Authorities of the Cooperative Development Agency (CDA) said they have dissolved the leadership of the Fuamah District Cooperative in Bong Mines, Bong County with immediate effect for an administrative reason.
CDA Registrar General of Madame Lwopu Kandakai said the decision is taken due to a long-time dispute that has not been resolved by the leadership of the cooperative nor her institution.
"We can't sit back and just watch a situation like this. As a part of our mandate, we are the regulator to resolve problems. If there is a problem and we try to resolve it, that is not working, we have no choice but to take a decision," she stated in an exclusive interview with this reporter at her office.
The Fuamah District Cooperative is one of the major cooperatives that the Liberian government is seriously investing in to improve domestic rice production so as to achieve self-sufficiency.
In a cooperative that has a membership of 982 shareholders, having access to incomes with the government's assistance, leadership has been accused by some members of financial impropriety.
However, an audit of a report conducted by the CDA did not implicate the leadership in any act of wrongdoing.
But, due to the constant dispute, the CDA has taken the decision to dismiss the leadership and to set up an interim leadership pending an election soon.
"We have had challenges with the management of the cooperatives even after conducting an audit. There has been a planned protest action by some members especially during the visit of the President to launch the harvest. But, we step in to stop it," the Registrar General said.
She said the cooperative has been consulted to nominate people for the interim leadership.
"We don't want it to look like we are infringing on the rights of the members as we have asked them to nominate individuals. We promised to conduct an election that will be transparent as soon as possible," the Registrar General said.
She clarified that the decision to dissolve the leadership is not as a result of instruction received from the Minister of Agriculture as claimed by the cooperative leadership.
"It is not true that we have dissolved the leadership based on instruction from the minister. The CDA per the law that establishes it has its statutory mandate to regulate the affairs of all cooperatives in the country," she added.
Madam Kandakai emphasized that the government and international partners have so much interest in investing in the cooperative to improve food production and as such proper governance is key.
The head of the cooperative, Prince D. Peters confirmed that they were informed by the CDA to dissolve their leadership.
However, he said that his leadership is not implicated in any act of wrongdoing to warrant the decision, surmising that it is being influenced by the minister of agriculture.
"The CDA met our leadership recently and said that our leadership is dissolved. We are informed that this is masterminded by the minister of Agriculture," he asserted.
Peter said there are some members who are still falsely accusing the leadership without a legitimate claim.
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"This matter was looked into before by the CDA and proven that we are not guilty. And so why do they want to dismiss our leadership for no reason," he said.
The Cooperative Chair said that the tenure of leadership expires this year and there's no need for an interim leadership.
"We have a planned election by May and we are committed to leading the Cooperative to the process," he stated.
Peter added that there's a plan to brief the members of the prevailing situation to suggest a way forward.
Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Dr. J. Alexander Nuetah did not respond to the press of the allegation to influence the decision after reaching him by telephone calls and text message before the publication of this article.
