Monrovia -
Source: http://www.frontpageafrica.com/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=10612&z=3
Presidential Press Secretary Cyrus Wleh Badio told FrontPageAfrica Sunday that the President has indeed accepted Johnson’s resignation which was made upon her request.
NTA board dissolved
FrontPageAfrica has also learned that the President has with immediate effect dissolved the board of the National Transportation Authority headed by Jackson E. Doe. The action follows a recent FrontPageAfrica revelation that Doe has been busted in a major scandal involving the deposit into an account bearing his name and signature - an amount of $US125,000. The documents show how Jackson E. Doe, Chairman of the Board of Directors at the National Transit Authority (NTA) processed and deposited US$125,000 on a voucher dated December 22, 2009 from funds appropriated for the NTA into a new account at Eco Bank with Doe and another member of the NTA Board as the only signatories. Doe's action to secretly transfer such huge sum of money illegally comes amidst the growing transportation constraints facing residents of Monrovia and other parts of the country.
While the board dissolution will be welcome news for transport commuters, it is the dismissal of Minister Johnson which caught many by surprise. In recent months, Johnson had become a potential political liability for Sirleaf heading into the crucial 2011 elections amid concerns and allegations that Johnson had mismanaged county development funds in vote-rich Nimba County.
Alarm blows on Nimba funds
Last year, Senator Prince Y. Johnson(Independent, Nimba) declared that Johnson, using the letterhead of the office of President Sirleaf, and the phrase ‘by directive of the President’ transacted financial deals under the pretext that those deals are sanctioned by the President of Liberia, is common in the current administration, as several transactions have taken place in such fashion relating to thousands of United States dollars.
Johnson also said that the IA Minister and the Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy tampered with funds provided his county by Arcellor Mittal Steel, a leading steel company operating in the county using the letterhead of the Ministry of State. The company by now should have paid US$6 million over a four year period, US$1.5 annually as quota for the use of the county resources, but Johnson confirmed that there is US$5 million currently deposited at the bank for the county, but failed to state when the remaining US$1 million will be paid, or whether it has been expended.
“The letter that Eugene Shannon wrote, he used the Ministry of State letterhead, telling Ambulai Johnson that the office Mittal Steel was using to do our paper work, when they leave it in June, we should pay the sum of US$100,000. As a Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy he did not write it on his letterhead, or the Project Management Committee letterhead, but rather, he wrote on the Minister of State letterhead, in their quest to get this money quickly, they were confused; he wrote this letter on the Presidential letterhead”, Senator Johnson told reporters last year.
Senator Johnson said, President Sirleaf expressed anger over the communication written on the letterhead of the Ministry of State, by Minister Shannon, but has not done anything up to present.“I took the letter to President Sirleaf, and showed her the letter; she said only the Minister of State can write on this letterhead. She expressed anger in my presence in her office. What has she done with this matter, somebody who wrote on her letterhead to extort money from us”, Johnson narrated.
Continued Johnson”: “The involvement of Ambulai Johnson in our money is discouraging, and disappointing. I have been to the President's office on several occasions on this matter, appealing to her to intervene but nothing has been done, and Johnson and Eugene Shannon just playing with the money”, the Nimba Senator indicated. He said some time ago, the county was requested to submit a listing of all the projects earmarked for the usage of the US$ 5 million and that was done but instead, Minister Johnson insisted that the document be summarized.
“When we submitted all the projects and programs, including buying yellow machine to fix our roads, building of schools and clinics to be implemented to the Minister of Internal Affairs, the minister summarized the document into four pages and requested that US$12,000 be paid to him as fee for the summary, US$3,000 per page”, Senator Johnson continued.
Speculations galore over Johnson's luxury home, Jaquar
For months speculations had surfaced that the President had been bombarded by reports highlighting the speed at which Johnson built a mansion on the Robertsfield Highway and also purchased a flashy Jaquar in a short period of time.
Observers say letting Johnson go signals that Sirleaf is on course to rid her administration of deadwoods which hurt her politically in 2011. Earlier this year, the President also accepted the resignation of her former Minister of Information, Culture Affairs and Tourism Laurence Bropleh who was forced to resign amid allegations that he mismanaged more than $200,000 of his ministry’s funds. Solicitor General Cllr. Wilkins Wrights said last week that Bropleh was indicted along with the Comptroller and Chief Accountant of the Ministry. According to Cllr. Wrights, Dr. Bropleh and the two others have been charged with Theft of property, Forgery and Criminal Facilitation. The Solicitor General told Star Radio, the indictment followed police preliminary investigation linking the men to an alleged financial scandal at the Ministry. The financial scandal which led to the resignation of Dr. Bropleh is in the tone of over two hundred thousand US dollars. Cllr. Wrights said the men were indicted by a special Grand Jury and are expected to be tried during the February term of Court. Several other ministers including Education Minister Joseph Korto and Lands, Mines and Energy Minister Dr. Eugene Shannon have also been linked to corruption allegations and cited by the General Auditing Commission(GAC).
Bropleh’s elder brother, Albert has also been indicted amind allegations he mismanage and misused money intended for the Liberian Telecommunications Authority(LTA).
Sources closed to the President told FrontPageAfrica Sunday that President Sirleaf was particularly disappointed in her cousin and IA minister and went to great pains to finally asked him to resign. The action supports a declaration by Sirleaf in a 2005 Time Magazine interview in which the newly-elected President spoke of her disappointments in people who have let her down. "I've been disappointed many times in the trust that I've put in people. And I can sometimes be a bit harsh; I guess that's where my "Iron Lady" nickname comes from," Sirleaf said.
As the 2011 election rolls around, insiders say more deadwoods and those likely to pose a political liability to Sirleaf will likely take their exits as the President aims to address a major handicap and challenge to her reelection and political legacy - the issue of corruption and what critics says is her lack of political will to cure - or curb the cancer.
