MONROVIA — President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, upon taking office announced that his government will not do business as usual, but as the President struggles to keep his statement in check, there are reports of corruption emerging from some government ministries and agencies.
By Edwin G. Genoway, Jr (231886458910)-[email protected]
One of such government agencies involves in an alleged corrupt act is the Liberia Water Sewer Corporation, whose Managing Director Mohamed Ali, is being accused of imposing his friend’s company on the LWSC to purchase chemicals for water treatment to meet the government’s 100 days benchmark in office.
It is being reported that Ali allegedly awarded a contract for the purchase of chemicals for water treatment to his ‘best’ friend’s company, the One Capital Group of Companies (OCGC).
The contract was awarded for the company to purchase water treatment chemicals for the LWSC.
Prior to awarding the contract to the OCGC, three additional quotations for the contract were sent to the LWSC from three different vendors, including the Building Material Center (BMC), Cactus Enterprise, and the Omega Supply Chain but none of them was accepted by Ali over the OCGC.
Though the four companies were notified to submit their quotations for the purchase, it is alleged that Ali awarded the contract to his friend’s company without any competitive bidding process, a complete violating the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission laws.
The One Capital Group of Companies belongs to Mr. Bakary Dolley, who’s a native of Grand Cape Mount County, where Ali also hails from.
FrontPage Africa investigation has established that the OCGC has not been doing business with the LWSC prior to the ascendency of Ali at the LWSC.
It has been established that the one Capitol Group of Companies has two Business registrations, copies of which are in the possession of FrontPageAfrica.
One of the documents says the company was established August 1, 2018 with the enterprise code: 500770912, while the other business registration, is revealing that the company was established on March 6, 2024, with a registration number or code 052015189.
It is also reported that Ali awarded the contract worth US$55,000 to this newly established company without following the Public Procurement Concession Commission Act.
Though there were three additional vendors that have the expertise to provide the service and sent in their quotations, Ali wrote the PPCC requesting no objection for the use of sole source method of procurement for the purchase of water treatment chemicals aluminum sulfate granules 17% 50kg, calcium hypochlorite or chlorine HTH 45kg and hydrated lime.
Sole-source contracts are a kind of contract that can be issued without a competitive bidding process. This usually happens in situations where only a single business can fulfill the requirements of a contract.
Under the PPCC law, Article 101 states: “Sole Source, a Concession may be granted on a sole source basis only upon a determination by the Cabinet, after consultation with the Commission, that sole source procurement is the only reasonable way of obtaining the resource controlled by the bidder and one or more of the following conditions is determined to exist:
(a) The Concession requires specialized expertise that is available only to one specific bidder; (b) The Concession involves an innovation the patent for which is held by one particular bidder; (c) The Concession requires specialized research, or experiment that only one person is prepared to undertake; or (d) The Concession is in respect of strategic national interest or national defense or security and it is not in the national interest to have more than one bidder.
The LWSC boss is yet to explain what led to the dropping of the other three companies and giving the contract to the One Capital Group of Companies.
A team of journalists reached out to Ali for his response to documents linking him to corruption, and he said “the media should publish whatever they want.”
For his part, the owner of the One Capital Group of Companies, Mr. Bakary Dolley, in a similar response told FrontPageAfrica via mobile phone Tuesday to carry its investigation to PPCC and LWSC because his company is not prepared to respond to such, and that “FPA should publish whatever.”
