Monrovia – Frank Musah Dean, the Minister of Justice, has categorically defended the Minister of Finance and Development Planning and the Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia that under their watches not a single penny of the US$25 million, which was intended to mop up excess Liberian dollar on the market ever went missing. 

“There is, therefore, no issue as to the L$2.6 billion, representing the value of US$17M, being brought to the vault of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL). It can safely be concluded that no money is missing in the US$25 million mop-up exercise,” the Justice Minister said in count six of his “Response to the Auditor General’s Report on Factual Findings on the US$25 Mop-up Exercise Conducted by the Central Bank of Liberia.” 

Minister Dean further said the process of exchanging the US$15 million used for the direct mop up as detailed in section 2.2.5 table 2 of the General Auditing Commission (GAC)’s report shows that US$6.7 million was taken out of the bank to be exchanged during the exercise.

There were five teams and US$8.3 million was exchanged at CBL premises.

“The accountability of the mop up funds is not in question, however, section 2.2.4 of the GAC’s report states that 15 entities listed by CBL, as having received money from CBL’s staff during the exercise, denied their participation in the exercise,” he stated.

According to the Justice Minister, eight of the entities on the CBL’s transaction list, were found not to be in existence and the burden of proof is on the CBL, which is headed by Mr. Nathaniel R. Patray, to establish the veracity of the transactions and the entities’ existence.

He averred that multiple sections of the report reference discrepancies and variances in the accounting records of the mop-up exercise.

“Again, these variances and discrepancies place the burden of proof on the CBL to explain these variances and discrepancies or to establish that they are not factual,” said Minister Dean.

He said the description of discrepancies, variances and delays in posting financial transactions, contained in the GAC’s report, point to the systematic weaknesses at the CBL

Courtesy of Front-page Africa