Monrovia – In seven days, the 90-day deadline pledged by President George Manneh Weah for Central Bank of Liberia Governor Nathaniel Patray to take his bow, will come to an end. However, the governor’s actions in the days since the President’s announcement suggest he is showing no sign of wanting to leave.
Report by Rodney D. Sieh, [email protected]
Despite strong caution from the International Monetary Fund for the government to slash is massive wage bill, the governor has done the opposite, hiring close to three hundred new workers in the past three months while finding himself entangled in a marathon negotiation for a US$500,000 payoff for exiting the bank.
International stakeholders have complained that decline in grants and external assistance, has prompted Liberia’s wage bill, which accounts for two-thirds of government spending, to no longer be a tenable situation.
The President on May 29, 2019, in a speech to the nation declared: “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 the overhaul was necessary to restore confidence in an institution that has been beset by scandals and is hampering efforts to deal with an economic crisis.
The President, in July 2018, ordered a $25-million injection into the economy to mop-up excess Liberian dollars. An investigation by the state auditor found that only $17 million was used for this purpose. Another inquiry, the USAID-backed Kroll report into the alleged disappearance of about $100 million in cash that was printed abroad found that while no money was missing, there were lapses in the accuracy and completeness of the central bank’s internal records.
The President said, all of these reports point to a major lapse of controls at the CBL and “calls into question the ability of its present leadership to effectively revamp its internal mechanism to provide greater accountability and professionalism.”
The President appointed Nyemade Pearson as Acting Deputy Governor/Operations, replacing Charles Sitleaf and also appointed Dr. Musa Dukuly as Deputy Governor for Economic Policy.Thursday, August 29, 2019 that deadline will expire.
Now, new information reaching FrontPageAfrica suggest that a draft report from the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) is poised to charge ten persons, including Governor Patray and Dr. Mounir Siaplay, Former Deputy Governor of Fraud, money laundering and violation of the Public Finance Management law.
Multiple Sources have confirmed to FrontPageAfrica that the controversial, Economic Management Team (TEMT) is expected to be recommended for Administrative action for designing a policy that left room for fraud and money laundering to occur and for not adequately supervising the process.
One source said: “Governor Patray as Governor bears more weight because as head of the bank, he did not direct and supervised the mopping up and was key, along with Siaplay, in recommending not using the commercial banks.
The other eight persons, the source explained are two employees who have fled the Country alone with the other six team leaders.
One of those taking flight, Ms. Massah M. Sonie, recently notified the bank of her resignation. But the CBL, in a communication to Ms. Sonie, who was the Assistant Director/Banking Department when the money was infused, is demanding that she turns herself over to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) for investigation, citing her flight as a breached duty. “Please let this claim your attention as your action or inaction involves a serious breach of duty as enshrined in the job description and employee for your position as Assistant Director of the Banking Department of the CBL. Based on the above, the CBL rejects your letter of resignation sent and wishes to inform you to avail yourself immediately,” the bank said in the communication to Ms. Sonie, recently obtained by FrontPageAfrica.
Negotiating Retirement Package
Investigation aside, Mr. Patray is also said to be unsure whether he will have his way in ongoing negotiations for a retirement package, a mouthwatering US$500,000 payout he is reportedly eyeing when he walks out of the door at the CBL.
The board of governors are said to be reluctant to allow Mr. Patray walk away with the entire US$500,000, citing Section 23 – Vacancies of the Act creating the Central Bank, which states: “If the Executive Governor, the Deputy Governor, or any other Governor dies in office, resigns, or otherwise vacates his office before the expiration of the term for which he was appointed, another person shall be appointed in his place within two weeks for the unexpired period, subject to confirmation by the Senate, from among persons of unimpeachable standing and experience in financial matters.” However, Mr. Patray was appointed and confirmed to complete the unexpired term of his immediate predecessor, former Governor J. Milton Weeks, prompting some observers to wonder whether the departing governor fits in the mole of a sizeable package, especially in the monetary range he is seeking.
In essence, Mr. Patray is reportedly seeking a 48-month pay reflecting the duration of the remaining term of former governor J. Milton Weeks.
The CBL Act says in the case of resignation of the Executive Governor prior to his end of term, an appointment will be made to complete the unexpired term. He was appointed to complete the unexpired term of the previous governor which expires in 2021.
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 recently that 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.
For the immediate future, the governor finds himself in a rather complicated dilemma as the clock the ticks on the 90-day deadline laid out by the president; one that sees him struggling to defend massive hires in the midst of a declining economy and the looming report from the LACC likely to hold him and others responsible for potential breach of the PFM laws.