GBARNGA – Madam Paulette Findley who has been linked to leaked audio of two people conspiring to sell assets belonging to the Central Agriculture Research Institute (CARI) has termed as the audio as stupid and nonsensical”.
According to her, she hasn’t listened to the recording because it doesn’t worth her time. In an interview with a team of reporters on Tuesday in Bong County, the CARI acting officer-in-charge said she will not to give any credence to the audio which went viral on social media.
Findley: “CARI has no asset that values my time to conspire to sell. CARI has scraps – government’s scraps that in the mix of challenges needs to be sold to raise money – that is why I wrote GSA to value those scraps to raise money and once they okay my request, I will sell those scraps to raise money for CARI.
“This is not CARI’s first time giving out things. The sad thing is people listen to things and vilify it for their selfish benefits.”
Madam Findley also told reporters that since she assumed authority, the entity has moved on a slow pace because of the lack of support. According to her, the Government of Liberia has only managed to pay salary of employees.
“I met CARI in a state of challenges. We are moving at a slow pace because with a limited support we can do little but I am grateful for the staff who are making the sacrifices. When you talk about financial mismanagement then I ask the question about where the money is coming from because, as it is, we get zero support from the Liberian government. All Liberia government pays is salary, I have got 0.00000% dollars support.”
Journalists were given access to the CARI’s facilities where several generators, and other assets said to have been donated by UNMIL to CARI were seen lying in deplorable conditions, some being covered by bushes and are depreciating on a daily basis. Several generators, containers and fuel tankers and a filling station are still there in deplorable conditions.
“These are the assets they are talking about; do they value US$1 million? I have managed to retrieve some of these generators from the bushes, and gather them at a point as you can see.
She maintained her position on selling the scraps once the go-ahead is given by the General Services Agency (GSSA).
The leaked audio revealed that Findley and Tokpah, a former employee of CARI connived to steal a generator to a local business man in the county. Findley, in the audio, mandated Tokpah to quickly remove the generator from CARI compound and take it to the vendor whom Tokpah had identified. “You people should take the generator from the compound and you people should do it quick because Nagbe (the institution’s finance officer) ma sick.”
In the audio, Findley recommended to Tokpah to give the head of the General Service Agency in Bong County one of the institution’s generators as a means of buying his silence before they begin selling items she and Tokpah have earmarked. “We should give the GSA man one generator to keep him quiet,” she said.
Tokpah, in the audio, disagreed with Findley and recommended to Findley to give him US$200.00 instead of one generator. “What?! Who should give him one generator? We should just find his US$ 200 bulks. Oldma, under this sun here, stealing da stealing. For the fact that he ate US$200 every one of us stole,” Tokpah said.
Celebrating Dr. Nyanquoi Jomah’s suspension from CARI, Findley, in the audio, said her stance on Jomah has instilled fear in some workers of the entity. “Haha, Haha, David Tokpah, you know what? My driver said “oldma, people are saying since you removed Jomah from CARI, people really afraid of you. Soon they saw you coming, they started running to go on the field. They saw Jomah as their strong man and they thought he would have overpowered me, but since I removed him, they have gotten afraid of me,” Findley is heard in a leaked audio in the possession of FrontPageAfrica.
Tokpah, in his response, said he warned Jomah to be mindful with Findley because of the connections she has with the executive. “I warned Jomah, I warned him, I warned him. I told him “I have been dealing with two of you people”, I warned the man. I told him that the place the oldma (Paulette Findley and I na go) you know people, oo, but you can’t fight that woman and win.”
Findley has reportedly used her influence to instill fear in workers of the entity who differ with her on issues that don’t favor at the institution seemingly because of her proximity with the minister of state, Nathaniel McGill.