The plenary of the House of Representative in Liberia has asked President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf to account for over $200 million her government paid as lobbying fees to foreign firms in the United States of America.
The president denied the allegations, saying it was “preposterous” for anyone to believe that her government could spend such an amount but admitted that only the US firm KRL lobbied on behalf of Liberia from 2007 to 2013 and was paid a little over $368,000.
On January 30, members of the House of Representatives set up a special committee, headed by its Committee on Judiciary to probe the more than US$200m allegedly spent on international public relations by President Sirleaf and some of her key officials.
Last week the Maryland Country Representative, Bhofal Chambers, an opposition politician of the Congress for Democratic Change, called for an official inquiry, claiming that Sirleaf and her government should cooperate fully.
Citing a US State Department report, Chambers said that from 2006 to 2009, 102 lobby payments were tracked by foreign lobby trackers, amounting to an alleged $263 million
“I think the communication from the President, if she says from 2007, now she has not looked at 2006, which we discovered to be the amount of $19 million. Let's say $19.7 million was spent for 2009 for lobbying and public relations,” he said.
Chambers listed a host of other companies, which he claimed were paid huge sums to lobby for Liberia.
“She said 2007. She said KRL. Okay, let's look at 2007 from the documents we have. We have JWI, one group that did public relations work for (Monrovia), and the amount spent was $31, 933.38. The next one is LISCR (the Liberia International Ship and Corporate Registry) for lobbying. It's $6.5 million. So, we want the president to come forth and tell us what she knows,”the opposition politician insisted.
He said the legislature was concerned about the alleged large sums of money being spent for lobbying abroad, while the country had nothing to show for the money spent.
“We have gross deficits in Liberia in terms of infrastructure at home, in terms of employment, in terms of welfare. There are so many gaps and our people cannot afford,” Chambers said, adding that yet president Sirleaf appeared to be the most popular leader in the world.
“Internationally, we hear so many good things about our president, and this president of ours has got more accolades than the Pope, has got more accolades than the President of United States, than Russia's leader, and the great leader of Germany, Angela Merkel. And yet, there is nothing that we can show for, to say that, because this amount was spent, this is what we are seeing in Liberia. So, that is why we are concerned. When so much is alleged to be spent for these kinds of exercises, what is the value of the money?" Chambers questioned.
Meanwhile, the President had written a letter as an official response to allegations that she could not account for over $200 million her government spent to make it look good.
“I am compelled to bring to your attention the case involving the potentially great harm that Liberians may suffer as a result of the statement made by Maryland County Representative Bhofal Chambers regarding an irresponsible and uninformed report that Liberia spends US$200 million in lobbying fees.
It is simply preposterous to believe that with a budget under US$600 million and under our transparency and accountable financial system, we would spend such an amount,” the letter stated.
(C) Politico 18/03/14
