MONROVIA – A preliminary physical inventory assessment conducted on the huge consignment of rice donated to Liberia by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has implicated the Director General and Deputy Director General for Operations of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) in the reported mysterious transfer of 5,000 bags of the commodity from Monrovia to a hub in Gbarnga, Bong County.
By Obediah Johnson
Mr. Henry O. Williams is the Director General of the NDMA, while Mr. Augustine F. Tamba is his Deputy for Operations.
It can be recalled that on April 5 of this year, the Saudi government officially turned over the consignment of rice worth US$500,000 to the Liberian government at the offices of the NDMA in Monrovia. The presentation was made by the Saudi government to the Liberian government through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Dee Maxwell Kemayah. The rice, totaling 29,412 bags, was handed over to the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) of Liberia, through its Executive Director Henry O. Williams, for onward distribution to disaster victims and vulnerable Liberian citizens.
However, authorities of the NDMA were reportedly implicated in the alleged sale and diversion of a portion of the rice, prompting President George Manneh Weah to mandate the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dee Maxwell Kemayah, to conduct an audit at the just-ended cabinet retreat held in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
A four-member committee, headed by the Chief of Staff to the Foreign Minister, Robert Sammie, was set up to probe the matter. Other members of the committee were Benjamin S. Kandakai (General Services Agency), Lincoln Barclay (Ministry of Internal Affairs), and Vivian Walker (NDMA).
In a leaked preliminary assessment report, a copy of which was obtained by FrontPage Africa, the committee confirmed that the NDMA received the exact number (29,412) bags of rice from the vendor Fouta Corporation, and records show that the agency has dispatched 7,774 bags of rice from the three warehouses where the rice is stored.
The report disclosed that consequently, the balance of bags of rice in all three warehouses should be 21,638: 6,200 bags should be in warehouse #1 at GSA, and 15,438 bags of rice should be in warehouses #2 and #3 at NDMA.
However, the report added that the assessment team established that the rice in the two warehouses at NDMA is rapidly deteriorating due to poor storage and improper stacking.
“Additionally, the team also suspects that NDMA is not prudently managing the rice, beginning with storage and distribution. The team, therefore, recommends urgent intervention and further probing to determine whether or not the 7,774 bags of rice that have thus far been lifted from the warehouse reached the intended beneficiaries.”
The report pointed out that the NDMA Logistics Supervisor, Mrs. Rosetta Gbassay Bowah, informed the team that her agency received exactly 29,412 bags of rice stored at three (3) different warehouses: two at NDMA and one at GSA.
She also informed the team that Warehouse #1, located at GSA, received 11,200 bags of rice; Warehouse #2 received 12,292; and Warehouse #3, which received 5,920, was at the NDMA.
The report disclosed that the assessment team obtained from Mrs. Bowah NDMA waybills containing a total of two thousand seven hundred seventy-four (2,774) bags of rice, and also received waybills from GSA containing five thousand (5,000) bags of rice, as well as copies of stock files and request letters.
The Findings
In its findings, the report maintained that the Logistics Supervisor of NDMA presented to the team waybills indicating that two thousand seven hundred seventy-four (2,774) bags of rice had been gated out from the two warehouses at NDMA.
However, the report added that the team could not independently verify the balances of bags of rice in the two warehouses at the NDMA due to poor stacking.
The report further unearthed that a letter dated April 12, 2023, addressed to the Deputy Director for Operations, Idriss Bility of GSA, and signed by the Deputy Director for Operations of the NDMA, Augustine Tamba, requested all 11,200 bags of rice to be released incrementally as per the distribution order approved by the Executive Director of the NDMA, Henry Mr. Williams, or his designee in the warehouse at GSA to be delivered to the NDMA. Consequently, a letter dated April 12, 2023, written by Augustine F. Tamba, Deputy Executive Director for Operations/NDMA, also requested the dispatch of 5,000 of the 11,200 bags of 25kg rice stored at the GSA warehouse to be transferred to the Gbarnga Regional Hub for prepositioned purposes.
But FrontPage Africa has reliably learned that the agency’s hub in Gbarnga, Bong County, has not been functional for several years now due to the lack of logistical support.
The 5,000 bags of rice were reportedly dispatched from the GSA to the hub in Gbarnga under the supervision of several individuals of the NDMA, including Rosetta G. Bowah, Edward D. Konneh, Augustine Kollie, and Edward S. Kromah, between April 12 to 26 this year.
The report indicated that out of the 11,200 bags of rice stored at the GSA, only 6,200 bags are currently there.
From April 18-25, the report shows that about 2,774 bags of rice were taken from the warehouse of the NDMA out of a total of 18,212 bags that were being kept there.
According to the report, about 15,438 bags should be in storage at the NDMA warehouse.
Relocating rice?
The assessment and inventory report stated that although NDMA informed GSA in communication that it was prepositioning or relocating rice gated out from the GSA Warehouse to the Gbarnga Regional Hub in Bong County, Mrs. Rosetta Gbassay Bowah, the Logistics Supervisor of NDMA, informed the team that no rice was delivered to the Gbarnga Regional Hub.
“The team verified that the balance of six thousand two hundred (6,200) bags of rice left in the warehouse at GSA is in accordance with the record and physical rice. The two warehouses at the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) do not meet the minimum standards of warehouse management: the rice is poorly and improperly stacked, which makes any physical inventory (PI) impossible.”
The report divulged that the poor manner in which the rice is stored in the two warehouses at NDMA seriously compromises the quality and soundness of the rice for consumption beyond four weeks from the day of storage.
It added that as for the GSA, it has proper stacking of rice in keeping with the minimum standards of warehouse management that ensure the soundness and quality of rice for up to 90 days.
“Based on the paper trails and findings, the team finds it difficult to establish whether or not the decision of the management of NDMA to redirect the five thousand (5,000) bags of rice from GSA to different locations was done in good faith. Additionally, the manner in which the rice is stored at NDMA seriously compromises the quality and soundness of the rice for consumption beyond four weeks,” the report concluded.
Rice spotted in Lofa In April
FrontPage Africa reliably gathered that a huge consignment of the Saudi-donated rice was being distributed in Lofa County by Montserrado County District #5 Representative Thomas Fallah.
Representative Fallah, who is a National Executive Committee member of the governing Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), is the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Ways, Means, and Finance.
Though it remains unclear whether or not the rice was purchased by the CDC lawmaker, a source within the hierarchy of the NDMA has hinted that the Deputy Director for Operations of the agency, Augustine Tamba, has been the mastermind behind the delivery of the rice to Representative Fallah.
Tamba is a confidante of Representative Fallah who has served as his personal driver for several years. Two trucks with a voter registration emblem bearing the photo of Representative Fallah were spotted at the compound of the General Services Agency (GSA), where another consignment of the rice was stored prior to the celebration of Ramadan this year.
When contacted via telephone over the weekend, Mr. Augustine Tamba said: “I don’t know what you are talking about. In fact, those who conducted the assessment are not auditors.”
For his part, Mr. Henry O. Williams declined to comment or respond to calls and text messages sent to him by FrontPage Africa on Monday.
It remains unclear whether or not a thorough forensic audit will be launched in the matter to bring the culprits to book. The alleged diversion of the rice donated to Liberia by the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the potential to discourage friendly nations and other bilateral partners from extending helping hands to Liberians.
These bilateral and multilateral partners would be reluctant to contribute, give gifts, or provide financial support to Liberia if there is a risk that their taxpayers’ money could end up in the hands of corrupt public officials. This would deprive needy Liberians of the benefits. The culture of impunity has been one of the root causes responsible for the growing wave of corruption involving public officials in the post-conflict nation.
