The Chief Executive Officer of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), Dr. Randolph McClain, has pleaded with all reporting agencies (Newspapers, radio stations, etc.) to avoid making statements that tend to cause discord in the Liberian society. Dr. McClain urged all reporting agencies, saying: "If you contribute to the discord and the possible instability in our society, we will all bear the negative consequence."
The NOCAL CEO further urged the reporting agencies to do research thoroughly or seek clarity from the source before reporting. The NOCAL CEO pointed out that alarming the public unnecessarily is not healthy for the country. He stated that the oil sector has become a sensitive object.
He made these comments on Monday, June 3, 2013 when he addressed a press conference in Monrovia. Dr. McClain comments were in response to what he referred to as Misleading reports in the 4th LEITI Report.
According to Dr. McClain, the misleading information was also reported in the media, FrontPage banner story in the Thursday, May 23, 2013 edition of the Daily Observer newspaper entitled "US $330K 'Unaccounted for' in Oil Sector... LEITI Report Reveals".
Dr. McClain explained that the account is for the period July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011. Said Dr. McClain: "The Daily Observer states analyzing total payment and differences per sector, LEITI found that within the oil sector, the companies paid US$49,911,073.86 but only US$49,681, 073.86 was paid in the government's coffers. A difference of US$230,000 remains unaccounted for in the oil sector, reported by companies as paid to the government but the government agencies did not report receiving."
He continued: "With the total amounts taken into account, there can be no other difference. Therefore, only US$230,000 is in question, NOT US $330K, as reported misleadingly. Internal working papers were all reconciled. (For further detail, please see Table 14 of the LEITI report for total summary (page 34); Appendix III, in reference to Social Welfare contribution reconciliation (page199); Appendix III in reference to UL contribution (page 207))."
"Details of the report reveal that the variance is due to a period recording error. The reason for the difference of US$230,000 is that the UL (University of Liberia) received US$850,000.00 from NOCAL for the period being reported, but mistakenly reported that it received US$620,000.00, which it had received for the previous reporting period (2009/2010) (UL confirmatory letter available). Therefore, the US$230,000 is fully accounted for. We hereby request LEITI to corroborate with UL to correct this misinformation. The correction act may simply involve a resubmission of the 2010/2011 Revenue Tracking Template with US$850,000 to replace the current one with US$620, 000," the NOCAL CEO among other things added.
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