LIBERIA: Corruption Overwhelms Public Sector, As US$200K Reportedly Vanished At LISGIS Office

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Following report that the Port Manager of the Buchanan Port, Charles Gull allegedly stole U$200,000.00 from the coffer of the Port, another US200, 000.00 has allegedly disappeared from another public corporation, this time from the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS).

According to the source, the money disappeared recently, a situation that led the officers of the Liberia National Police (LNP) to launch an investigations with the institution’s security guards who were on duty the night the US$200,000 vanished.

It can be recalled at the Port of Buchanan, Charles Gull, the Manager of the Port was suspended by the management of the National Port Authority (NPA), for allegedly stealing over US$200,000 from the government of Liberia.

Charles Gull along with his Chief Statistician, Amara Kamara was suspended on Friday, July 16, 2021, for their alleged involvement in diverting monies intended for the government of Liberia into their personal accounts.

At the Liberia Water and Sewer Cooperation (LWSC), two managers, Mr. Duannah A. Kamara, Managing Director, and his Deputy Manager for Finance, Mr. Sensee J. Morris are being investigated by the General Auditing Commission (GAC).

Before the pair’s investigation, there were claims, and counterclaims of alleged corruption connecting Kamara and his deputy at the corporation…

The President’s decision to have ordered both men’s investigation came when leaked audiotape revealed that Kamara allegedly misappropriated 99 gallons of gasoline donated to LWSC by the World Bank, to aid the operation of Liberia’s water plant, an act of sabotage by the corporation’s own head.

In one of the recordings, the LWSC’s Managing Director Kamara is heard in a heated verbal exchange with his deputy Morris over the withdrawer of some US$99,000 from a local bank account.

In July of this year, 2021 employees of the National Transit Authority (NTA) protested in demand of their five months’ salary arrears, noting that their Managing Director, Macus Macauley has allegedly misapplied funds intended for the payment of salaries for employees dominantly drivers of the corporation. .

Besides demanding the payment of their salaries, the aggrieved workers also pointed out several malfeasances at the NTA and blamed the Authority’s Managing Director, Macus Macauley for the acts.

The Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) was established by an Act enacted by the National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA) and approved by the Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) on July 22, 2004.

The Act is known as “The Liberian Code of Laws Revised, As Amended, By Adding Thereto A New Chapter 50A., and as indicated in Section 50A.1 its short title is known and cited as the “National Statistics and Geo-Information Act”.

The Institute was created in July 2005 by spinning off of the Statistical Department of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs. The staff and other resources of the Department including the Deputy Minister have duly been transferred to the LISGIS.

Some Liberians who spoke to the GNN in separate exclusive interviews condemned the action of these corrupt officials who are said to be enriching themselves without being prosecuted in the court of law.

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