MONROVIA – The Forestry Development Authority (FDA) pays a member of its board of directors who lives in the United States a fee for meetings he does not attend, according to official documents obtained by The DayLight.
In March, President Joseph Boakai appointed Isaac Grigsby, an 80-year-old resident of New Jersey, on the FDA board. Since then, Grigsby has been receiving board-sitting fees through Gabriel Flaboe, a project coordinator at the Ministry of Public Works.
Grigsby informed FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab about the payment procedure in May, based on a letter obtained by The DayLight. “You are hereby authorized to issue the board fees in the name of Mr. Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe each time he [serves as a] proxy for me,” Grigsby wrote.
Accordingly, Merab forwarded the communication to the Deputy Managing Director for Administration and Finance Victor Kpaiseh to process Grigsby’s payment. “Please act accordingly,” Merab requested on May 13.
That same day, Flaboe received L$131,625, the equivalent of US$500 for sitting fees, US$50 for communication and 25 gallons of fuel for transportation.
The board of directors, which comprises seven other people, is crucial to the running of the FDA. It has oversight over the formulation of regulations, codes and manuals governing the forestry sector. It provides direction for the FDA, passes resolutions and approves the agency’s organizational structure.
One of the checks Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe, Sr. received on behalf of Isaac Grigsby, a member of the FDA board of directors.
A letter Isaac Grigsby wrote to the Forestry Development Authority appointing Gabriel Sarkpa Flaboe to receive board sitting fees on his behalf.
And the stakes are even higher now, with widespread violations and forest degradation, while the sector struggles to generate revenue.
Quorum
The board does not have a code or bylaw regulating its activities. However, Grigsby collecting board payments while residing in a foreign country violates the FDA Act of 1976. The law requires payment for directors who sit in board meetings, not absent ones through proxies.
In fact, it has a provision for absent board directors. “They may receive [from] the authority a stipend for each meeting attended and reimbursement for all expenses they incur in discharging their duties to the authority,” the law states. “A quorum for any meeting of the Board shall be a majority of its members.”
FDA Managing Director Rudolph Merab did not respond to queries for comment on the matter. Merab’s failure to respond comes barely a month after he bragged of denying journalists required access to public information and evading interviews.
“I don’t run my office in the press but when there is something like I told people I would call a press conference,” Merab said at a media event last December. “I will speak once and I will try to make myself clear. After that, I will not speak again.”
Flaboe positively identified Grigsby in a photo The DayLight downloaded from Grigsby’s Facebook page. He said Grisby was his uncle. However, he did not answer why he was receiving board-sitting fees for his uncle who does not live in Liberia, and whether Grigsby was sharing the board fees with him.
Similarly, Grigsby did not respond to queries.
This story was a production of the Community of Forest and Environmental Journalists of Liberia (CoFEJ). It first appeared in The DayLight, and has been published here as part of an editorial collaboration.
