Monrovia – The Executive Director of the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL), Anderson Miamen, has called for an investigation into the recent combined donations of 150 motorbikes to chiefs and elders in Nimba County.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
Mr. Miamen’s comments follow information shared by journalist Nyantee Genero Samuel Togba of OK FM, which cited an earlier Facebook post by Matthew Konah.
Reacting to the reports in a Facebook post and subsequent interview with FrontPage Africa Newspaper on Sunday, August 2, Mr. Miamen indicated that if the information is accurate, anti graft authorities should establish the source of the funding used to procure the motorbikes.
According to his estimates, if each brand-new motorbike is valued at a maximum of US$700, the reported 150 units would amount to approximately US$105,000. At US$800 per motorbike, the total cost would reach about US$120,000.
Mr. Miamen questioned where the funds originated, asking whether they came from the minister’s personal salary, contributions from friends, or other sources.
He also called for scrutiny of the minister’s previous record of public donations before his appointment, as well as his assets, income, and liabilities he declared to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) upon assuming office.
“The Office of the Ombudsman needs to investigate this, in collaboration with the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission. The public deserves to know the source(s) of funding for these donations, because the Code of Conduct and other laws provide for what public officials can and cannot do,” Mr. Miamen said. [1]
He further argued that the allegations warrant closer examination because of the sensitivity of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, an institution that has historically faced allegations of corruption.
“The Minister is at a place where there had always been allegations of corruption, and so for him to be sitting there and doing these kinds of donations that he has not done before raises questions. The Minister was once in the Legislature and he did not do that. He was at the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the Weah’s era and he didn’t do that. Now he is doing this,” Mr. Miamen stated.
Mr. Miamen vowed to reach the nucleus of the matter by officially writing the LACC and the office of the Ombudsman to investigate.
“We are not stopping here; we will officially engage the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission to step into this. We can’t leave our country being vulnerable in this manner,” added Mr. Miamen. [2]
