Liberia: Who Took Media Money?

2 November 2022
The New Republic Liberia (Monrovia)

Nov 2-Several Media entities that were asked to provide special coverage of the Bicentennial celebration have requested the government through the ministry of information Culture and Tourism payment.

The media six media entities provided coverage as well as other entities. Besides the general arrangements made with all media entities in Liberia, the then Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, Information Minister Ledgerhood Rennie, and other senior government officials reached an understanding to do extra coverage during the celebration.

After a series of meetings with both the minister of Finance and Information as well as the former Minister of State, the six media entities officially wrote requesting the full payment of their money.

When the letter was taken to Information Minister, he denied ever committing the ministry to such an arrangement.

He said, "I am not aware of your arrangements. I did not take any US$100.000(Handed thousand united states dollars) for the media. Let those who are accusing me give you evidence of what they are saying. I will resign today if they provide any evidence of me taking media money."

The letter was triggered by a statement released by former Deputy Information Minster, Eugene Fahghon on his Facebook page that the money was paid for and used by the Information minister. He however failed to provide further details on this.

Please read below the letter written by the six newspapers:

Hon. Ledgehood Rennie

Chairman Bicentennial

Monrovia-Liberia

November 1, 2022

Ref: Request for media Bicentennial payment

Dear Hon. Chairman:

Compliments.

We write to request our Bicentennial payment in the tune of USD$66,600. (Sixty-six thousand six hundred united states dollars) for six media institutions.

This amount is based on an arrangement reached with the former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Mr. Nathaniel McGill, and you as Chairman of the Bicentennial to provide complete coverage of the entire event beginning Sunday, February 13, 2022.

Mr. Chairman, it is disheartening to note that since these publications were carried out in our various newspapers, we are yet to be paid.

Mr. Chairman, we met you countlessly relative to the settlement of our Bicentennial payment but to no avail. Rather, you have referred us to former Minister McGill.

It will interest you to know that following several meetings with Mr. McGill, we were informed that the Bicentennial account was frozen due to mismanagement and an investigation was underway.

Fortunately, additional funding was provided for the next phase of the Bicentennial which began in July and payment would have been made by then.

However, there is information that said amount was paid for the media to you, which of course none of the performing institutions received payment.

Mr. Chairman, it is in this regard that we are officially requesting immediate payment of our outstanding bicentennial money.

Respectfully yours,

Mr. Philibert Brown---Hotpepper

Mr. Stanley Seakor----The Analyst

Mr. Sam O. Dean----- Independent

Mr. Othello B. Garblah--New Dawn

Mr. Alphonso Toweh---New Republic

Mr. Mohammed Kanneh- Heritage

Cc: H.E President George M. Weah

Republic of Liberia

Hon. Samuel D. Tweah

Minister of Finance Planning and Development

Read the original article on New Republic.

Tagged:
Copyright © 2022 The New Republic Liberia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 500 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.