Monrovia – Several past and current officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, February 8 failed to appear before the joint Legislative Public Account Committee (PAC) to answer why they should not be recommended for punishment, following their indictment in the General Auditing Commission’s Audit report.

Report by Henry Karmo – henry.karmo@frontpageafricaonline.com

Former Commerce Minister, Miatta Beysolow, current minister Axel Addy, Andrew Paygar, Daniel Dean, Filiman Sanyon and Steve Flahn Paye failed to show up at the PAC hearing.

The absence of the officials, former and current, was done without any prior notice or notice of excuse, according to the joint committee chairman, Representative Thomas Fallah.

 He expressed disappointment in their actions, something which, he said, could amount to contempt.

Rep. Fallah told FrontPageAfrica that Minister Addy and others had received four separate communications inviting them to the committee’s hearing but have turned it down.

The Montsorrado County lawmaker displayed three letters dated May 6, May 19 and June 2, 2016 which were sent by his predecessor, Representative Ben Fofana.

The most recent was sent by him February 1, 2017.

What the GAC report Revealed?

On May 1, 2010, the Auditor General commissioned an audit on the sale of a consignment of rice donated to the Government of Liberia by the Japanese Government as required by Sections 53.1 and 53.3 of the Executive Law of 1972. 

The audit covered the fiscal period 1 May 2009 to 31 December 2009.

In 2008, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf held a bilateral consultation with the Japanese Ambassador accredited to Ghana for food aid to Liberia.

The talk was held at the Japanese Embassy near Accra. On 18 August 2008, a bilateral agreement was signed between the Governments of Japan and Liberia for Japan Food Aid to Liberia.

As a result of the talk, the Japanese Government, following the signing of the bilateral agreement and the exchange of diplomatic notes, dispatched a chartered vessel “Atlantis Pride” loaded with a gross weight of 8,641.1734 metric tons (288,012 bags) of 30kg rice to the Liberia Produce Marketing Corporation (LPMC) through the Freeport of Monrovia. 

Auditor General’s recommendations call for Commerce Minister Miata Beysolow and the Inter-ministerial Committee on the Japan 2008 KR Rice to provide material justification for change in pricing scheme from US$14.012 to US$11.50, causing a loss of US$712,732.27 on the sales of 283,731 bags and that failure to provide material justification, they should individually and jointly be held to restitute the money in full.

The audit report states that in connection with the overall shortfall of US$772,645.55, the government deposited US$400,000.00 as part payment for the variance, leaving a balance to be paid of US$372,645.55, thereby holding the Liberian government responsible for US$334,046.59.

At the same time, the report said LPMC and Sea Trans are held responsible for the balance amount and recommended that The Government of Liberia through the Inter Ministerial Committee should immediately deposit its portion of the shortfall into the Japan Food Aid 2008 account at CBL.

The report suggests that deposit by the ministerial council in the CBL account was to meet the contractual agreement and pave the way for the next round of donation.

“Commence Minister, Miata Beysolow should be made to provide material justification for taking US$400,000.00 from the Special Rice Fund and depositing it into Food Aid 2008 Japanese Donated Rice account,” the GAC report states.

“As the payment voucher attached to check number 683752 indicated only as cost associated with monitoring of sale and proceeds when Japanese Government paid for procurement and secretariat services and Fouta and UCI obtained fees (overhead expenses and contractors and distributors margins) through the Memorandum. This amount was deposited into the account on 4 June 2010.” 

In 2016, Criminal Court “C” at the Temple of Justice dismissed former Commerce Minister Beysolow indictment and quashed all charges against her on grounds that her indictment was marred with gross procedural errors.

The former commerce boss was brought under the jurisdiction of the court on February 22, 2016 when the Grand Jury of Montserrado County charged her with economic sabotage, misapplication of entrusted property, criminal conspiracy and criminal facilitation and violation of the Public Procurement & Concession Commission (PPCC) processes and procedures.

She was indicted by the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) alongside the former Managing Director of the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC), T. Nelson Williams, Director of Price Analysis at the Commerce Ministry, Steven Flahn Paye, former LPRC Deputy boss for Operation, Aaron Wheagar and the CEO of the Aminata & Sons Inc, Siaka Tulay.

The former officials’ indictment was based on the sale of the Japanese Oil grant to the Liberian Government. The grant was valued at over US$13 million.

According to the indictment, the government and people of Liberia did not benefit from the proceeds from the sale, accusing the defendants of jointly conspiring to rob the country and its people of money generated from the oil sale.

Monrovia – Most African nations barely trade with their neighbors and they at most times focus on Asia, Europe and America as trade partners something that is largely responsible for the slow economic growth the continent is experiencing.

However, West Africa is trying to break the barriers to increase trade in the region due to a monetary zone formed to regulate and improve trade in order to bolster economic growth.

Annually, the West Africa Monetary Zone meets to strategize new plans, create new investment and trade opportunities.

This year WAMZ held its 8^th trade minister’s forum in Monrovia which began with a technical working group. The conference was held from November 2-3 at the Boulevard Palace Hotel.

Opening the session, Liberia’s Commerce Minister Axel Addy said the forum was a very essential gathering that offered member states the opportunity to share country experience on cross border trade.

“Your presence here today indicates the commitment of the member states to the improvement of intra-regional trade, which is estimated, to be about 10 percent.

The importance of trade to economic growth and job creation cannot be over emphasized. It is my hope that this forum will proffer recommendations that will improve trade among us,” Addy said.

Minister boasted of Liberia’s accession to the World Trade Organization, adding that Liberia has become a model for other nations on the continent to follow.

Minister Addy urged WAMZ member states to continue the unity in order to make trade across borders easier and cheaper.

Edwin Puwogar Speaking on behalf of Director of Customs Ecowas Commission averred that the Commission appreciates the good efforts being made by WAMI to boost economic development and regional integration among the WAMZ countries.

Puwogar added that there was an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between ECOWAS Commission and WAMI on the promotion of trade-related issues in ECOWAS and the WAMZ.

“This is borne out of the recognition that trade promotion is critical and vital for the success and effectiveness of monetary integration, poverty reduction and overall regional development,” Puwogar said.

Puwogar noted that ECOWAS since its inception has had a trade policy designed to increase intra-regional commerce, raise trade volume and generally galvanise the economic activities within the region to positively impact on the economic wellbeing of ECOWAS citizens.

Puwogar continued: “The ECOWAS trade policy is also meant to foster the smooth integration of the region into the world economy with due regard for the political choices and development priorities of Member States in the desire to engender sustainable development and reduction of poverty.”

According to a report from ECOWAS, trade has increased by an average of 18 percent per year between 2005 and 2014.

The report further stated that the main active countries in trade are Nigeria, which alone accounts for approximately 76 percent of total trade followed by Ghana (9.2 percent) and Côte d’Ivoire (8.64 percent). 

It is dominated by mining commodities (oil resources, iron, bauxite, manganese, gold, etc..), agriculture (coffee, cocoa, cotton, rubber, fruits and vegetables, Services, especially finance, and other products rather marketed within the region (dry cereals, roots and tubers, livestock products), etc.

“Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Senegal concentrate 87 percent of this trade, with 79 percent of regional imports ($55,520 million per year) and 94 percent of exports and re-exports ($77,792 million per year).”

Powugar said that the ECOWAS Commission has accelerated efforts to finalize and adopt the common investment code policy for the region.

Powugar: “Efforts are also being made to foster the establishment of public-private partnerships at the regional level for financing development in West Africa”. 

He added that Commission remains committed to collaborating with WAMI and other stakeholders to ensure free trade among ECOWAS member States.

According to him, available data reveals that intra-ECOWAS trade as a percentage of total external trade was not above 14 percent.

“This is unlike the European Union that has intra-regional trade not less than 60 percent of its total external trade,” he added. 

“All impediments to free movement of goods within the Community need to be removed to boost intra-ECOWAS trade,” he stressed.

The West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) Director General Abwaku Englama said WAMI identified the need to assess progress on trade integration in the region.

“I have been informed that the preliminary results of the newly constructed index show that the WAMZ trade intergration index score stood at 47.1 in 2015 from 40.8 in 2014,” Englama said.

Englama revealed that WAMI is expected to carry out a survey on informal cross border trade in the region.