Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
Monrovia – Controversy and contradictions continue to abound as Liberia continues the search for billions of local currency that have reportedly gone missing, with the man who first broke the news of the disappearance of the money, longtime media manager, Philipbert Browne recently disclosing that Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) former governor Milton Weeks told lies in the ‘missing money’ saga.
Philipbert’s latest revelation comes days after PUNCH reported that assertions from chairman Mulbah Morlu of the ruling party, suggest that CBL current governor, Nathaniel Patray, too, recently told a lie concerning the controversial ‘missing money.’
In the wake of ongoing investigation regarding some 16 billion Liberian Dollars that had reportedly disappeared in thin air, couple with denials from multiple officials of government including President George Weah that the money is not missing, Patray, after a protracted silence over the issue, told the nation last week Tuesday, that “There is no such record shown that such money has not yet been delivered to the CBL. All the money is in the vault.”
Patray said the CBL has no records showing that the monies printed under its authority have not yet been delivered into its reserve vaults, saying, “Record from the Crane Currency of Sweden, which was contracted to print the money, shows that the Crane delivered 15.5 billion through the Freeport and RIA between 2016 and 2018 and that all these monies were logged by the CBL and delivered into the reserves vaults of the CBL.”
But in a video that PUNCH has seen, the ruling party chairman countered that the CBL current governor may have told a lie to Liberians when he said the ‘missing billions’ in Liberian currency were safely stashed away in the Bank’s reserve vaults, with Morlu definitively saying that other than the CBL reserve vaults, he knows exactly where the money was taken and what has happened to the billions of ‘missing’ Liberian banknotes.
“… I know what happened to the money,” said Morlu, who explains that the container loaded with tons of Liberian currency ended up at the vault of the National Housing and Savings Bank (NHSB), downtown Waterside, instead of the Central Bank of Liberia, as governor Patray had made Liberians to believe at his last week Tuesday press conference.
According to the ruling party chairman, once the controversial ‘missing money’ was taken at the NHSB, pick-up trucks were driven there under the cover of darkness and were uploaded and taken to personal homes, during the campaign period of Liberia’s most recent presidential and representatives elections, when Weah had not assumed the presidency.
‘Startling revelation’
On Monday, Philipbert Browne told a local talk radio that former CBL governor Milton Weeks lied to the Legislature about the controversial ‘missing billions.’
Browne explained that in spite of Weeks’ predecessor Dr. Mills Jones earlier informing the Legislature that the country had enough local currency in circulation and that there was no need to mint new ones, when he (Weeks) took over in 2016, he immediately bulked the lawmakers with printing new money, stating that there was just LRD2 billion in circulation, and that same were massively mutilated – thus, they needed to be taken off the market.
The media manager pointed out that the former governor of the CBL first lie to the Legislature was when Weeks, who is currently under investigation and was barred from leaving the country, told the lawmakers that there was just 2 billion Liberian Dollars in circulation, at one point, and at another point, he said he and the CBL had taken from the market 2 billion mutilated Liberian Dollar banknotes, when the lawmaking body through a joint resolution authorized him to print LRD5 billion new banknotes, upon a request from him to do so.
But Browne added that Weeks, who had told the Legislature that he had earlier on replaced LRD2 billion mutilated banknotes in 2016 after the printing of new batch of 5 billion Liberian Dollar banknotes, made another request in 2017 to print additional LRD10.5 billion, for the purpose of removing from the market ‘Legacy’ (Liberty) banknotes in the tune of LRD2 billion – with the media boss questioning Weeks’ sincerity as to removing from the market for the second time, the money he had said he removed back then in 2016.
Browne argued that if Weeks and the CBL claim LRD2 billion of mutilated banknotes were the exact monies in circulation and same were taken off the market, that should have gone to say they were all ‘Legacy’ (Liberty) banknotes – so why then would another request be made in less than a year to print money for the purpose of doing what the ex-governor had said was already done, he wondered.
“So the first thing, Weeks lied to the Legislature,” said Browne, contending that it was a lie because Weeks and the CBL, in spite of informing Liberians that LRD2 billion was put into circulation to eject mutilated currencies off the market, could not name a single commercial bank through which such monetary tractation took place.
He disclosed that members of the National Legislature are contending that the additional LRD10.5 billion was not printed by their authorization, which according to them should have been backed by legislative rules regarding the issuance of a joint resolution by both Houses of Representatives and Senate, something which Browne claims the legislators said they did not do.
“Secondly, this is the legislators’ argument, if he (Weeks) printed, where is the money? Said Browe.
‘Another lie’
Having established that former Bank governor Weeks told a lie, Browne then moved on to current CBL governor Patray, indicating that he too, told lies in the ‘missing money’ hassel.
Said Browne: “Right now, you said you have 15.5billion Liberian Dollars in your reserve vaults… and you only printed 15.5 billion, from Sweden, Crane Currency – if you printed 15.5 billion in Sweden with Crane Currency, and you’ve got that money in your reserve vaults, that means there’s no money on the market!”
In reaction to Patray’s declaration that all the LRD15.5 billion printed by government being stashed away in the CBL reserve vaults, Browne wonders where then is the money currently circulating on the local market coming from.
He said Patray and officials of government insisting that no money has gone missing are not thinking well – “you are not thinking, because you told us you took 2 billion mutilated banknotes off the market and you printed 15.5 billion and all the money are being kept safely at the CBL vault, that means you did not put any money on the market,” said Browne, who insists, “That’s the reason why I say I cannot believe it, because you’re not talking to people who are not educated – simple logic, just follow the logic, simple.”
