Monrovia- December 24,2020: Yesterday it was a show of strength intellectually, when Hon. Mosese Acarous Gray opened up an open debate between him and former finance Amara Konneh . The debate came about from a post by the former minister on the Weah government and the CDC performance in the just ended Special senatorial elections.

Hon. Gray starts the argument like this:

Amara Konneh let us end the debate once and for all Sir. I called you Sir because it was widely said that besides you being Finance Minister at a point under the Sirleaf Dynasty you were the Prime Minister cutting the shots.

In my reply to your sarcasm posted against the current presidency I was cleared that you went out of order because you supported or claimed to have voted Weah because you wanted his Senatorial seat and a seat that the movement faces deprived you of getting and this is no hidden secret. You are very angry because of that and you know that I am speaking from a participant role that burnt your ego and it’s a Senatorial position you needed to have nourished your Presidential Agenda but again we halted your ego against patriotism. This debate is set aside for another day Sir.

To the issue Sir, you posted under my post a frontpage Africa story claiming that it clarifies the usage of EU 13m usd for Maternal Mortality and Morbidity. You really serious Sir? From reading your FPA story of defense you wrote a communication to the Health Minister to forward your office their account information for the transfer of the money into such account. The Health Minister did exactly what you requested of him so did you comply? If you did can you post the transfer or deposit slips as you hastily did under my yesterday post by showing the international transfers from the EU to the CBL?
Are you also aware that misapplication of funds and unilaterally diverting certain amount of money without legislative consent is an issue? I am talking budgeted and approved money by the Legislature.

Don’t come here and tell me about oversight because you have publicly admitted that when I served as Chairman on Governance my oversight created the Liberian Revenue Authority and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. I also rejected in 2012 your justification of a request to the Legislature for a three months payroll cleanup before increasing civil servants pay. My argument was straight that it was a lie and impossible for you to have performed such task within three months and indeed you defaulted Sir. I used my oversight as Chairman on Governance to bring you and your team to face the relevant committee but today I am not heading such committee so don’t ask me why I am not bringing Samuel Tweah. Let me also legislatively school you and your cronies that oversight is not a term of ambiguity in the Legislature and that’s why we have committees responsible for certain line ministries and agencies of the Executive and I am not a member of any financial committee with oversight as related to the financial management of the state. You can ask the relevant committee on their oversight Sir.

The document posted below is courtesy of FPA story that was initially posted under my yesterday post by Amara Konneh.

Former minister Konneh Reacts to Hon. Gray:

I welcome this debate. In fact I have been waiting for it for years. I will engage you on the facts and nothing else, and here are the facts:

Due to our strong record of fiscal management, we were able to negotiate in my first year in office a $30 million direct budget support grants from the EU for the fiscal year 2012/2013 budget, $13 million of which was support to the health sector. To reach Liberia, it was sent from the European Central Bank, to the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, before finally being received electronically by the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) and deposited in the GoL’s Consolidated Account. Once the funds hit the Consolidated Account, the CBL officially informed the MoF about the deposit and the money were recorded in the Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS), appropriate official “Flag Receipts” issued (see attached ITAS report with Flag Receipt number) and disbursed to the health agencies (see allocations of health sector budget on page 47 of the FY12/13 Budget. This was all done in accordance with the 2012/13 Budget, PFM Law and Regulations. All of this is verifiable documents all of which are at MFDP and CBL, two institutions you now control.

For those reading this, it’s only self professed “intellectual giant” and a “fighter” who fights only for the CDC elites, Acarous Gray, believed that I had gone to EU headquarters in Brussels, personally took delivery of $13 million and brought it in country in a suitcase. FPA ran the story for about a week, the radio stations amplified it across the land and the hatai (tea) shops in Monrovia ran with it for weeks and my opponents are still doing so today. This is understandable, as the money involved is plenty and the suitcase imagery is like a Hollywood movie he is again attempting to create here.

Unlike the self professed “intellectual giant,” bona fide intellectuals who sat on benches and burned candles and other rational men and women will note the context in which Acarous’s hypocrisy and dirty politics are being levied against me in his post. Look at Page 43 of the FY12/13 Budget that you and your colleagues in the legislature approved and the former President EJS signed into law. You appropriated that money. You will find your answer in the very budget you approved. Moreover, I urge you to read the FY12/13 fiscal outturn report; the FY12/13 GAC Audit Report on the Consolidated Account for the period July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013 (front cover attached) and copies of which are with the Public Accounts Committee in the Legislature of which you are a very powerful member. What has stopped you from reading to see if I embezzled the money as you’re attempting to deceive the public. Oh, I forgot that you don’t read budgets and reports. You only beat your chest when it comes to addressing the concerns of your CDC elites including yourself like you did for example for the ‘Gibralta School’ renovation project that got appropriations in the budget and disbursed but was never completed because the money was siphoned in the name of “party discipline.” I have the digital copies of the vouchers and reports for that project. You’re messing with the wrong guy here. I’m a walking encyclopedia of Liberia’s post conflict financial data with hard evidence down to the penny that was disbursed to needy and poor families for funerals on instructions from superiors. Keep messing with me!

Back to the $13 million lie and your elementary understanding of the international financial system…the funds transfer was made through the world’s two most powerful and secure central banks, in a post 9/11 world with all the stringent financial laws and regulations against money laundering. Most importantly it was conducted under the watch of then Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia Dr. J. Mills Jones, who was widely known to be a policy foe of mine. Moreover, as a standard procedure, the transaction was verified by the EU Delegation (Embassy) in Monrovia, led by then Ambassador Attilio Pacific who is still in the employ of the EU in Brussels. Any rational person can see that it would have been IMPOSSIBLE to “divert” one red cent from that transaction. Looking at all the safeguards in place and the secure nature of the transfer, only an idiot and a dumb intellectual with no understanding of international financial system would engage in this petty lie to save whatever is left of his political career is on life support. But we will end this fight on the political battlefield in 2023. I will be in the background commanding and directing as true generals do in real battle.

To all my friends in the CDC who have reached out to me and pleaded with me not to engage Gray because of my status, I apologize to you all. Politics is a contact sport and we must squashed a lie with facts and let the public decides.

With all the facts and counter facts from theses two Honorable men, who one of them is actually saying the truth here?