MONROVIA – The Late Mary-Ann Fossung, Liberia’s Ambassador to Senegal has died, but FrontPageAfrica gathered she was left stranded in a deplorable health condition and several requests made to the Government of Liberia to settle her salary arrears to enable her to seek medical attention were not considered until her dying days.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced her demise on February 4. According to the Ministry, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Senegal, died at 2:00 am in Tunis, Tunisia where she had gone to seek medical attention.
The late Ambassador Mary-Ann Fossung was a dedicated public servant who served her country and people with distinction in several capacities including, First Secretary, Liberian Embassy near Dakar, Senegal; Charge d’ Affairs, Liberian Embassy, Senegal; and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Liberia, to the Republic of Senegal, with Concurrent accreditations to the Gambia, the Republic of Cape Verde/ Cabo Verde and the Republic of Mauritania.
She Joined the Liberian Foreign Service in February 2009 when she was first posted to Senegal as First Secretary and Consul at the Liberian Embassy near Dakar, a position in which she served with dedication.
On May 1, 2019, the late Ambassador Fossung was appointed by H. E. Dr. George Manneh Weah, President of the Republic of Liberia, as Liberia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Senegal.
Before joining the Liberian Diplomatic Service, Madam Fossung served as Assistant Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Transport in 2008 during the administration of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has extended heartfelt sympathy to the bereaved family for the loss of Ambassador Fossung. The Ministry is currently working with the Fossung family, to have her remains repatriated to Liberia for a befitting burial.
Macky Sall Intervened
FrontPageAfrica gathered from impeccable sources that the Late Amb. Fossung’s medical trip to Tunis was sponsored by Senegalese President Macky Sall after several requests made by her to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not materialize. President Sall, according to reports, footed her medical trip with US$26,000.
“She wrote several requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressing her medical urgency and the need for her salaries and additional support from the gov. All was ignored,” a Foreign Ministry source said.
The source added: “High-level government official in Senegal lately intervened with some resources but resources couldn’t complete the cost of her treatment which was to be done in France.”
FPA gathered that that was when the Senegalese President decided to intervene by sending her to Tunisia for medical attention.
Being on Foreign Mission, the cost of her medical trip should have been covered by her insurance as part of the benefits that come with being on the mission.
This is not the first time foreign service workers have been left stranded by the Weah-led administration.
“She wrote several requests to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressing her medical urgency and the need for her salaries and additional support from the gov. All was ignored.”
– A Source within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Mission workers often stranded
Last September, FrontPageAfrica reported of how several Liberians working at foreign missions risked eviction by their landlords as the Liberian government failed to pay their salaries since April 2019, neither did they received their rental payment.
Their salaries were later released but the rent at some missions like Sierra Leone are still pending.
Many foreign mission workers who could no longer cope with the cost of sustaining themselves and their families were contemplating sending their families back to Liberia so that they can be aided by other relatives.
“Schools are about to reopen and we have no means of keeping our children in school here. How are we going to afford the school fees and their daily sustenance here? Being on a foreign mission seems to no longer be a job or honor rather one of pity and self-regrets,” a diplomat said at the time.
He added, “It is not just with us here in (name of country withheld), all our colleagues in other countries are complaining. Some of them have not received salaries and rentals since May. We understand that the money was ready but the Ministry of Finance diverted it to another use.”
In September 2019, Foreign Minister Gbehzohngar Findley told members of the Joint Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Development Planning and Public Accounts and Expenditure at the time that rental payment for the month of June (2019) (and beyond) as well as operational funds for the months of April–June were yet to be paid. He put the total rent to about US$500,000.
Findley: “This is a serious embarrassment for our foreign service officers, because they render services to Liberians in the diaspora and foreigners who want to travel to Liberia through diplomatic missions. The allocated amount is small, because the budget does not adequately address the pressing demands of the Foreign Missions and the Home Office. In an effort to improve the well-being of our employees and to accommodate new ones, the ministry will need additional spending.”
He told the Budget Committee that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received an allotment in favor of the foreign missions and home office but, despite the allotment, which was processed through the voucher system, the final payment for the 2018/2019 Budget in the amount of US$981,048.68, comprising 16%, was not paid.
Besides the lack of payment for the amount of US$981,048.68, Minister Findley said the US$14.7 million is “grossly inadequate” to enable the ministry to perform its bilateral and multi-lateral mandates.
He said that foreign missions are given the responsibility to conduct Liberia’s foreign relations with other countries, international organizations and to protect as well as advance the nation’s economic, political and commercial interests abroad. In order to do this, he added, they must be able to meet payment of rental fees.