IPNews-Monrovia, Liberia-6 March 6, 2018: The Board of Governors of the Booker T. Washington Institute has begun probing allegations of nepotism and improprieties levied against the principal of the Booker Washington institute (BWI), Atty. Harris Fomba Tarnue by some anonymous writers.

The investigation started over the weekend at a one day BWI employees’ meeting with a Special Committee of Board of Governors probing the allegations against Principal Tarnue in the auditorium of the institution.

Chatting with newsmen at the close of the meeting, the Chairman of the BWI Board of Governors; Jackson Paye said the investigation is intended to find out if the 22 count-claims in the document are factual.

He said it is unfortunate that the document is anonymous and the Board does not know who John Flomo is.

“Our aim here today was to do a fact finding to establish who this person is or what was alleged whether it is true or not, but we were not able to see who John Flomo actually is; but we went into the counts that were raised so what we are doing is that we have a committee that is going to continue to investigate” Chairman Paye asserted.

According to him, the counts mentioned in the document are things the Board needs to look at; as such it cannot just conclude the investigation in one day period.

He indicated that the allegations are based on somebody’s interpretation and to be able to investigate thoroughly the person who levied those allegations should be present in order for the investigation team to ask them, because in the jurisprudence the accuser needs to be available to be confronted but unfortunately it was not the case during the start of the investigation.

He explained that there was only one individual (Alexander Ramble) who talked about count 9 and 19 which have to do with his status as a contractor employee thus presenting evidence to the investigation team as promising to look into said information.

Paye said the issue that has to do with procurement procedures has documentary evidence to prove. He further indicated that the allegation that has to do with the principal increasing his salary is something that cannot be done without the Board being in the know, adding, ‘there is no increment of salary at BWI that the Board is not in the know of’.

He added that there are some of issues that the Board can disregard outright that are not been true while there are some other issues border or not knowing the financial situation of the institution with regards to Janitorial facilities and the issue of 2017 graduates teaching in the trade shops are national issues with regards to the education in Liberia something he said means that lots of capacities need to be built but giving what it is they still have to investigate to see how true the allegations are.

Mr. Jackson at the same time narrated that the failure of the accuser (s) to show up does not in any way undermine the ongoing investigation but it rather makes it difficult to go deep down into the allegations.

Meanwhile, the Board according to its chairperson, has setup a five-member committee with two more persons to be added to look into the allegations. The Committee members are Kenneth Y. Best chairman, Jonathan Paye-Layleh, co-chairman, president of the BWI Alumina Association, John Youboty, member, and a Lebanese national identified as Esau. The Board Chairman maintained that the investigation may last for at least two weeks.

It can be recalled that an anonymous source or whistleblower prepared a 22-count document in the name of drawing the prompt attention of stakeholders including the President and member, ex-officio of the BWI Board of Governors, chairman and members of the institution`s Board and the Ministry of Education to what the report termed “the worst or very bad administrative practices ever experienced at the institution.”

The report accused Principal Tarnue of practicing nepotism at the highest peak through the employment of his family members and friends including his sisters Vanjah Tarnue and Saybah Tarnue as cooks, nephews Eddie O. Morris and Francis Blah as driver and house attendant, and his friends Jimmy B. Zinnah and Musu Gray are allegedly employed and placed on payroll as Cabinet Secretary and Principal’s Secretary respectively.

“A complete mockery to the education is currently taking place on BWI because the Tarnue’s administration is offering National Diploma when about 90% of his vocational staffs in the technical areas are Diploma holders. This is a downward trend for BWI and moreover, his administration is employing recent BWI graduates (2017) to teach up to senior classes at the departments,” it says.

It further alleged that BWI has turned into a business center rather than a center for academic excellence, adding that the BWI administration imposed a L$1,000.00 interest on every deferred payment requested by parents and students during registration.

It noted that students are enrolled in huge numbers in the name of generating internal revenue amidst inadequate instructional materials, crowded classrooms and dormitory rooms while both the regular, post-secondary and professional program students are having classes simultaneously, thus leading to low learning outcomes.

The document indicated that dormitories are overcrowded and dilapidated and as the result, most students are opting to live off campus.

The 22-count document disclosed that the coolers (water fountains) previously used by students for drinking in the cafeteria during the past administration have been replaced by Ebola buckets, the drastic reduction of quality and quantity of food amidst the increase in budgetary allotment for food in fiscal year 2016/2017 by the Government of Liberia  while senior students who paid first semester school fees but were out for internship could not be fed on the day of their arrival as customarily done on campus.

It alleged that rice sent to the institution by Firestone Liberia every month for students’ consumption is issued to the principal, his cabinet and confidants as it sometimes does not reach the warehouse. Principal Tarnue is yet to respond to the number of allegations levied against him.  Meanwhile, investigation continues.