Moncio Robert Kpadeh writes
It was Moncio Robert Kpadeh who exposed the graft and theft that saddled the collection and usage of the National Road Fund. It was I who mustered the courage to champion a pious campaign calling on this very Liberian Senate to thoroughly investigate Samuel Tweah, Boniface Satu et others suspected of embezzling the road fund and unlawfully diverting the fund to settle other recurrent costs of the government.
On 14 June 2022, I wrote a detailed, thorough, and succinct letter to this very Senate outlining why they should investigate the management of the road fund and the scope of such investigation–what to particularly consider in such investigation. Even though the Senate Secretariat received my letter, it failed to officially acknowledge receipt of my communication. Five days following my letter to the Senate, the Senate shockingly issued a bogus and shady resolution acquitting Samuel Tweah of any wrongdoing relative to unlawfully diverting the road fund for salary and other questionable transactions flagged by the GAC. It was widely rumored in the corridors of the Senate wing at the Capitol Building that some senators received bribe to pass such a dubious resolution against the interest of the Liberian people. Today, the same Senate is pivoting and telling us that over $110 M has been collected by the road fund without proper accounting indicating rampant corruption. So why now?
One of the haunting postwar challenges plaguing Liberia is the issue of horrible bad roads across the country and during the rainy season, it gets worse in places like the Southeast and Lofa county. The NRF regime was established and envisioned to curb the country’s bad road problem and give relief to citizens commuting on these roads across the country. Unfortunately, instead of being used to repair bad roads and build new ones to ease transportation and boost trade and commerce across the country, the road fund had become a cash cow for roguish elements of the regime. The bad road misery persists across the country while millions are stolen from the fund to grease the pockets of the economic hawks ruling over the country.
It was because I exposed how the road fund was being grossly looted, miscreants, malcontent, and grotesque elements of the government tried to scandalize my reputation after their failed attempt to bribe me to discontinue my campaign to investigate the road fund. In Liberia, we denigrate heroes and honor thieves. History shall surely absolve us.
Hereunder is my letter to the Liberian Senate:
The Liberian Senate
Plenary of the Senate
Capitol Building, Capitol Hill
Monrovia, Liberia
14 June 2022
Ref: The National Road Fund and the financial improprieties and Inadequacies thereto
Dear Senate Plenary;
With sentiments of the highest esteem, I extend stately salutations and best wishes in the discharge of your constitutional duties
and fiduciary functions.
In the spirit of transparency and accountability, which are the moral quintessence of good governance, I write requesting the Honorable Plenary of the Liberian Senate to kindly invite Mr. Boniface Satu, head of the National Road Fund (NRF), acting Public Works Minister Ruth Coker Collins, Board Chairman of National Road Fund, and Finance Minister Samuel D. Tweah to a Special Public Session, to provide substantial and material clarity on the management of the National Road Fund and the usage of the Fund as well as the transparency and accounting mechanism and regimes in place to safeguard the Road Fund from possible plunder and pillage thereby ensuring the Fund is effectively and efficiently used for the intended purpose.
Honorable Plenary, as you know the Road Fund exclusively belongs to the people of Liberia. The Road Fund is paid directly by the Liberian people through a surcharge imposed on petroleum products which include Fuel oil, Gasoline, Jet Fuel, Kerosene, and Lubricants of all varieties. Through the Road Fund millions of United States dollars are generated from the struggling poor Liberian masses, to repair bad roads across the country and to build new roads where the need exists.
No doubt, Liberians from whom the Road Fund is collected deserve to know how much money is collected on a quarterly to yearly basis through a proper reporting system by the NRF Management team but sadly, that is not the case. Best practice demands that public funds of such humongous amounts, generated from the striving pockets of the ordinary citizens must be made public knowledge through a standardized reporting system. Unfortunately, as things stand, Liberians do not know the control mechanism and regulatory system in place by which the Road Fund Management team allocates funding to road projects. They should also have a mechanism in place to primarily ensure that projects funded by the National Road Fund are subjected to the standard PPCC procurement regimes, so that ‘value for money’ is guaranteed. Liberians also do not quite know what roads have been and are being repaired and built with money from the Road Fund— suffice to say we demand with every emphasis at our command, a credible inventory of road projects with an affixed cost of each road project done with funding from the National Road Fund.
Regrettably, the Road Fund as we have established is managed in a manner that can be best described as shadowy, shabby, and shady. The recent audit report from the General Auditing Commission(GAC) that reveals how about US$24M of the Road Fund remains unaccounted for amongst other fiscal malfeasance taking place at the NRF is a valid testimony to how the Road Fund is being abused, plundered, and siphoned.
Consequently, it must be emphasized that the Management team of the National Road Fund has a fiducial responsibility to ensure that the Road Fund is managed with the greatest degree of transparency and accountability and serve the foremost purpose for which it is collected from the Liberian people. Failure to keep or uphold this fiducial charge doesn’t only amount to dereliction of national duty but also a blatant betrayal of the public trust which is a grievous and egregious transgression that warrants a “Vote of no confidence” followed by an appropriate legal penalty where possible.
Respectfully, I should also remind you, dear Senators, that you have oversight responsibility to ensure that the Road Fund, the Liberian people’s money, is managed with transparency and accountability and to guarantee that any financial transgression thereto, offenders are punished appropriately. I, therefore, hope, that as I have brought to your attention germane and fundamental issues relative to the Management of the Raod Fund, you will garner the temerity to address the grave concerns appertaining to the subject matter expeditiously and judiciously —in a bid to instill fiscal and managerial sanity at the National Road Fund.
In view of the foregoing, I hereby request that you invite the individuals named supra and demand cogent explanations on the following:
1.) What is the actual amount of surcharge imposed on every gallon of petroleum and Lubricant amid reports that the actual amount being imposed is US 50 cents and not US 30 cents as the government would have us believe? And if it is US 50 cents, we are reliably told that the National Road Fund is collecting 30 cents, so where is the remaining 20 cents going, or who accounts for said amount? 20 cents collected from billions of gallons every year is a huge sum of money that must be accounted for, dear Senators.
2.) Why has the National Road Fund Management team failed to put in place a standardized reporting mechanism to say to the Liberian people through publication how much is collected on a quarterly to yearly basis when it ought to fully report what it collects from the people in line with transparency and accountability mandated by its standard operational procedure (SOP)?
3.) What is the procedural mechanism by which the National Road Fund can appropriate and release funding to road projects? What are the conditional requirements that a road project must meet to be qualified for possible funding? Does the NRF management team directly participate in negotiations of road contracts with concerned contractors, to verify and corroborate the performance history of Road Companies being awarded road contracts? To ensure guarantee on contracts and subsequent ‘value for money’ as there are countless instances of fake road companies receiving millions of dollars for road works and failing to perform and in some instances, absconding the country. The NRF must also submit to the public through the Senate a credible inventory with affixed costs of road works it had funded over the last five years.
4.) Under whose approval did Minister Samuel D. Tweah glean over US$20 Million from the National Road Fund? What role did the Board of the NRF, which is led by acting Public Works Minister Ruth Coker Collins play in such a questionable transaction?
5.) What are the internal control systems in place to ensure proper fiscal adherence and who are the external auditors of the NRF, and how often do they review the books of the NRF?
6.) And this is for you, dear Senators, the recent GAC audit of the NRF has disturbingly revealed fiscal malpractices and systemic malfeasance at the NRF, how soon can the Senate act save the Road Fund from further plunder and pillage?
As I await a speedy response to this communication given the critical and fundamental concerns it presents, I trust the Honorable Plenary of the Liberian Senate will accord this communication the urgent attention it demands and acts expeditiously and accordingly to save the Road Fund.
With assurances of the highest esteem, I remain.
Thanks.
Citizen (Moncio) Robert Wilmot Kpadeh
CC: United States Embassy
” European Union
” The People of Liberia
Note: I chose the liberty to write an open letter because the Road Fund is exclusively the Liberian people’s money, they deserve to know how their money is being managed. A hard copy will be served to the Senate today, and CC to U.S. Embassy and European Union.
