MONROVIA – Liberia’s National Elections Commission has certificated two US-sanctioned and disgraced former government officials to contest October 10, 2023, Senatorial election in Margibi and River Cess Counties, respectively.
The Elections Commission is expected to conduct presidential and legislative elections on October 10, this year.
Howbeit, the two disgraced officials, former Presidential Affairs Minister, Nathaniel F. Mcgill and the National Port Authority Managing Director, Bill Twehway were certificated on Tuesday, July 4.
It can be recalled, in August of last year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released a report designating the two Liberian government officials, including Sayma Syrenius Cephus for their involvement in ongoing public corruption in Liberia.
US Treasury Department notes the officials were designated pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuse and corruption around the world.
Through their corruption, according to the US Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson, the officials have undermined democracy in Liberia for their own personal benefit.
Nathaniel McGill’s involvement
Nathaniel McGill (McGill) was the former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Chief of Staff to President George Weah. The statement notes that during his tenure in government, McGill has bribed business owners, received bribes from potential investors, and accepted kickbacks for steering contracts to companies in which he has an interest.
It statement indicates that McGill has manipulated public procurement processes in order to award multi-million dollar contracts to companies in which he has ownership, including by abusing emergency procurement processes to rig contract bids.
“McGill is credibly accused of involvement in a wide range of other corrupt schemes including soliciting bribes from government office seekers and misappropriating government assets for his personal gain.
“He has used government funds allocated to other Liberian government institutions to run his own projects, made off-the-books payments in cash to senior government leaders, and organized warlords to threaten political rivals.”
According to the statement, McGill has received an unjustified stipend from various Liberian government institutions and used his position to prevent his misappropriation from being discovered.
McGill regularly distributes thousands of dollars in undocumented cash to other government officials for government and non-government activities.
The statement: “McGill is being designated for being a foreign person who is a current government official who is responsible for or complicit in, or who has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.”
Bill Twehway’s involvement
Bill Twehway (Twehway) was the former Managing Director of the National Port Authority (NPA).
According to US Treasury Department, Twehway orchestrated the diversion of $1.5 million in vessel storage fee funds from the NPA into a private account. Twehway secretly formed a private company to which, through his position at the NPA, he later unilaterally awarded a contract for loading and unloading cargo at the Port of Buchanan.
Accordingly, the contract was awarded to the company less than a month after its founding. Twehway and others used family members to obfuscate their own involvement in the company while still benefitting financially from the company.”
The statement further states that Twehway is being designated for being a foreign person who is a current government official who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.”
The solution to this problem lies in the hands of the Liberian people. The way they will vote will say a lot about whether they like or dislike corruption. So far Boakai & the Unity Party, after forging a coalition with PYJ, look set to endorse him. Unity Party has no other option. With a UP-MDR electoral alliance, it is obvious that PYJ will be endorsed. Even Boakai’s choice of running mate (J. Koung) – from PYJ’s MDR and his right-hand man – is an ostensible act of defiance to the U.S. Gov’t in and of itself. Boakai is aware of the extreme negativity of his actions, that’s why he himself described his choice as: DANCING WITH THE DEVIL. The Buga-Dancing PlayBoy Pastor and his CDC Coalition have already shown the US Gov’t what they think of the sanctions. What we don’t know now is: How Will the USA Respond? We are waiting.