–Displays Documentation to Support Allegations
The dismissed former Deputy Director General for Statistics and Data Processing at the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), Mr. G. Alex Williams, has displayed more documents, including bank slips, on alleged rampant corruption at LISGIS.
Williams on Tuesday, November 15, night made a second appearance on the famous Spoon Talk, a night time political talkshow on the Spoon Network, where he disclosed that monies raised for the Census process were allegedly transferred to Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah’s private bank account in Côte d’Ivoire.
He revealed further that the Census Account at Ecobank – USD6100064362— that was used in 2008 and reactivated for the current census, the Government of Liberia has contributed the amount of US$2,769,297.80. According to him, the amount was to disprove an earlier claim by Min. Tweah that the only money deposited in the account in 2019 so far was only US$$700,000. He further asserted that the Finance Minister misinformed the Liberian people and should not be doing such as a public servant. He added: “It shows that he has something to hide when he lies to the public. It is important to inform the Liberian and the world at large that Min. Tweah misinformed the Liberian people.”
The former LISGIS Deputy Director General also revealed that Lawrence George, Francis Wreh, Dominic Paye and Min. Tweah are signatories to the account. Again, he tried to disprove what Min. Tweah had said few days ago when he appeared on the same Spoon Talk.
Williams further narrated that the following amounts, in three checks, were transferred on April 5, 2019 into the Central Bank of Liberia account of LISGIS in the sum total of US$450,000. He gave the check serial numbers as 17505, 17506, and 17507 respectively for the purpose of LISGIS National Housing and Population Census. According to him, each of the three checks had US$150,000 written on them. “On April 16, 2019, US$250,000 was sent to LISGIS account, making a total of US$700,000. That was the first contribution from the Government of Liberia for the Census.
He further alleged that in that same year, the government deposited L$28 million to LISGIS Liberian dollar account.
He further revealed the Liberian Dollar account number of LISGIS to be 6101350441. According to him, the total amount that the account has received was L$130,280,745.10 from seven deposits in April 2019, November 2021, July 2022 and September 2022. There was no deposit made in 2020.
“You will see as recently as July and September 2022, Min. Tweah was placing monies on that account. But Min. Tweah was on show saying that since 2019, they have stopped putting money into the Census Account, which is a blatant lie,” Williams alleged.
On November 8, 2021, Mr. Williams noted that he when resumed his role as Census Project Coordinator, the government of Liberia deposited into LISGIS account an amount of US$180,000 and in the same month of November 2021,the deposited another US$270,000.
And in March 29, 2022, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning deposited an additional US$300,000 to the same LISGIS account and in the same March 29, 2022, an amount of US$1 million. on July 22, 2022, there was a transfer of US$19,297.8. In September 2022, US$300,000 thus bringing the total to US$2,769,279.80 was the money transferred to the Ecobank that Min. Tweah signed and turned over to LISGIS for the 2022 National Housing and Population Census.
As though this information would have never come to the public, the Finance Minister lied recently about the Ecobank account when he appeared on the same Spoon Network.
Speaking further, Mr. Williams also spoke about an account number — 610005514 — in a bank based in Côte d’Ivoire. He revealed that monies have been leaving the LISGIS’ account and going to that purported bank account in Côte d’Ivoire. He wants Min. Samuel Tweah to explain about the ownership of the account number.
He said the Liberian Legislature must take keen interest in this information, though the public has no faith in the lawmakers. He called on the Civil Society Organization and the Liberia Council of Churches to stand up to the occasion, because the country is bleeding under Samuel Tweah and say enough is enough, the broad day looting of state resources must stop. He suggested that Min. Tweah must be made accountable to the Liberian people. He indicated that of all the monies in both Liberian and United States dollars, LISGIS only received US$300,000 but now the authority is saying millions of dollars and when you do a combination of the total funds that should have been in LISGIS’ account, is over three million dollars, they must tell the whereabouts of the monies.
The Finance Minister is yet to officially respond to these allegations from Williams.
