A member of the House of Representatives has vowed to do a written communication to House Speaker Bhofal Chambers citing former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to give her own account as to the ongoing missing money containers saga.
Addressing a news conference at the Capitol Building on Saturday, September 22, 2018, Bong County Representative, Marvin Cole said, in the coming days upon the Legislature will return for its Special session, he will communicate to the House’s plenary seeking their indulgence to invite former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to explain in details her position on the current missing money container situation which is gradually throwing the country’s population into confusion.
According to him, since it was reported that a stockpiled of money container amounting to billions of Liberians dollars went missing at the Freeport of Monrovia, there has been conflicting account surrounding the situation.
He wants the former Liberian leader, to in the public glare, explain her own role as to whether or not there was a missing container investigation that was ongoing upon leaving office or the contrary.
“We cannot continue to sit here and do nothing,” the CDC lawmaker intoned.
“I think it is about time that we invite Former President Sirleaf to explain to us, as she has already started doing to the BBC and other international media outlets, as to what really went wrong in this missing money container saga,” he added.
Though both the Ministries of Justice and Information have confirmed that about 15 to 16 billion Liberian dollars stockpiled in containers went missing at the Freeport of Monrovia and at the Robert’s International Airport (RIA) and that President Weah has instituted a probe into the matter; the Ministry of Finance, another public run institution, has rubbished the information.
Speaking on a local radio station, Finance Minister, Samuel Tweh said, there was no money missing and the information provided by the two government ministries were far from the truth.
He, among other things, claimed that the monies have been infused into the country’s economy and were not used for personal gain as speculated by the public.
But prior to the Finance Ministry’s position on the matter, Former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in a Frontpage Africa interview claimed that the past government should not be held liable for these missing money containers because there was no money missing under her stewardship as President of Liberia.
She said the claimed that there was some missing money container in November of 2017 at the time she was president is far from the truth and is willing to proof behind all reasonable doubts that her government should not be held liable for any missing money containers.
Also appearing on BBC Focus on Africa program on Friday, former President Sirleaf frowned on the way in which the current administration is dragging her reputation into the mud, stating that “she is angry” about the way the matter is being handled by the current administration.
According to the former Liberian leader, monies that were printed under her watch at no time got missing because it was done in consonance with the law.
She wondered why the George Weah-led government is refusing to release an investigative report compiled by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) on the matter.
“The Central Bank has already done an investigation on the direction of the Minister of Justice. Why haven’t they released the report of the investigation? Why are they sitting on it? Has the President realized what he has done to the country? The reputation of the country is also at stake. They’re talking about 16 billion, do they know what the GDP of this country is?” Madam Sirleaf said.
Meanwhile, the Legislature is expected to reconvene in the coming days with former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf poised to address the full leadership (in the presence of the press) of the House of Representatives on a situation which has already created an embarrassing image for the country at the international level.
