. I don’t see anywhere [in the report] from what you have just read that says ‘Delta entered a deal with the president. It says with the government’.
“You do know that we have three branches of government and two are political: the executive and legislature. So if there is something about concession agreements, you will clearly know that the legislature will be a part of it. So did Delta enter an arrangement or a deal with the legislature as a part of the government or the executive as another branch of government?
“Or did Delta enter a deal with the legislature and executive as two political branches? These are important [questions] for us to thrash out before we think about bribery and we also have to careful with respect to the word deal. A deal may not necessarily mean bribery in any sense,” said Barbu, who is also the founder and first director of Abbidoe Law Office as well as the Barbu and Howard law firm in Liberia.
Barbu, who served as secretary-general of the Liberia National Bar Association, believes the government created an integrity problem for itself when dealing with Delta and its shareholder Sable Mining.
“The fact that the government of Liberia determined that there were some unwarranted actions on the part of Delta in the past that caused the government to cancel its winning of the bid that alone, in my opinion, was sufficient to not do business with Delta anymore if the government acted properly.
“But the fact that the government even allowed Delta to come back to the scene for a second transaction and this report says Delta was officially cleared of any bribery or corruption allegation then the government perhaps might even owe Delta apology for depriving it of its first bid that it won.
“So we need to be cleared here with respect to first, what caused the government to strip Delta of its winning bid in the first bid that it won? Why is it that there was now an opportunity given to Delta for a second bid and things like that because aiding and abetting institutions that are known to have engaged or undertaken some acts of corruption is also an indictment of the government itself,” stressed Barbu.
The report has caused a showdown on Capitol Hill with the three branches of government locked in a legal and political game of powers.
In addition to Tyler, Sherman and one Chris Onanuga, who were indicted on May 24, three indictments from the grand jury of Montserrado County were unsealed by the taskforce.
Those indicted were Dr. Richard Tolbert, former chairman of the National Investment Commission; Andrew Grooves, a British citizen and former chief executive officer and principle shareholder and Klaus Piprek, a South African and former country director of Sable Mining in Liberia.
Kofa, who is also minister of state without portfolio, named Phillip-Henry Edmonds, a British citizen who chairs the board of Sable Mining in London, as an unindicted co-conspirator.
He said an Interpol Alert has already been issued for Grooves and Piprek.
Kofa also disclosed that additional indictments will be drawn against individual implicated in report depending on the evidence gathered by the investigators.
He also warned the media and public against giving unqualified reasons for the Justice Ministry’s decision to turn over the prosecution to the taskforce.
In an inaugural address on January 16, 2006, Sirleaf declared corruption as public enemy number one.
The General Auditing Commission, Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, Internal Audit Agency and Financial Intelligence Unit were created to enhance the fight against corruption and promote transparency and accountability in her government.
But they have either been under-funded, undermined or politicized with the war on graft, which Sirleaf amazingly declared as “vampire of development and obstruction of progress” in a state of the nation address on January 26, 2015.
A Global Witness report is now needed to renew the fight against corruption when the National Oil Company of Liberia (Nocal) went into bankruptcy amid corporate gangsterism while senior executive officers were given handsome severance benefits instead of undergoing an investigation and possible prosecution for causing financial loss to the state.
Enough has been heard of Sirleaf’s lazy desire to fight corruption but she will be thankful, at least, with an opportunity to reignite the war by settling scores with some old time rivals like Sherman, having failed to properly act from the comfort of her sofa either in the Executive Mansion or her Old Road residence.
Danesius Marteh, [email protected]