Here comes the paid agent and charity-rice-scandal fugitive Nagbe Sloh, with no essential stake in Liberia’s transformation process, catapulting himself in a domain of state he has no clout and capacity to talk about. Making himself ultra-zealot apparently to get presidential favor, slot, like others before him, has been trying to get undeserved relevance by saying something about the revered public servant, Auditor General John S. Morlu. And, unfortunately, falsehood is his reliance. He desperately puncturing, suppressing and starving the truth at the detriment of the gullible Liberian public.
Before Nagbe Sloh was chased out of Liberia by a swarm of marketers and community people he duped of tons of food ration when he was a coordinator for a food distribution NGO on the Bushrod Island. Sloh’s vocation was to distort the truth in defense of scoundrels in public service. This is what he had brought back from the United States while his peers are returning with vision and insightfulness for nation building.
He clearly demonstrated such a malignant attitude in his sponsored article called, “Morlu Has Paved His Way Out Of GAC: Good-Bye John”, in which he intoned that John Morlu is running a “Gbandi Commission” and that most of the senior management of the GAC is from the Gbandi tribe.
This single assertion represents the sum of falsehood and intellectual trash that is symptomatic of all that he has written against Auditor General Morlu and probably may write in the future. His accusation that GAC is pre-dominantly Gbandi is laughable, a distortion of fact. What proves that Sloh is intellectually bungling is that he fails to provide facts and statistics about the configuration of GAC staff in terms of tribal representation. What does he know about the workforce of GAC and what does he know is the percentage of Ghandi-speaking Liberians of that workforce?
GAC’s has 38 staff. Check the GAC calendar (July2010-2011) with the names and pictures of the 38 senior staff. Those from Lofa County, where the Gbandi tribe hails from as displayed on the calendar are not more than 6. Lofa County is one of the biggest counties in Liberia that consists of at least six of Liberia’s tribes--Lorma, Kissi, Gbandi, Mende, Mandingo and Kpelle. So, how can one say that the GAC is a Gbandi Commission when there is a total of only 6 persons from the whole of Lofa County which comprises many tribes?
Gbandi is just one of the tribes in Lofa and not everybody from Lofa is a Gbandi. Judge for yourself; only six persons from the one of the largest counties in Lofa work at the GAC. Only three persons among the six are from the Gbandi tribe. In fact AG Morlu met 2 Gbandi persons in the senior management at the GAC before he became Auditor General. So, only 4 are on the senior management recruited by the GAC during his tenure.
GAC has nine staff in the United States of America on graduate scholarship and only one person hails from Lofa and from the Gbandi tribe. GAC has 33 staff in Kenya also for graduates study, only two persons are Gbandi . Sloh cannot fight against the truth!
Read Article 18 of the Liberian Constitution: “All Liberians citizens shall have equal opportunity for work and employment regardless of sex, creed, religion, ethnic background, place of origin or political affiliation, and shall be entitled to equal pay for equal work.” So where is the issue? The truth will always be the truth. Sloh cannot kick against the truth.
Sloh is angry with Senator Blamoh Nelson. Why is he angry with the senator for saying the corruption fight in Liberia cannot be fully sustained without AG Morlu? President Sirleaf praised AG Morlu for his “unwavering commitment and dedication” to purge Liberia from the dragnet of corruption and faulty systems and controls. Sloh himself admitted in his and Medina Wesseh’s bogus group established “Association of Professional Analysts and Researchers” that “ No doubt, John may be qualified for this position. We are proud of him, especially when we consider the high caliber of top international auditors that he beat for this job…After all, if qualification is the argument for retaining John, then there are at least 500,000 other ‘John Morlues’ among Liberia’s three million plus citizens”.
Sloh is saying the same thing the Senator had said, except that he (Sloh) prefers that at least the 500,000 carbon copies of John Morlues to continue the corruption fight instead of original John Morlu that is ever potent, agile and ardently moved to protect public fund from being siphoned by public officials. Sloh wants the photo copies so he and Medina and others will continue the corruption feast against the detriment of our children, great grand children and the people of Liberia.
Their group, “Association of Professional Analysts and Researchers” is not a legally registered organization. The Ministry of Commerce and Foreign Affairs confirms that. Sloh cannot kick against the truth. The truth is the truth and no matter of deception can change it. It will always be the true and remain the true.
See his next point. He says AG Morlu “failed” because AG Morlu said the Government was three times corrupt when he took assignment. Morlu did not fail and will not fail to always protect public resources from fiscal miscreants. Sloh is not an auditor as he clearly admitted. He does not know about risk analysis that evaluates the control weaknesses and the vulnerability of fraud, waste and abuse to exist in a system. The evaluation was done and analysis from scores of prevailing indicators, including the UN panel of expert reports on Liberia proves the truth of his matter asserted. Even President Sirleaf agreed with AG Morlu that the government was three times more corrupt but that she inherited it. Sloh has no issue. He cannot fight the truth. The truth will always remain constant.
Read Sloh other point. He admits that “…Liberian people have a special taste and disdain for corruption because of the negative impact it has had on our lives and national development”. Paradoxically, Sloh is angry that the Liberian taxpayers should not know anything about how their monies are expanded by public officials. Sloh wants audit reports be buried under the canopy of the power that be and to be compromised at the detrimental interest of the Government and the people of Liberia. Read Article 15 (C) of the Liberian Constitution: “In pursuance of this right, there shall be no limitation on the public right to be informed about the government and its functionaries.” The Liberian people have the right to know about her how government uses their money. The government works for the Liberian people and there is nothing criminal to that as the law requires.
Also Section 37.6 of the Public Financial Management Act (2009) of Liberia says the Auditor General shall timely publish the audit report and make it available to the Legislature and the public.
The International Organization of Supreme Auditing Institution (INTOSAI) Lima Declaration of Guidelines on Auditing (ISSAI 1), of which GAC is a member says Supreme Audit Institution (SAI), like the GAC should published audit reports to the public and that this will ensure extensive distribution and discussion, and enhance opportunities for enforcing the findings.
ISSAI 20 also state that the SAI should use the media, websites and by other means to communicate widely and timely on activities and audit results.
In the Mexico Declaration of Independence (ISSAI 10) the 5th principle say Supreme Auditing Institution (SAI) like the GAC shall have the right and the obligation to publish their works. The 6th principle declares the freedom of the SAI to decide the content, the timing, the publication and the dissemination of the reports.
So what is wrong with publishing audit reports? Nothing is wrong! The Department of Communications along with the Department of Governmental Affairs distribute the audit reports to each senator and the representatives, as the GAC reports directly to them as required by law . Each representative and senator has over 35 audit reports. The Civil society Organization (CSO), media and everybody entitled to the audit reports. Both departments also send all audit reports to the President. Has the President complaint that she does not receive audit reports? No. The President receives all audit reports.
Sloh says he wants the President to REVIEW to audit reports before it is published. The president will not wish to review the audit reports before it is published because this will compromise the independent and integrity of the audit and ruin pubic and international partners trust and credibility of the GAC and even that of the Government pronouncement to fight corruption. Sloh should know that it was Ellen when she served as Chairperson of the Governance Commission who carved the policy that the GAC should be independent of Executive so she will not be the one to breach this.
Hahahaaa! Sloh is angry that Morlu is paid strictly by European Union (EU) taxpayers’ money, though the AG is performing greatly and he (Sloh) wants the AG be cloned 500,000 times to stop public officials from stealing public money and helping greatly to put in effective systems and controls. Perhaps if Morlu were Caucasian or another person from another country occupying the position of Auditor General as expert, Sloh will be greatly happy.
The Auditor General is not media freak as Sloh claimed. It is the likes of Sloh, Medina Wesesh, the sponsored groups like the “Movement for the Defense of the Down Trodden,” the purported “rural women,” NASSCORP(spent over US 200,000 to attack the AG), Nation Times that have been battling AG Morlu for four years are the one making the AG like Coco-cola, brand name. Latest information indicates that a strong Nigerian marketing company is expected to arrive in Liberia very soon to discuss the possibility of a naming a product produced in Nigeria as “John Morlu.”
To depart, the AG will always and at all times stand by principle. He will always and at all times continue to work to protect the interest of the people and government of Liberia, our children and great grand children from corrupt public officials in whatever role and status. The AG has never been zealous of re-nomination to be bombarded every day by volumes of attacks from government officials. He is very young and he has scores of opportunities locally and internationally. He even turned down the post of UN under Secretary General and then turned down another offer as Chief Investigator of the UN. So for him, it has never been the issue of JOB, but the deep-rooted passion he has to protect our children, grand children, and the government of Liberia against pro-corruption gurus and vampires who can survive by sucking the state’s treasury. He has a tender age and will always be here for the next 20 year plus to continue the fight of ensuring fiscal probity and prevent fraud, waste and abuse of public fund in whatever role and status. He will NEVER get tired to battle the like of Sloh and Medina Wesseh, etc; all of whom are against fiscal reform and want to continue using public fund to attack another government official. They want a corrupt systems and controls always intact so that our children, great grand children and government and people of Liberia will remain victimized by the gross impact of corruption. To ignore the fact does not change the fact. The fact will always be the fact and what is false will always be false.
Ernest S.Maximore
Director of Communications
General Auditing Commission (GAC)
© 2011 by The Perspective
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