If anyone thinks the purging of two top officials from the Sirleaf administration in the aftermath of the notorious LPRC-Zakhem contract did effectively put the matter to rest, it must be a mistake. Several questions still linger: is former LPRC director Harry Greaves, who was in the center of the controversy and also held culpable in the bribery saga by the Ministry of Justice granted amnesty?

Has the irregularity, which led to the bribery hullabaloo and all the actions that came to bear, radically changed or perfected government's stance on the contract?

Amid these questions, one of the protagonists and victims associated with the deal, former Deputy Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Aloysius Jappah (Pictured), is feeling burned and compromised, and describing the action against him as "outright cruelty and no respect for governance and the rule of law."

The Analyst delves into saga and reports Jappah's grief.

The family of the man accused of seeking bribe to dump the interest of Liberia in an important public contract has in effect questioned the wisdom and administrative prudence of the Sirleaf administration in the fight against corruption and impunity as it particularly relates to the LPRC-Zakem contract.

Aloysius Jappah, former aide to President Sirleaf, was severed from the Liberian public service amid allegation that he attempted soliciting a bribe of US$300,000 from former LPRC managing director Harry Greaves to blankly validate and approbate nearly US$25m contract at the LPRC.

Jappah was a member of the independent technical committee set up by President Sirleaf to investigate the contract between Zakhem International Construction, Ltd and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company. Harry Greaves, the managing director of the LPRC, was strongly pushing for the unadulterated passage of the contract to the extent that he attempted to keep the National Legislature's oversight role ineffectual.

Midway in the study of the contract by the special committee, Greaves alarmed that Aloysius Jappah allegedly approached him for the sum of $300,000 so that the technical committee would advise the expeditious passage of the contract as Greaves had sought. Greaves' allegation that the technical committee via Jappah was seeking bribe provoked intensive public debate which, to a large extent, brought Sirleaf and her administration into disrepute.

She increased pressures on both Greaves and Jappah not only to keep a distance from the public service but also to undergo some sort of probe. Greaves was forwarded to the Justice Ministry for investigation and, with unusual high rate of speed, the panel of investigators at the Ministry found him culpable not only in terms of the bribery saga which he personally dug up and reported, but also in terms of circumstances that characterize the Zahkem Contract.

Jappah who was however coerced out of the Executive Mansion is yet to be given his day in court. Feeling the weight of all the allegations on him image, coupled with the near reluctance of the Sirleaf administration to establish his guilt and innocence via due process, family members of the accused and sacked are calling on the Liberian Government to take the bribery allegation to court.

The Jappah family in a release issued yesterday said the government of Liberia must show courage in taking the appropriate steps to leave no doubts in the minds of the public as to who [he or Greaves] is criminally responsible. The Jappah family recalled that Harry A. Greaves, Jr., former Managing Director of the Liberia Refining Company swore to an affidavit which he submitted to the Office of the President, alleging bribery demand on the part of Mr. Jappah.

According to the Jappah family, the President submitted the affidavit to the Ministry of Justice for investigation but strangely after two days of investigation by the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Greaves undertook a "dare-devil public campaign intended to mislead the public when he realized that the bribery allegation scheme was being identified and exposed as a part of a signature pattern of his to discredit attempts to unmask the unholy nature of the Zakhem contract. He was immediately dismissed after the investigation".

The Jfamily decries the preferential treatment given to Mr. Greaves, claiming that the government of Liberia's travel restrictions placed on Mr. Greaves and Mr. Jappah have been lifted to satisfy Mr. Harry A. Greaves' need to travel abroad. Unlike Harry Greaves who has been fully compensated and given all his benefits since his dismissal, the family said, Mr. Jappah has written several letters to the President, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Minister of State for Finance, Economic, and Legal Affairs, the Minister of Justice, and the Director General of the Civil Service to receive just compensation for his services rendered, without success.

Mr. Jappah has described this as "outright cruelty and no respect for governance and the rule of law." His family is calling on the general public to implore the President to pay Mr. Jappah and to properly investigate the litany of lies told against this "decent young man whose character is widely known to be immaculate".

The Jappah Family thanked the Minister of Justice, the Solicitor General, and Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Justice for professionally handling the investigation. Let us pray for increased wisdom and discernment for our President for things are no longer what they seem. God Bless Liberia.

Harry Greaves' Probe

The Ministry Justice moved with an unprecedented speed to study the bribery saga, particularly Greaves' affidavit accusing Jappah of bribe extortion. The Ministry of Justice, in a report, said Harry Greaves personally sought means to reach out to members of the special committee which was studying the LPRC-Zahkem contract in an apparent attempt to bribe.

The Ministry opined that both Greaves and Jappah committed the crime of bribery because it found no indication that Greaves refused the offer as allegedly made by Jappah. He only told the technical committee that while he did have the sum of money needed, he would inform and persuade the contractor, Zakhem.

In the Ministry's judgment, it was clearly established that the interactions and discussions narrated by Mr. Greaves in his accusing affidavit against Mr. Jappah did in fact take place but that it was Mr. Greaves who initiated contacts with members of the independent technical committee. According to the Ministry of Justice's report on the bribery situation, investigation uncovered that Mr. Greaves' initial contact with the committee was through Mr. Mathew Clark, another member of the committee.

According to unofficial but unimpeachable sources, Clark told officials of the Justice Ministry he first contacted by Mr. Greaves on July 30 and requested a meeting with him (Clark), but that he objected because he was preoccupied with the work of the Committee. Unable to lure Clark into the deal, Greaves, according to the Justice Ministry report, cultivated new frontiers in the person of Paul Jappah, Aloysius Jappah's brother, working with Greaves.

Aloysius Jappah told the investigators that he said Mr. Greaves had made several overtures toward him by and thru his younger brother, Paul Jappah, who works with Mr. Greaves at LPRC. According to Jappah, Greaves was seeking Jappah to reduce his radical position against the contract.

A discovery of the ministry that there existed no contact between Mr. Greaves and Mr. Autridge, and between Mr. Greaves and Mr. Saytumah, as was being speculated, while Greaves told the ministry that he did not trust the Technical Committee from the very beginning because of the inclusion of Mr. Jappah, especially since Mr. Jappah is too close to Mr. Saytumah, and for fear that Saytumah would have influenced the outcome of the report against him.

PRESS RELEASE

Shoes Factory - Gardnersville,

Montserrado County

(Wednesday, November 18, 2009): The Family of Mr. Aloysius T. Jappah, Esq., a member of the erstwhile Independent Technical Committee (ITC) appointed by Her Excellency President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to investigate the contract between Zakhem International Construction, Ltd and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company is calling on the Liberian government to take the bribery allegation to court. The government of Liberia must show courage in taking the appropriate steps to leave no doubts in the minds of the public as to who is criminally responsible.

It can be recalled that Mr. Harry A. Greaves, Jr., former Managing Director of the Liberia Refining Company swore to an affidavit which he submitted to the Office of the President, alleging bribery demand on the part of Mr. Jappah. The President submitted the affidavit to the Ministry of Justice for investigation. But strangely, after two days of investigation by the Ministry of Justice, Mr. Greaves undertook a dare-devil public campaign intended to mislead the public when he realized that the bribery allegation scheme was being identified and exposed as a part of a signature pattern of his to discredit attempts to unmask the "unholy" nature of the Zakhem contract. He was immediately dismissed after the investigation.

The Jappah family decries the preferential treatment given to Mr. Greaves. The family claims that the government of Liberia's travel restrictions placed on Mr. Greaves and Mr. Jappah have been lifted to satisfy Mr. Harry A. Greaves need to travel abroad; that unlike Mr. Harry A. Greaves who has been fully compensated and given all his benefits since his dismissal, Mr. Jappah has written several letters to the President, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Minister of State for Finance, Economic, and Legal Affairs, the Minister of Justice, and the Director General of the Civil Service to receive just compensation for his services rendered, without success.

Mr. Jappah has described this as "outright cruelty and no respect for governance and the rule of law." The family calls on the general public to implore the President to pay Mr. Jappah and to properly investigate the litany of lies told against this decent young man whose character is widely known to be immaculate. The Jappah family thanks the Minister of Justice, the Solicitor General, and Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Justice for professionally handling the investigation. Let us pray for increased wisdom and discernment for our President for things are no longer what they seem.

God Bless Liberia.

Signed: Alteah Jappah/ Jappah Family