Liberia News: Big Cheating In Mobile Money Transactions

By: Moses M. Tokpah

Liberia-The Civil Service Agency (CSA) has disclosed the alarming uncovering of discrepancies in the mobile money transaction on the national payroll in the ongoing Government of Liberia payroll sanitization exercise, where

individuals who have been trusted to do the right by their conscience and country chose to deliberately defraud the state.

CSA Director Josiah Joekai Thursday told reporters at MICAT how the government, cognizant of the challenges employees in rural areas face in accessing bank, rolled out salary payments using mobile money transfer through LoneStar and Orange GSM Companies.

“As part of our responsibilities to ensure that the government has a credible payroll, the CSA reached out to the Attorney General to pray the Monrovia City Court for a writ of subpoena duces tecum to the two GSM Companies to produce transaction histories of all salaries paid to government employees using their platforms,” Joekai revealed.

According to him, the two companies are cooperating with the CSA, and that LoneStar Cell MTN provided several months of payment transactions while the CSA has been assured by Orange through the Monrovia City Court that it will provide statements of recent transaction.

According to him, a total of 4,738 transactions were done both in LRD and USD and of this number, the CSA verified that only 3,884 transactions matched names of employees on the payroll and matched the names associated with the MTN numbers.

He disclosed that 166 individuals got part of their salaries in LRD via mobile money and the USD component through the bank, noting that this category of payment represents L$2,761,628.80 and US$57,052.57.

“Annualizing this amount will give L$33,139,545.60 and US$684,630.84 as the amount the government is paying yearly to individuals believed to be accessing part of their salary using a bank and the other part using mobile money,” the CSA chief noted.

“During the analysis, we also discovered that payments were made to agents/businesses (7 agents/businesses) representing 22 transactions totaling L$294,071.00 and US$4,366; that government has been paying L$3,528,852.00 and US$52,392 yearly from its payroll account to agents/businesses,” he added.

He has however alarmed that a whopping 205 and 223 (mix of LRD and USD) individuals got paid for July via mobile money but are nowhere to be found on the national payroll.

“Monthly, the government has been paying L$3,080,614.00 and US$47,550 adding that yearly this amount to L$36,967,368.00 and US$570,600.00,” Joekai stressed.

Additionally, the CSA Executive Director said another category of transaction is names of individuals on payroll do not match with names associated with mobile money accounts representing up to 220 transactions.

He said monthly, a total of L$1,311,360 and US$27,543 were paid from Government of Liberia mobile money payroll totaling L$15,736,320 stating that US$330,516 has been paid in this category yearly. He disclosed that annually the government has lost L$89,372,085.60 and US$1,683,138.84.

Meanwhile, Mr. Joekai said a total of 613 names on the payroll will be blocked immediately until further investigation and or verification is carried out.

The CSA boss said the 166 individuals receiving part of their salaries through mobile money and the other part through a bank will be blocked immediately pending further notice while the 220 whose names on the payroll don’t match those associated with the mobile money account will also be blocked effective immediately.

According to him, 7 Agents/Businesses that have received payments to their accounts will be turned over to the appropriate authority for further investigation while individuals responsible for sending salaries 223 mobile money accounts, but are not on the payroll will be forwarded to the relevant authority for investigation.

Mr. Joekai vowed to name and shame masterminds of the malicious act.