…. For Allegedly Stealing Poor People Relief Food
By: G Bennie Bravo Johnson, I
The Office of the President, H. E. Dr. George Manneh Weah, has constituted a team led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to investigate the management of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) for allegedly stealing and misapplying relief food intended for poor people and disaster victims.
Consequently, a team of journalists visited the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) yesterday, May 18, 2023, to gather information about the ongoing investigation for alleged stealing and misapplication of Saudi Arabian rice donated to the Liberian government for disaster victims and vulnerable people.
Information gathered by this paper has uncovered that twenty-nine thousand four hundred twelve (29,412 kg) bags of rice intended as relief food for disaster survivors and vulnerable people in Liberia have been mismanaged by the authority of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA).
Early April of 2023, the Liberian government through the Ministry of foreign affairs received a donation of 29,412 kg bags of rice from the Saudi government for disaster survivors and vulnerable people in Liberia.
The relief food which was donated by the Saudi Arabia Government to the government of Liberia through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was turned over to the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) to manage. The Executive Director of the Agency is Mr. Henry O. Williams, his immediate deputy is Mr. Augustine F. Tamba, and the Deputy for operations and Mr. Ahmad Sheriff, deputy for administration.
There are allegations in the public that rice has been mismanaged, and sold thereby not reaching the targeted population.
Following the report of the food intended for disaster victims and vulnerable people by the management of NDMA, The government through the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Dean of the Cabinet of the Republic of Liberia, constituted a team to perform a preliminary physical inventory or assessment at warehouses where the rice is held.
Meanwhile, the team of investigators established that the NDMA received the exact number 29, of 412 kg bags of rice from the vendors, and the NDMA has dispatched Seven Thousand Seven Hundred Seventy-Four (7,774) bags of rice from the three warehouses, where the rice is stored
The report of the investigators further established that the rice in the two warehouses at NDMA is rapidly deteriorating due to poor storage and improper stacking.
Additionally, I suspect that NDMA is not prudently managing the rice, beginning with storage and distribution.
Therefore, we recommend urgent intervention and further probing to determine whether or not the 7,774 bags of rice that have thus far been lifted from the warehouse have reached the intended beneficiaries.
Accordingly, it was reported that a letter dated April 12, 2023, addressed to the Deputy Director for Operations, Hon. Idriss Bility of GSA, and signed by the Deputy Director for Operations, Hon. Augustine Tamba of NDMA, requested all 11,200 bags to be released incrementally as per the distribution order and approved by the Executive Director of the NDMA or his designee in the warehouse at GSA to be delivered to NDMA.
Consequently, an immediate halt was put to the distribution of the otherwise ordered items by the probing team comprising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Internal Affairs and the General Services Agency (GSA).
A letter dated April 12, 2023, written by Augustine F. Tamba, Deputy Executive Director for Operations at NDMA, requested the dispatch of 5,000 of the 11,200 bags of 25kg rice stored at the GSA warehouse to be transferred to the Gbarnga Regional Hub for prepositioned purposes.
In furtherance, the report established that although the NDMA informed GSA in a communication that it was prepositioning or relocating rice gated out from the GSA Warehouse to the Gbarnga Regional Hub in Bong County, Mrs. Rosetta Gbassay Bowah, the Logistics Supervisor of NDMA, informed the team that no rice was delivered to the Gbarnga Regional Hub.
The preliminary report further revealed that the team verified there is a balance of six thousand two hundred (6,200) bags of rice left in the warehouse at GSA in accordance with the record and physical rice.
It continues by establishing that the two warehouses at the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) do not meet minimum standards of warehouse management, and the rice is poorly and improperly stacked, causing difficulties for any physical inventory to be done.
The investigation noted that the poor manner in which the rice is stored in the two warehouses at NDMA seriously compromises the quality and soundness of the rice for consumption beyond 4 weeks from the day of storage.
The Womenvoices reporter said that during the courtesy visit to the national disaster management agency, there were absolutely no senior members of the management in the building to speak to the media except the receptionist, who informed this paper that none of her bosses were around.
However, there were phone calls made to the communication director, Mr. Archievego M. Doe, of the National Disaster Management Agency, who denied any claim of investigation, stating that “there was no investigation done on the management of the donated rice” and that the agency is not willing to speak to said report.
But he contradicted himself by saying that there was an internal probe done on the various warehouses containing the rice, but he refused to speak about what prompted the probe and turned off his phone.
“The agency has no knowledge of any investigation that was conducted for the rice, but we did an internal probe on the warehouses,” the communication officer stated.
However, it has been established that the remaining bag of rice has now been removed to the General Services Agency (GSA) for proper supervision while four internal auditors from Foreign Affairs, Internal Affairs, GSA, and NDMA are further probing the management.
