Monrovia — It is becoming apparent that the former Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia, Charles Gyude Bryant, and some of his ex-officials may have to fight an uphill legal battle, if possibly taken to court, to exonerate themselves from volumes of carefully documented allegations of widespread financial malpractice.

A report from a team of auditors appointed by the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to investigate the financial management of the NTGL, has concluded that Chairman Bryant and many of his officials were involved in the siphoning of hundreds of thousands of dollars from state coffers and the misuse of other national resources.

The report detailing the commission of series of economic crimes during the two-year tenure of the Bryant-led NTGL, startlingly revealed how public monies systematically disappeared in thin air from the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) and other places.

The report was compiled and subsequently released by a team of six 'experts' on financial and economic crimes constituted in March 2005 by the West African economic group, ECOWAS, comprising representatives of three West African countries, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

In the much awaited corruption probe report, the regional financial and economic crime experts commented on many transactions by some of the erstwhile NTGL officials.

The experts, in their report, made reference to one of the NTGL transactions which they said particularly 'aroused' their interest.

It concerns a Letter Payment Instruction dated 18th August 2004 and referenced NTGL/MF/2-1/LFK/ymj/214/04.

The letter payment of which, the report said, Tugbe Doe, then deputy Finance Minister for Administration, was a co-signatory, authorized the withdrawal of an earlier letter No. NTGL/MF/2-1/LFK/2141/04 and the encashment of the amount of USD 212,400.00 to be made payable to one Mrs. Roberta Francis, then special assistant to former Deputy Finance Minister Doe.

According to the report, Mrs. Roberta Francis alleged that, on the instruction of former Deputy Minister Doe, she gave the full amount of USD212, 400.00 in cash to Mrs. Siah Sammy Luseni, then private secretary to the former NTGL Chairman for delivery to the Chairman.

Mrs. Francis further explained that she reported the said transfer of the amount to Deputy Minister Doe. "On enquiry by the team," the report added, "the former NTGL Chairman, assisted by Ms. Dewey Grey, Chief of Protocol at the Executive Mansion, who referenced the record of money received by the Chairman, categorically denied receipt of that amount."

"Instead," the report continued, "the Chairman averred that he had only requested for, and received USD12, 400.00. He suspected that somebody must have inserted the figure '2' before the 12,400.00 to read 212,400.00."

The ECOWAS expert team further reported that "four days after the disclosure of this suspected malfeasance had been made by the Chairman, the team met Deputy Minister Doe for clarification on the issue.

The Deputy Minister informed the team that he had, since the Chairman's testimony, 'jogged' the memory of Chairman Bryant who then recalled he had some knowledge of the transaction involving the said USD212, 400.00. "The Chairman of the NTGL did not communicate this new twist to the team," the report continued.

According to ECOWAS, the financial administration system and national fiscal policy that the former NTGL Chairman presided over left little or no trail in government transactions, and recklessly sacrificed financial probity on the altar of appeasement to defunct warring factions and ex-combatants.

Giving another example of how public funds could not be accounted for by the former NTGL, the report said USD375,000 supposedly intended for the procurement of commodities for ex-combatants could not be accounted for as there was no documentary evidence supporting said transaction.

The team squarely blamed Bryant and former Deputy Finance Minister Tugbe Doe both of whom the team said, should be "held liable jointly and severally for the misappropriation of this sum of money".

The report asserted that Dr. Moses Jarbo, former Executive Director for the National Commission on Disarmament, Demobilization Rehabilitation and Reintegration (NCDDRR) 'strenuously' denied any knowledge of the purported disbursement of the further amount of USD667,000.00 which Chairman Bryant of the NTGL explained to the team he had authorized for use on NCDDRR activities.

"In view of the fact that no documentary proof was shown to the team covering the use of the said amount of USD667,000, the Chairman of the NTGL, H.E. Gyude Bryant should be held liable for the misappropriation of this USD667, 000," the team further recommended.

The report further revealed that former Finance Minister Lusinee Kamara, on at least two occasions, had money refunded to him from the national kitty, for expenses he claimed to have made out of pocket when there existed no documentary evidence of such expenditures.

Using a Letter Payment Instruction, the report said, Kamara was first reimbursed in the sum of USD7,000

for expenses he claimed to have incurred on behalf of the Government of Liberia (GOL).

Using a Payment Voucher, according to the report, Kamara again received the sum of USD29,700 as reimbursement for expenditure he claimed to have incurred on behalf of government for payment made to 'certain individuals'.

The ECOWAS team strongly recommended that the former Finance Minister should be made to refund the said total amount of USD36,700 to government.

"The system was severely flawed and provided an enabling environment for corruption to flourish," the report added.

Moreover, the experts documented that their interaction with personnel from across the political spectrum revealed a notion widely held then that the main focus of the disbanded NTGL was the pursuit of peace in Liberia at 'any price' prior to the 2005 presidential and general elections in the country.

"This includes sacrificing the principle of probity, transparency, and accountability to meet the exigencies associated with a country freshly coming out of war," said the expert report.

It added that this contention by former public officials particularly Bryant, former Finance Minister Lusinee Kamara, Foreign Minister Thomas Yaya Nimely, Commerce Minister Samuel Wlue and Deputy Finance Minister Tugbe Doe was "completely untenable due to the provisions in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that called for strict adherence to transparency and accountability in governance in all government institutions and activities."

The ECOWAS team maintained that Bryant was fully aware of the CPA Provision (XVI 2c) because in a letter to Company Secretary Immersat Ventures plc, dated 16, December 2003, Chairman Bryant, among other things, wrote that "Under Liberian law, the Minister of Finance is the official of the Liberian Government for all financial transactions involving the Liberian Government and all its agencies. The Central Bank of Liberia is the official depository of all revenues and incomes of the Liberian Government and all its agencies. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ushered in the National Transitional Government to manage the affairs of Liberia until general and presidential elections are held in 2005, mandates that we scrupulously comply with these provisions of Liberian law so as to ensure both accountability and transparency."

It was the CPA, signed in August 2003, by former Liberian warring factions in Ghana that gave birth to the then two-year NTGL to which Mr. Bryant was elected as Chairman.

Amongst the NTGL's key responsibilities were disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-fighters of former warring factions, holding of free, fair and democratic national elections and to set the stage for genuine national reconciliation as well as the reconstruction of the country.

When the Daily Observer on Saturday, 15 July, 2006, contacted the former NTGL Chairman Gyude Bryant via cell phone for his reaction on the ECOWAS report, he promised to respond to the report soon. Asked how soon, the former NTGL Chairman added, "very soon and when I am ready, I will call you."

Since the release of the 30-page economic and financial crime report by ECOWAS, the former transitional government Chairman and others linked to the acts of financial indiscipline have yet to publicly react to its findings.

What remains a public knowledge is that Bryant, while presiding over the erstwhile NTGL as Chairman, consistently challenged those who accused his former regime of rampant corruption to provide evidence, and or proof to substantiate such claims.

When Bryant was given the gavel of authority to lead Liberia's transitional process in October 2003, he, among other things, declared in a nationwide address, "We gather here today to celebrate the beginning of the end of 24 years of civil conflict in our country. For the third time in the past 23 years, we have been constrained to set aside our organic law and pursue a change of national leadership through extra-constitutional means; each time, hoping that the change would be for the better. But in the first and second instances, we went from bad to worse, reaping only a harvest of despair."

"This third time around," he added, "we are determined to move together in concert to arrest further polarization of our nation and deterioration of our social fabric. We are here, therefore, to lay a solid foundation for many transitions: A transition from secrecy, inordinate greed and corruption, to openness, modesty, transparency and accountability in national governance; A transition from the practice of pursuing personal interest in government at the expense of the people, to a new attitude of promoting and seeking the general welfare of all of our people; a transition from opportunism for a few members of the ruling elite, to equal access to opportunities for all of our people."

As if these salient assurances were not enough, Bryant declared amidst jubilation by his fellow compatriots "Fellow citizens, ladies and gentlemen, today we pledge before God and man, that Liberians and members of the international community will see in us the finest examples of commitment and diligence in the discharge of our responsibilities under the Agreement."

Although Mr. Bryant's NTGL, with support of the International Community, has successfully taken Liberia out of war toward peace and democracy, it remains to be seen whether or not he and other accused ex-officials are capable of exonerating themselves from the staccato of corruption charges against them.