23 November 2009
editorial
It has been a long time since we last discuss issues of national concern that need your personal, direct intervention. The reason has been simply this: we thought to give you time to digest and take actions on those issues that we already threw at your feet. We thought you might have had your hands full and in a case of a spill, some issues may not get the kind of attention they deserve. Now we are back, hoping that your "memo desk" is clear. We come back in extreme urgency.
Madam President, there is an issue that is growing out of administrative actions you took a couple of months ago. It is an issue that we consider divergent to the path of good governance that your administration has chosen publicly to pursue no matter what. We refer here to what many now regard as the Greaves-Jappah bribery saga. A couple of months ago the then LPRC managing director Harry Greaves reported that the Independent Technical Committee you set up to investigate the propriety of contract between Zakhem International Construction, Ltd and the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company (LPRC) was engaged in malpractices that could taint and compromise its decision. Specifically, Greaves alleged that then Deputy Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and member of the committee, Aloysius Jappah, was the committee's bribery point man who had demanded US $300,000 in order to decide in favor of LPRC. We guess it in pursue of transparency and fair play, but your administration mandated the Justice Ministry to probe the allegation. However, before any investigation was begun into the allegation, which was actually a public spectacle, you summarily suspended Jappah for time indefinite.
The public was stunned when the Justice Ministry's findings held whistleblower Greaves culpable of masterminding a swindle to soil the reputation of the presidential committee. The Justice Ministry's probe committee could not determine whether the bribery did take place and therefore fell short of letting Jappah off the hook. Many, who followed the saga, believe this is probably why you did not send Jappah back to his desk. You summarily also, relieved Greaves of his post, obviously allowing him to cut clean of the administrative and budgetary problems he has created at LPRC. He must have rubbed his hands in special glee, a lucky man, working away from a touchstone economic sabotage case.
Your Excellency, this was how far transparency and fair play went in the saga and we thought there would be further remedial actions to put the matter to rest, permanently. Instead, silence seized the void and that silence brewed enduring questions and speculations about the future. They run thus: "Have you secretly granted amnesty or presidential pardon to former LPRC director Harry Greaves, who was in the center of the controversy and held culpable in the bribery saga by the Ministry of Justice?" "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?" Finally, "Will government seek to try Greaves for attempted bribery and declare Jappah free to go since preliminary investigation shows Greaves used him as cover in his contractors manipulating scheme?" As far as we can tell, neither you nor your administration have made any effort to preempt the public's concern about the saga - a saga which, by embracing summary dismissals, is against your government's "Papa Na Kam Policy" and that borders on the administration's Achilles heels, corruption in high places. Nothing but deafening silence that did nothing to redeem your administration's image regarding leniency towards bribery and corruption and corrupt officials. Now, the aggrieved are coming home to roost.
Jappah is now the aggrieved whistleblower, Madam President - a Liberian citizen pushed to the brink of despair in this "reformed" new order of governance. He has been telling anyone, everyone including you, who he hoped would listen to his story that Mr. Greaves has already kaput the travel restriction you issued against them and rather than been penalized or serving as basis for instituting a bribery case against him, your administration is giving him preferential treatments. He claimed in a statement issued by his family last week that Greaves has traveled abroad despite the travel ban. The statement said besides that, your administration has fully compensated Mr. Greaves and given to him all his benefits since his dismissal. Strangely enough however, you failed to accord Mr. Jappah the same favor even though he has written several letters to you, the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, the 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. Mr. Jappah has described this as "outright cruelty and no respect for governance and the rule of law." His family, on the other hand, is not only calling on the public to implore you to pay Mr. Jappah, and it is also calling for proper investigate into the litany of "lies" perpetrated against him. In effect, they want their son vindicated and absolved of all wrongdoings, which in our opinion is a fair request.
Your Excellency, we say fair request without necessarily taking Jappah's allegation - the basis for his demand for equal treatment - line, hook, and sinker. But we believe as strongly that the silence is grossly ineffectual against issues that run across the heart of public concerns. We think there must be a sort of probe in the wake of which the chips will be allow to fall where they may legally, fairly, and squarely. This is the way to go. If there is anything, the public must know regarding why different standards are allegedly applied to Greaves and Jappah, it is but appropriate to disclose it because you owe the public immediate action and explanation on the issue that open the door to suspicion about ethnicity, undue administration preference, and possible presidential underhandedness. You made the commitment to the Liberian people never to operate from the shadows, never to allow any Liberian citizen to be aggrieved to the extent of appealing to violence for redress. You said this in your acceptance speech in November 2005 at the Centennial Pavilion, remember?
Again, here is what you said during your inaugural address: "Throughout the campaign, I assured our people that, if elected, we would wage war against corruption regardless of where it exists, or by whom it is practiced. Corruption, under my Administration, will be the major public enemy. We will confront it. We will fight it. Any member of my Administration who sees this affirmation as mere posturing, or yet another attempt by yet another Liberian leader to play to the gallery on this grave issue should think twice. Anyone who desires to challenge us in this regard, will do so at his or her personal disadvantage. Let me assure you that my Presidency shall remain committed to serve all Liberians without fear or favor. I am President for all of the people of this country. I therefore want to assure all of our people that neither I nor any person serving in my Administration will pursue any vendetta. There will be no vindictiveness. There will be no policies of political, social, and economic exclusion. We will be an inclusive and tolerant Government, ever sensitive to the anxieties, fears, hopes, and aspirations of all of our people irrespective of ethnic, political, religious affiliations, and social status. Let us be clear, however, that we will insist on specified standards of law-abiding behavior in the exercise of this tolerance."
Madam President these pledges for democracy and good government are as alive and resonant today as they were nearly four years ago on January 16, 2006. You cannot shy from them or risk public hullabaloo for a matter as simple as paying benefits or authorizing a legal trial. Think about this.
Many thanks, Your Excellency, for your kind attention and resolve to act immediately to provide relief to the Jappah Family - either in kind or in justice.
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We are sorry that the amount of money involved is very significant, to influence one to make a bad immoral and unethical judgment/decison