Wilfred Bangura, Deputy Minister for Administration, Ministry of Commerce
LIBERIA – The Deputy Minister for Administration at the Ministry of Commerce has exposed the bad work habit of Minister Mawine Diggs at the Ministry. Minister Diggs, is considered by some Liberians as the least performing cabinet minister in the George Weah government.
She does not go to work. She is accused of usurping the functions of her deputies and humiliating her workers.
And as a means of verifying all of these allegations, a local FM radio, Voice of Liberia, took a live broadcast to the Ministry of Commerce yesterday to see the officials that were promptly at work.
But as usual, the Commerce Minister was not at work. In fact, a second visit to the Ministry the same day shows Mawine Diggs was nowhere to be found.
So, the Voice of Liberia managing director, Sekou Sheriff put it to Deputy Minister Wilfred Bangura, why his boss has not appeared at work. Sheriff also questioned Bangura about his boss’ other bad work habits.
And apparently lacking answers to the persistent absence of Minister Diggs from work, Bangura said “My boss is very hard working.”
And when Sekou Sheriff insisted he wanted to see the Minister, Wilfred Bangura embarrassingly retorted: “The minister works remotely.”
He added that the minister conducts the affairs of the ministry on the phone. “She wakes up early by 6 am and gives instructions on the phone”. In further defense of Diggs, Bangura noted that Diggs would go to see the President to give him a briefing regularly”.
It is alleged Minister Diggs goes to work twice a week and very late. But Wilfred Bangura struggled in vain to convince the Journalist that his boss at times stays in the office up to 8 pm.
Bangura further defended that the reason the Commerce Minister is not seen most often at the Ministry is that she attends meetings with international partners and business executives and has to meet the president for regular briefings.
But it appears that was not enough to convince Sekou Sheriff who further quizzed Bangura why Minister Diggs does not use her official offices to conduct meetings, but Bangura was left with unconvincing answers.
