HOUSE IN US$50,000 CORRUPTION WEB?
-As LPRC Boss Threatens to Disclose Name
Forum
Monrovia, Liberia
Distributed by
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
Contrary to the representative’s claim, the LPRC Managing Director Harvey Greaves, has squarely placed the corruption barrage at the doorstep of the House.
In his recent press conference in Monrovia, Mr. Greaves alleged that unnamed member of the House requested his management to give US$50,000 to members of the House for what was termed as “cold water” to free LPRC from being included on the budget.
Mr. Greaves who said that he would not disclose the name of a particular
member of the House for now until appropriate time, indicated that the amount
was requested for by this individual House member to serve as an inducement
for the august body to give LPRC some consideration as regards this budget
issue.
The LPRC boss said that he told the individual House member that every bit
of expenditure that comes from LPRC at this period is accounted for and
could not honor his request.
He said this response angered some members of the House and decided to carry what he (Greaves) referred to as “smear campaign against the present management.”
According to him, he was one time approached by a journalist regarding claims that some unspecified amount of money was paid to the Senate which subsequently caused that Upper House to have earlier squashed LPRC from the budget list. But, “I asked the reporter as a trained journalist, because I worked for a newspaper company in America for 10 years, what was the amount mentioned to you?” adding, “He could not call the amount and the reporter said he just got the information from someone.”
Mr. Greaves said that with GEMAP’s comptroller, John Lindbeing assigned at the company and sitting just right on top of his shoulders, he did not see wisdom in writing such a check for payment without his (John) involvement.
He said the Senate was reasonable enough when he appeared before its Ways & Finance Committee to explain the status of LPRC at present, saying, “the Senate saw wisdom in what I explained to them about the status of LPRC.”
According to him, the company is dealing with three priorities such as the refurbishing of the oil jetty, payment of handsome benefits to those company’s employees laid off, building of oil pipelines from Freeport to LEC Plant, among others.
With the latest development, many Liberian are waiting to see whether the House will promptly launch an investigation to redeem its image.