Monrovia – A radical decision on the floor of the Liberian Senate last Tuesday, June 6, 2017 may have triggered the appointment Monday, June 12, 2017 of Ms. Angelique Weeks as Acting Chair of the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Weeks, ironically, is the current Chair of the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA), an agency tasked with the regulatory and statutory responsibility to ensure a vibrant telecommunications sector in Liberia.
She is expected to end her tenure in October 2017, completing the second of her two-term tenure as head of the telecommunications regulatory agency where she has been since June 2009.
FrontPageAfrica has gathered that President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf reportedly sent a letter which was read on the floor of the Senate last Tuesday announcing that Ms. Weeks had been nominated as Chair of LERC even though she was still on the last leg of her stint at the LTA.
One Senator who was present for that proceeding told FrontPageAfrica that the letter was greeted with an overwhelming rejection on grounds that Senators had come to a consensus that there were simply too many members of the Weeks family in government and were ready to deliver an outright rejection of her appointment.
Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence(Liberty Party, Grand Bassa County), who was present when Ms. Weeks’ nomination letter was read on the floor recalls, that virtually every Senator present were in agreement that they would not confirm another Weeks into government.
“The letter was on the floor and was rejected on grounds that it was a tenure position and that too many weeks were in the government.
Senator Karnga-Lawrence had in the days prior, written the Senate Plenary in March asking that body not to confirm any tenure official of government appointed or nominated by the President of Liberia and that communication was discussed and accepted by that body.
Under the Standing Rules 55 of the Senate, regarding the nomination process for officials, once a nomination is made by the President of the Republic of Liberia to the Senate, they shall unless otherwise ordered, be referred to the proper committee for its action.
The rule states: “All confirmation in the Senate shall be transacted in closed door Executive Session.
The vote shall be by ballot unless by unanimous consent to the contrary, and the proceedings shall be kept secret; provided that the injunction of secrecy as to the whole or any part of the proceedings may be removed on motion adopted by a majority of the Senate.
When a nomination is confirmed or rejected, any Senator may move for reconsideration on the same day on which the vote was taken, or on either of the next two sitting days.
Unless a notice of reconsideration is announced, all confirmation or rejection by the Senate shall be communicated to the President of Liberia after two working days of the Senate.
A motion for reconsideration shall be deemed as a stay order on the original question against which it is filed.
No action shall be taken on the original question until the motion for reconsideration has been considered and disposed of. Section 4: Nomination confirmed or rejected by the Senate shall not be returned by the Secretary of the Senate to the President of Liberia until the expiration of the time limited for making a motion to reconsider the same, or while a motion to reconsider is pending unless otherwise ordered by the Senate.”
Rule 64 Section 5 further states: “Nomination neither confirmed nor rejected during the Session at which they are made shall not be acted upon at any succeeding Session without being again made to the Senate by the President; and if the Senate shall adjourn or take a recess for more than thirty days, all nominations pending and not finally acted upon at the time of taking such adjournment or recess shall be returned by the Secretary of the Senate to the President of Liberia, and shall not again be considered unless they again be made to the Senate by the President.”
Rule 64, Section 7 adds: “All persons, whose names have been submitted by the President of Liberia to the Senate as nominees for the appointment of public service, shall be subject preliminarily to a Senate confirmation hearing before the proper committee.
Confirmation hearings shall be public unless otherwise by the full Senate. Such nominees shall present their curriculum vitae and other relevant data or information to the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, if specially requested by the Senate.”
FrontPageAfrica has been unable to verify whether the appointment of Ms. Weeks was withdrawn prior to a resubmission as Acting Chair of the LERC.
But some Senators believe that it is possible, that the President, fearing a rejection, went the route of reducing the appointment from full to acting.
The precedence of naming a rejected or potential appointment reject was first tested by President Sirleaf in 2013 when the Plenary of the Senate passed a vote of no confidence in former Acting Monrovia City Mayor Mary Broh who was re-nominated by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to return to her post, months after she was booted out.
The senate passed the vote of no confidence in sympathy with their colleagues at the House of Representative who had previously declared the former mayor a non-governmental material.
Senator Karnga-Lawrence explained that in the case of Weeks, another letter should have been sent informing the Senate that the appointment had been withdrawn or reduced from a full appointment to that of acting.
“As long there is an appointment on the floor the person has to go through confirmation. There has to be some justification for making her acting,” the lawmaker averred.
Meanwhile, it appears that Weeks kept members of her current staffers at the LTA in the dark about her new appointment.
In fact, FrontPageAfrica has obtained copy of a letter Ms. Weeks sent to her staffers on June 8, 2017 notifying them that she would be attending a conference in Geneva and would be taking a lengthy medical break right after.
The Letter Reads:
FROM: Angelique Weeks
Chair PersonTO: LTA General Staff
SUBJECT: Upcoming Foreign Travel
June 8, 2017
As approved by the BOC, I will be participating as a High Level Guest Speaker at the International Telecommunication Union World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2017, from June 12-16, 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland. Following the WSIS Forum, I will be out of the country for medical care for several weeks.
Based on flights availability and schedules, I will be leaving on June 9, 2017, and returning on July 16, 2017 after my medical leave. I expect to be back in office by July 17, 2017.
Commissioner Maria G. Harrison has been designated to serve as Acting Chairperson until my return.
Please give your support to, and cooperate with her as Acting Chair during this period of absence.
Thanks and kind regards.
Under LTA rules the chair will continue to receive full pay including travel benefits while away on LTA leave and while awaiting serving in her new position as Acting Chair of the LERC.
The Sirleaf government has come under criticisms for the number of Weeks in the administration. Dr. Ophelia Weeks was recently appointed as President of the University of Liberia.
Another Weeks, Antoinette headed the Ministry of Public Works, performing poorly while drawing criticisms from international stakeholders for her brash and rather irrational style and ineptitude as an administrator. Following her exit from Public Works, Antoinette was nominated to the lucrative post as Commissioner for Infrastructure at the ECOWAS Commission.
Kimmie Weeks, another relative is Chairman of the Board at the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation while Milton Weeks, Angelique’s brother, is Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia.
Additionally, another family repeatedly benefiting from Sirleaf’s appointments are the McClains: Dr. Rudolph McClain, previously served as head of the National Oil Company of Liberia; the late Edward Mcclain, was Minister of State for Presidential Affairs until his death, and Charles McClain, Deputy Minister of Agriculture for Planning and Development.
Mr. Ian Yahp, who serves on the board of the Liberia Electricity Corporation and appointed recently as a commissioner to the LERC is regarded as the late Edward McClain’s ‘favorite nephew.