Unification Town, Margibi – The Acting General Managing Director of the Liberia Airports Authority (LAA), Bishop J. Allen Klayee of Jubilee Praise Church on the Old Road, has reacted to allegations of corruption, nepotism and divisiveness leveled against him by some contractors and employees of the entity.
Report by Edwin G. Genoway, Jr. [email protected]
FrontPageAfrica recently spoke with scores of anonymous LAA employees, who accused the Acting General Managing Director of nepotism and bad labor practice.
Few weeks following Bishop Klayee’s appointment, some employees, mainly those assigned at the James Spriggs Payne Airport in Sinkor, expressed “vote of no confidence” in their boss for his alleged act of nepotism, divisiveness and bad labor practice.
Those employees accused the Bishop of allegedly bringing along with him to LAA at least 18 persons from his Jubilee Praise Church, all of whom he employed thereby increasing the wage bill of the entity. They stated that included among those he brought are his two children — Rashella and Emmanuel Klayee.
He is also being accused of employing his church’s Women’s Department president, his private Secretary at the church, head of the Usher Department, and his Choir directress.
But in reaction to the accusations, the Bishop, who is in the middle, has spoken with FrontPageAfrica to clarify.
The Bishop confirmed that his two kids are in the employ of the LAA but maintained that he didn’t employ them.
“The names of my kids were mentioned; they weren’t employed after I was appointed. They started working some two years ago before I was appointed in March 2019. You can check it out to see whether when I came as Acting Managing Director, I employed any of my kids. That is a lie. Though they work here, I didn’t employ them. When I came as the Acting General Manager, I met them working and they are all qualified Liberians. I don’t think that should be questioned,” he clarified.
Though the Bishop stated that he wasn’t responsible for the employment of his kids, however, the ‘man of God’ has been in the employ of the LAA for more than 10 years serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors at the LAA. This is prior to being appointed by President George Weah as the Acting MD.
On the issue of his church members being in the employ of LAA, the Bishop again confirmed the information but justified that they were employed prior to him being appointed by the President. However, his accusers said he brought them when he became the Acting MD.
“I like to clear the air that I have never brought people from my church to come and occupy people’s positions. There were qualified members from my church who applied to LAA when I was not the managing director. They got employed before I became managing director, I met them here,” he said.
On the accusation of corruption, the Bishop denied being corrupt; adding: “There is no corruption at LAA.”
Also, employees assigned at the James Spriggs Payne Airport have told this newspaper that they have not taken pay for two months. According to the employees, their March salaries were swept from the account of the LAA because the entity had previously taken a loan from the bank and hadn’t paid back so when their salaries were dropped into the LAA’s account, the bank took the money as part of its loan debt.
But addressing the salary issue, the Bishop admitted that there are challenges at the airport.
“We have issues at Spriggs; the issue at Spriggs has to do with salary delay. The issue of salary delay came about when Spriggs lost all the airlines because of the condition of the runway. The runway was deplorable so they lost all the airlines and they were transferred on this side (Robert International Airport) and it has been almost nine months to a year now since that happened. There is no airline at Spriggs.”
According to him, only domestic flights are currently flying at Spriggs.
He disclosed that many employees at Spriggs are not working due to the non-functionality of the airport.
“There are almost 80 or 100 people at Spriggs, who are doing nothing. We thought to lay them off, but because of the economic situation in the country we also thought to have them on till the place can improve. We have been working very hard to ensure that we have people to repair the runways so that flight can return, but in that process we thought it wise not to send them home,” he said.
According to him, even though, Spriggs Airport is not functional since he took over, he has, however, made it possible that the Roberts International Airport pays employees of Spriggs.
“I make sure that the RIA should be able to pay the workers at Spriggs. We started doing that since I took over as the Acting Managing Director,” he noted.
He also denied dismissing any employee at the LAA when he took over.
“This morning I like to talk on firstly the issue of nepotism that was mentioned in the story. We have not dismissed nor replaced anybody since I took over as Managing Director in March of 2019. I saw the names of my kids and one of my family members, who is my brother’s wife.
“I worked here at the airport for 11 years and resigned came back and was appointed by the President. Prior to me leaving, I had family members, who started working here: one of them is my brother’s wife, who has worked here for the last 18 years,” he stated.
“But as we speak, Spriggs is dormant. Everything we are doing, we’re trying to squeeze up from RIA to make sure we meet the demands of the guys at Spriggs. We don’t want to send Liberians home or take jobs from them because of the condition we are in now,” he said in his defense.