–— As Tarpeh Terms Action by Protesters As ‘Unlawful and A Show of Gangsterism’
IPNEWS: One day into the President Joseph N. Boakai’s Administration, protesters early Tuesday besieged the grounds of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calling for a ‘no return’ of current Executive Director.
The protesters who blocked the entrance of the EPA prompting Police intervention.
According to the one of the aggrieved suspended protesters led by Andrew M. Copper, Accounts Analyst, Department of Compliance and Enforcement told the authoritative Independent Probe that a writ of ‘Felonious restrain’ has been issued by outgoing Executive Director Wilson Tarpeh on two leaders of the protest and are currently at the Civil Law court based on an invitation by the count.
Cooper stated that their protest is in accordance with an Executive Order 123 Section 9 issued by former President Goerge Manneh, directing all non-turned appointees of the government of Liberia to resign on or before the inauguration of then President-elect Joseph N. Boakai.
The Protesters claimed that the return of Professor Tarpeh is a violation of the Act creating the EPA.
It may be recalled; three employees and a contractor were suspended for time indefinite while another relief of his post by Professor Tarpeh nearly three weeks ago.
IPNEWS understand that the writ for ‘Felonious restrain’ has been issued for the suspended protesting employees in persons of Andrew M. Copper, Accounts Analyst, Department of Compliance and Enforcement and E. Jerry Togba, Logistics Supervisor were done by Madam Josephine Doles, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency and not Professor Wilson Tarpeh as been alleged.
However, in the wake of the protest, embattled Executive Director of the EPA, Prof. Wilson Tarpeh, termed the suspended employees’ action to block his return at the EPA as ‘unlawful and a show of gangsterism’, that must not be permitted to triumph in a democratic space.
Prof. Tarpeh stated that the revised Act of the Environmental Protection Agency of 2022, grant him the right for a seven years tenure and vows to return to work until another Executive Director could be appointed by President Joeph N. Boakai.
In accordance with the EPA revised Act approved in November 2002 and published 2003, PART III – ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE AGENCY Section 16, on the duties of the Executive Director, provides that there shall be an Executive Director who is a person with wide environmental knowledge and recognized commitment to sustainable management of the environment, appointed by the President from a list of three names recommended by the Council, except that the President may appoint an interim Executive Director pending the formation of the Council;
Count two of section 16 states that the Executive Director shall serve for a period of 7 years and shall be eligible for reappointment, except that there shall be appointed an interim Executive Director
Section 16 further provides that the Executive Director shall have security of tenure but shall cease to hold office if he: a) Resigns; b) Is found guilty of gross misconduct on the advice of the Board and the approval of the Policy Council; c) Is unable to discharge the functions of his office for health reasons.
Contrary to this assertion by Professor Wilson Tarpeh, in 2020, upon the inception of the George Weah’s government, the President sought to bring many tenured positions under his direct control thereby submitting a bill to the Legislature seeking to amend certain portions of the act establishing key government entities including the EPA by removing tenure positions to grant him full authority over the institution.
The bill is titled “An act to Amend Sub-sections (1), (4) and (4) of section 7 of an act to Provide for the Establishment of the Liberia Maritime Authority relating to the appointment and Tenure of the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of the Liberia Maritime Authority, and other public corporations.”
Now, as the Weah’s government faceoff, there glooming signals of uneasiness among many senior government officials who seek to remain quiet and hold-on until the president Joseph Boakai makes an appointment or they remain.
It seems that all hell has broken loose after public notice of a secrecy to hide the full text of the former President’s Executive Order No. 123, establishing the Joint Presidential Transitional Team 2023, until it was made public three days to the historic inauguration of President Joseph N. Boakai via social media.
The secrecy reveals how many current government officials were somehow crafty to hold on their respective positions, especially those in autonomous Agencies and public Corporations.
Portion of the Executive Order 123 creating the JPTT highlighted that ‘whereas the Constitution and laws of Liberia do not provide the protocol and mechanisms for the Orderly transfer of power from one democratically-elected President to another democratically-elected President’, there is a need to develop a system of appropriate protocols and mechanisms for the management and coordination of the smooth transfer of power from an incumbent president to an incoming president’.
Section 9, of the President’s Executive Order focusing on ‘Non-Tenured Presidential Appointees’, states that ‘Non-Tenured Presidential appointees shall be presumed to have resigned as of the date of inauguration. Accordingly, the most Senior Civil Servant at all Ministries, Agencies, Commissions, and State-owned Enterprises, shall act as Officer-in-Charge pending the appointment of their successors.’
On the back of this provision, the Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Liberia Maritime Authority, Eugene Lenn Nagbe, has resigned from the post despite having two years remaining in his tenure.
It remains unclear why the Maritime Boss resign, however, in October 2020, members of the 54th Legislature stripped off the tenure from the Deputy Commissioners of Maritime and creating assistant commissioners and the act establishing the Liberia Tourism Authority amidst heavy discontent by several lawmakers including several Representatives Larry Younquoi (ANC, District #8, Nimba County), Samuel Kogar (District 5, Nimba County), Francis Dopoh (UP, District #3, River Gee County), Thomas Goshua (District #5, Grand Bassa County) and Lawrence Morris (District #1, Montserrado County.
Sub-section (1) of Section 7 of the current law states that “the Board of Directors shall recommend for the President’s approval a Commissioner who shall be the Chief Executive Officer and who shall have general managing direction of the Authority, superintendence of ships registered under the laws of the Republic of Liberia, and responsibility for the enforcement and administration of the provisions of the Liberia Maritime Law and Regulations or any other maritime related laws.”
“Therefore, in an effort to readjust the administrative structure of the Liberia Maritime Authority to effectively and efficiently manage the affairs of the Authority. This bill amends the statutory provisions relating to the appointment and tenure of the Commissioners and Commissioners of the Liberia Maritime Authority.”
– President George Weah Writes Legislature
Subsection 4 empowers “the Commissioner to recommend to the President for appointment of, subject to the approval by the Board of Directors of the Authority, the Deputy Commissioners of the Authority to administer the principal divisions of the authority and to assist the Commissioner in the performance of his duties as set forth in this Act and the Liberian Maritime Law. The Commissioner may recommend to the President, subject to the approval of the Board of Directors, the removal of a Deputy Commissioner.”
It also states that the “Commissioner of the Maritime Authority and the Deputy Commissioners of the Maritime Authority shall have tenures of five (5) years in order to ensure and preserve consistency in the leadership, maintain continuity of purpose, increase the capacity in the industry, and preserve the national and international relevance and very competitive nature of the maritime program. The tenure of the Commissioner and the Deputy Commissioners shall be renewable for only one additional four-year period upon recommendation of the Board to the President for approval. No further renewal shall be permitted or allowed beyond nine years.”
In the communication accompanying the bill, the President told the lawmakers that Article 56(a) of the Constitution provides that all officials of the government appointed by the President, including the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners of the Liberia Maritime Authority, shall hold office at the pleasure of the President, and that tenure positions, except where they generate conflict with other provisions of the Constitution, are manifestations of the presidential prerogatives as affirmed and ascribed in statue.
“Therefore, in an effort to readjust the administrative structure of the Liberia Maritime Authority to effectively and efficiently manage the affairs of the Authority. This bill amends the statutory provisions relating to the appointment and tenure of the Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners of the Liberia Maritime Authority,” the President said in his letter.
Meanwhile, following the reading of the communication accompanying the bill, the plenary of the House, acting on a motion proffered by Rep. Alex Grant (District #3, Grand Gedeh County) called on Speaker Bhofal Chambers to constitute specialized committee to review and report next week Tuesday.
Since his ascendancy the presidency, President Weah has deemed the establishment of tenured positions at several government agency as stumbling block in the discharged of his constitutional duties as President of Liberia.
The submission of the bill on Thursday marked the second attempt of the President to cancel tenure positions awarded to agencies of government.
In the first year of his presidency, the President submitted before the 54th Legislature a bill calling for the cancellation of tenure positions within the Executive Branch of Government, but it was not passed by the Legislature.
The bill entitled “An Act Prohibiting the Tenure of Public Officials within the Executive Branch of Government” was read in open plenary on October 30, 2018, but debates over the bill were held behind closed doors.
In the preamble of the bill, the President stated that the status of tenured personnel of the Liberian Government would impede and obstruct the development agenda of the President.
Although the bill did not outline how tenure position might obstruct the development agenda of the President, it gives the president full powers over the Executive Branch of Government.
It consisted of four sections, the first read: “Except as otherwise provided in the constitution of the Republic of Liberia, all statutory provisions of laws providing for tenure of office, terms of office, tenure, or anything that provides security of tenure, of all public officials appointed by the President under the Executive Branch of Government are hereby repealed.
Section two: “The President shall have and exercise all the powers necessary and convenient for the effective administration of the Executive Branch and all the institutions under its control, and to this end, all appointed officials thereof shall hold office at the will and pleasure of the president.”
Section Three added: “That the law supersedes all other statutory provisions regarding tenure office under the Executive Branch of Government; while Section Four calls for the law to take effect immediately upon publication into hand bills”.
