Monrovia — It appears that the alleged financial scandal hovering over the Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Finance, Bill McGill Jones, is far from ending, as documents in the possession of this paper point to more startling revelations surrounding the Budget Management System Contract and other software (IT) contracts awarded to RoviaGate Technology.
Contrary to the Ministry of Finance Development Planning's (MFDP) Press release dated May 20, 2024 that its decision to increase the cost of the Budget Management System Contract (BMS) from US$180,000 to US$200,000 was because of a shorter turnaround time and the pressing need to submit the budget to the Legislature, FrontPageAfrica has gone beyond what the ministry presented to the public.
Available contract documents in the possession of FPA show that Deputy Minister Jones withheld the contract document for 20 days, from February 9 to February 29, without signing the document, thereby undermining processing time efficiency that he apparently sought to achieve.
The document further revealed that on February 29, 2024, Deputy Minister Jones returned the document to the Procurement Unit with a written instruction to increase the cost to US$200,000 before affixing his signature; thus, delaying the contract though the ministry claimed it was pressed against time.
Moreover, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning issued a Local Purchase Order (LPO) to the vendor (RoviaGate) on April 19, 2024, over two months after the contract was prepared.
Therefore, some staff at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning are detesting the deputy minister's justification of being in a hurry, because he (the DMA) deliberately delayed the awarding of the contract for over two months as a result of alleged contract fixing.
A statement from the Procurement Director, Eric Arkoi, on his official Facebook page, further disagreed with the deputy minister's justification, terming it as a singular attempt by Deputy Minister Jones to mislead the public and further embarrass the reputation of the Ministry of Finance & Development Planning.
Akoi claimed that because he reneged on implementing the DMA's US$20K increment instruction during the preparation of the Budget Management System contract, it angered DMA Jones, thus prompting his decision to wrongfully suspend him on March 5, 2024, two working days after his said refusal.
Similar contracts from previous years (2021, 2022 and 2023) indicate that 2024 Budget Management System contract bears the highest cost than any previous year, even though there is no additional deliverable/work to be done by the vendor, unlike in 2021 and 2022 when the country was transitioning from Fiscal year regime (July to June) to Calendar year (January to December) where the vendor had to reconfigure the entire system.
According to the documents, when the same vendor, RoviaGate Technology, was reconfiguring and upgrading the entire Budget Management System in 2022, the Ministry of Finance & Development Planning negotiated the contract at US$180,000, even though the vendor had earlier quoted for US$250,000.
The documents also show that similarly in 2021, RoviaGate quoted US$225,000 to perform said task, but the contract was negotiated at US$180,000.
Therefore, the processors of said contract at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning had accordingly argued against negotiating increment instead of reduction in cost, stressing that it has no subject matter justification consistent with the Public Procurement laws and best practices.
Relying on the foregoing, further clarification is required into the Ministry's decision of negotiating an increment of US$20K instead of the previous amount, since no additional technical deliverable/work was required, unlike the previous years.
The Ministry of Finance, in a statement said the contract was awarded based on established procurement laws.
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This is one of several controversies that has immersed the Deputy Minister for Administration since his ascendency to said position at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning under the presidency of His Excellency Joseph Boakai, Sr.
Few days ago, another employee of the Fiscal Audit Unit at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Cllr. Pearson took Deputy Minister Jones to court on allegation of wrongful deduction in his salary on the instruction of the minister.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Jones has also been dragged to the Civil Service Agency (CSA) by some employees of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on allegation of wrongful dismissal.
It can be recalled that on May 6, 2024, DMA Jones issued dismissal letters to the Budget and Finance Director and the Procurement Director. The said letters, copies of which are in our possession, carry the signature of the Deputy Minister for Administration and not the head of the entity who is the Minister or his designee, consistent with Civil Service Standing Order and administrative best practices.
