MONROVIA- After her Restaurant, FUZION D’AFrique, was shut down due to what the Inspector General and her team called defiance of the law, the owner of Fuzion has said the act by the Inspector General was political harassment and Witch-hunt against her.

Responding on her official Facebook page, Miss Telia Urey writes:

My restaurant, Fuzion D’ Afrique was shut down by the Inspector general.

This is an act of political harassment and witch-hunt against me! I have run this business for over 5 years with no compliance issues and today, GOL is attempting to damage our good image and destroy this business that employs over 60 Liberians.

On August 28th, Commerce inspectors led by Inspector General Josephine Davies came to Fuzion for an inspection. When they arrived, the IG met the cashier, Mrs. Bendu Dennis and asked her to begin the inspection. The cashier asked the IG to wait for her to call the manager who was not present. The IG said she would not wait and asked Mrs. Dennis to leave the cashier stand and get out of the restaurant.

Upon the arrival of Abel Zeegar, the customer relations officer, he met a few of the commerce staff seated (Ms. Davies had already left). They presented him with the inspection letter. Upon seeing this letter, Abel told the inspectors that they could go ahead with the inspection. One of the inspectors then said that he could not carry on an inspection without the presence of the IG. He then called her and she told them not to go ahead with the inspection and that she would be coming back to “shut the restaurant down”.

Approximately two hours later, the IG returned with police officers and began causing commotion, which led to customers leaving. The IG then threatened to shut the business down and brought a document for Abel to sign, stating a fine. He told her that he could not sign the letter without lawyers being present. She eventually left, after driving away customers and causing serious damage to Fuzion. From this day, we did not receive any inspectors.

On September 4th, to our utmost surprise, we received a $3,000USD fine from the Ministry of Commerce for “hindering of authorized inspection”. We immediately contacted our lawyers and scheduled a conference at Ministry of Commerce.

At the conference, on Monday September 9th, we went to plead for the reduction of the fine, explaining to them that the cashier who IG Davies met upon entry did not know the procedures or protocol for inspection and only asked for them to wait to speak to the manager because that didn’t fall in her scope of work. We were asked to write a letter of appeal for reduction of the fine.

Considering we have been a compliant business for over 5 years and did not want to go into the legality of the fine, as long as we could get it reduced. We wrote the Ministry, as requested, on September 12th (see attached).

Again to our surprise, on today September 16, 2019, Davies came to the restaurant again with police and media and shut the business down. We did not receive any response to our September 12 letter or any warning that the request was denied.

We would like to start by condemning this abrupt shut-down of our entity by the Ministry of Commerce. Fuzion has been operating under the law for many years and wants to continue doing so, even despite the tough economic reality we are faced with in Liberia. We have passed many inspections over the years and have never once had any compliance issues. In fact, our last inspection document in still in effect as of today.

Fining a business an exorbitant amount of $3,000USD because one was asked to wait a few minutes, followed by shutting the business down is a total afront to the governments agenda of encouraging investments and building investor confidence in Liberia. The Ministry has not taken into account the number of families that are dependent on this business.

But the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, through its Inspectorate Division, has said it shut down FUZION Restaurant in Sinkor for failure to pay a fine of US$3,000 (or its equivalence in Liberian dollar) imposed on the business by the Ministry.

According to Commerce Ministry Inspector General Josephine Davies, her team’s decision to fine the restaurant was based on the business’ refusal to allow a regular inspection by authorities.

“We went to FUZION on the 28th of August, identified ourselves and told them we were there for inspection. The sales manager told us that she was not the owner of the business and that we should wait for the Manager. She called the Manager on speaker phone and he instructed her not to allow us in to do the inspection,” Davies said.

“I stood there for over thirty five minutes and the manager refused to come. When you tell us not to carry on our inspection that means you are hiding something that you don’t want us to discover. The law says once you refuse inspection it is our responsibility to issue you a fine,” she added.

According to her, after the incident, the management of FUZION was given a week to reconsider its decision to permit the inspection which they never did.

The Commerce Ministry then issued FUZION a citation to come to the Ministry to explain why they refused inspection, but the Inspector General said the restaurant refused to honor the invitation.

“They refused to come, they even refused to take the citation or sign for it, which means that they don’t want to subject themselves to the inspection and that calls for a fine. The business laws say once you refuse a citation from the Commerce Ministry that means you have automatically rejected inspection,” Davies narrated.

“So we imposed the fine on them on the 4th of September to be paid into government revenue within 72 hours and the time has elapsed. It is our responsibility to close down the business because they are in defiance. The restaurant will remain closed until they can pay the fine,” the official emphasized.

In the meantime, the proprietor of FUZION, Telia Urey, soon after the closure of her business, took to social media, terming the Ministry’s move as “an act of political harassment and witch-hunt by the government.”

According to the ministry of Commerce, Miss Urey indicated that in a conference on September 9, she and her lawyers pleaded with the commerce Inspectorate Division to reduce the fine on grounds that the cashier, whom Davies previously engaged regarding the inspection, did not know the procedures for inspection and it did not fall within her scope of work.

But Davies said that was no excuse “because the law says whomsoever is left in charge of a business should be quite knowledgeable of that enterprise.”

She insisted the inspection exercise was routine and has been affecting several other establishments in Monrovia and other parts of the country – some of whom have also been fined for being in violation.

Nonetheless, Davis said tzhat Ms. Urey’s business was not targeted for otherwise reason as the owner claimed on Facebook.

“If you are doing business in the country, it is your responsibility to make sure that you respect the laws on the books,” Davies stated.

Courtesy of LINA