By Mark N. Mengonfia
Monrovia -Jan-26-TNR: Despite the Unity Party (UP) campaign on a platform of restoring sanity to public spending and ensuring that corrupt officials account for their wrongdoing, it seems that the corruption virus entered the party barely four days after the inauguration of President Joseph Nyumah Boakai.
The government is yet to take root and lawmakers have started questioning their willingness about what they have been saying about the corruption fight.
It is reported that during the just-ended inauguration of President Joseph Boakai and Jeremiah K. Koung, the UP disbursed the sum of eighty-five Thousand United States Dollars (U$85,000.00) to be distributed amongst the 73 political districts of Liberia.
The money, according to reports, landed in the wrong hands with US$1,000 being deducted from each of the district’s money thus causing the total amount not to meet its intended purpose. This has caused serious problems as citizens of the various districts have started accusing their lawmakers of corrupting their money.
The reported managed money caused Representatives, Momo Siafa Kpoto of Lofa County District Three and Thomas Kpotoof Lofa County District Four to write the Speaker of the House of Representatives seeking clarity regarding the money issue.
“It has come to my attention that the executive through the office of the President of the Republic of Liberia gave US$$5,000.00 to each electoral district for the inaugural ceremonies. To date, I have received up to 97 phone calls from District #3, Lofa County asking me to explain the purpose of the money,” Rep. Kpoto said. The lawmaker furthered, “This may not be unique to my district alone.”
For his part, Lofa County District Four lawmaker reminded the Speaker of the House of Representatives of his official inaugural message to the legislature, in which he( Koffa ) mentioned that protecting the welfare of every member of the 55th Legislature will be a high priority and as such, he believes that the circulation of such wrong messages undermines the integrity of members of the Legislature in their various districts.
Atty. Thomas believes that the situation is alarming and therefore, calls for immediate attention. Atty. Thomas highlighted the poor protocol during the inauguration referencing to sitting capacity and the bad PA system which he said brought national embarrassment to the entire country in the eyes of the whole world.
At first, the Speaker indicated that they would discuss the matter in an executive session. Still, he quickly realized that members of that body wanted it to be discussed in open plenary.
A motion was raised and members of the House of Representatives deliberated on the matter calling for the executive to make clear who the money was given to, what was the purpose, why US$1,0000 was deducted from each of the districts, why they overlooked during the disbursement of the money and so on.
The Speaker in his wisdom mandated the Committee on Executive headed by Emmanuel Dahn to take charge of the matter and inform the Plenary appropriately on Tuesday of next week.
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