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UNVEILING THE TRUTH AT THE CENTRAL BANK IN THE INTEREST OF THE PUBLIC


BY JOHN KLAYGBE (January 27th 2006)

..Any attempt by Mrs. Sirleaf to allow these corrupt criminals to continue at the bank will be met with stiff resistance through a mass action. There is no place for criminals like Greene and Dennis in this new arrangement. They continue to live in luxury at the expense of the rest of the workers. Greene recently give to his concubine, an SUV jeep intended for a GEMAP representative after using bank resources to acquire the vehicle. If you took a survey at the bank among common employees, they are fed up with the mess created at the bank and only awaiting the president to save the institution by appointing a credible board that will save the institution...



I read with interest the anonymous article entitled “CBL: Since then, What have been the subsequent events unfolding” and also read a rebuttal published in most of the local dailies by the CBL authorities entitled ”Coming From the Cold”. After a careful analysis of the issues discussed, I came to the conclusion that something is actually going wrong with our financial institution. To begin with, I will like to firstly discuss the anonymous article which has created some questions in the minds of the reading public. The article stated that the former Governor in person of Elie Saleeby was forced to resign his post as Executive Governor of the bank. What the writer failed to address was the situation leading to the fund mission decision to pressurize Chairman Bryant at the time to ask the then governor to resign.

What was widely circulated in Liberia was that the governor fell short on a lot of monetary issues and was arrogant with the fund mission about questions raised about his handling of the monetary policy in the country. Before then, there were documents that came out of the Central Bank showing salaries of the governor and his deputy among other transactions. What was not clear and still remains a mystery is whether or not the records displayed were legal or acts of corruption. The then governor was never prosecuted or made to stand trial for claims of wrong doing. Under those circumstances, one cannot allude to the practice of corruption especially when the issues raised was just about salaries. Governor Saleeby at the time clarified that the issue of his salary was discussed and agreed upon by the president of Liberia as a pre-condition for accepting the job.

To this date, no one has questioned the then governor or taken any action against him. I believe Saleeby is not above reproach but I give him a pat on the back for training prominent young Liberians in the United States at various high profile institutions. I am happy that they all came back home and are contributing to nation building and justifying the tax payers money spent on them. During the tenure of Saleeby, the bank represented a good atmosphere for doing business and conducting monetary affairs.

I also understand that during his tenure, messengers were afforded the opportunity to become computer literate and human resource development was very vital to the institution. During his tenure, very smart University students were recruited to uplift the bank and serve our people. He created a situation in Liberia that served as a boost for most young people at the business college at the UL to attach seriousness to their studies because of the program of recruiting smart students to work at the bank.

From my research, I also got to know that many senior staff members were dissatisfied with salaries and discouraged to work. In a nutshell, I believe the good overshadow the bad. After Governor Saleeby left the bank, he recommended Charles Greene to take over the affairs of the institution. I can confirm and attest that Charles Greene has a tainted reputation in Liberia because I am a witness to the Bong Bank incident when he and former president Taylor depleted the coffers of that bank and engaged in broad day thievery. This is an open secret. I am not surprise that his ascendancy to that noble institution is having a crippling effect at the institution. In their so called rebuttal to the anonymous article, they didn’t refute any of the claims but only try to engage in promotional activities leaving one to believe that the claims are true.

It is true that when Taylor became president, he said that the Liberian government will be responsible to pay the debt owed by his then NPRAG. These included the money he and Charles Greene stole in broad day light. When Greene got in power, he started to give housing allowance to employees but this was short lived. All those who were happy for his ascendancy are today crying and asking for forgiveness. The fact is that he dissolved the bank security and allowed his girlfriend to bring in her private security which is headed by her brother. He opened a boutique for his girlfriend on Carey Street just right before the hatai shop. He goes to Firestone every weekend lavishing the bank’s resources on his fiancée and bringing receipts for reimbursements. He is very ill responsible and cannot cope with the demand of the job.

He has resulted to public relations to be maintained at the bank but this is a fruitless exercise. He is always seen begging Charles Sirleaf to talk to his mother to keep him on the job. He felt that by printing gold coins for Ellen, he will be solidifying his relationship. He is afraid that huge sums of money given to his LAP Presidential candidate will soon be out to the public , so he wants to maintain the job at all cost. We heard from the grape vine that when he knew his preferred choice would not succeed, he siphoned some funds through Charles Sirleaf to be given to his mother for the campaign just to remain on the job. Greene is a thief and must be audited with his deputy and must not be allowed to leave the country. He is using one Kolako, a paid agent, college dropout, and errand boy to him to pay huge sums to the press for publicity. If Greene is not doing anything wrong, then there is no need for publicity to promote himself. He is always using the bank resources going to America and other places on a drinking spree and coming back with trumped up and bogus receipts for reimbursements. Why would a bank governor use his son Michael Greene who resides in the in the United States to serve as procurement officer of the bank and accusing Saleeby of using his foster brother to man the bank’s vault.

Atleast Saleeby used foster brother. He is using his son to engage in the skullduggery of the country’s resources. Of course whatever comes from his son as expenditure is refunded by the bank. These are some of the ways he is abusing power and misusing his office. He retired Nathaniel Patray and Joseph Acqui but he is paying each of them L$150,000 as contractual fees for nothing in return. He is in shady deals with the board to rob the people of Liberia. The board members have all taken their board fees in advance for service that was never rendered. What a bad precedent. These are the very people lobbying for jobs around here and in the corridors of the executive mansion everyday for appointment. The likes of James Dennis, a long time criminal is been used as a cover up for most of the corrupt activities at the bank. This is a man who recently went for an IMF seminar for two weeks and his allowance was suppose to be around US$8,000.

He increased the number of days to 33 and inflated his allowance to US$23,000. He pocketed the rest of the money and created another trip in less than three weeks with additional allowance. For him he has a masters in criminality. What a pity. All his time at the bank is just basically croaking the public. He is a white collar criminal. In 1995, Raleigh Sekee attempted firing him from the bank for issuing to a Lebanese national a Central Bank Check and taking a finance ministry check from the Lebanese merchant that could not be encashed just to get a cut. He wept bitterly for threat of his dismissal and used his old time concubine Sheeba Brown to beg on his behalf. Former Governor Seekee stand prepare to confirm this saga. He depleted the reserves of LUBI and escaped punishment. Walter Togba and one Weagba had to pay the price for his criminal act. The likes of James Dennis, Moses Yarsiah, Christine Williams, and Kolako are corrupt partners of Greene. I am afraid that if nothing is done to safeguard the bank by appointing a new board, the institution will wreck because reserves of commercial banks have already been tampered with. Greene and Dennis are criminals and should be handed to the Justice Minister for prosecution.

Any attempt by Mrs. Sirleaf to allow these corrupt criminals to continue at the bank will be met with stiff resistance through a mass action. There is no place for criminals like Greene and Dennis in this new arrangement. They continue to live in luxury at the expense of the rest of the workers. Greene recently give to his concubine, an SUV jeep intended for a GEMAP representative after using bank resources to acquire the vehicle. If you took a survey at the bank among common employees, they are fed up with the mess created at the bank and only awaiting the president to save the institution by appointing a credible board that will save the institution. Greene is very greedy and always firing people who are principled minded. He loves flattery and he is an alcoholic who is vacillating all over the place especially in Firestone with his concubine, the wife of a young Liberian who has gone frustrated.

The publicity by Greene is a fruitless exercise and will only reduce the already scarce resources because he and his bunch of criminals will not remain. He and his corrupt officers are suppressing young professionals who came with masters from the states. He came up with a very bad policy to give those young guys salaries they were making before they left for school. They are all disgruntle and disillusioned about the system but cannot do much. They are all hoping that Ellen will appoint some prominent members of the society to the board including some young Liberians inclined in monetary affairs to salvage the institution. There are credible information that he has left the country with huge sums along with his girlfriend he usually carry to Firestone every weekend to go and shop on the bank’s resources.

This is how her boutique is funded. They claim in their rebuttal that Greene reduced his salary but failed to mention the inflated benefits which is even more than what Saleeby was receiving. We could go on and on exposing these criminals but for the sake of the record, we want to give the president a chance to digest the issue of the bank and ensure a forensic audit as soon as possible. We will come out with more facts in our next edition. We call on the JPC, CEDE, FOHRD, MODAL, the Justice Minister and other relevant institutions to begin raising these issues as the issue of LPRC was brought to light. This is very important because the new Liberia should not be a place for criminals and cheats in society. These individuals must account for every penny they are squandering and pay the price. We hope the president will take this matter serious. We are also calling on ULAA and the Liberian organizations in Europe and FLY that represents the interest of young people to begin talking on this issue.

 

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