Africa-Press – Liberia. The credibility of Cllr. Edwin Kla Martin, Chair of the Special Presidential Taskforce on Asset Recovery, along with a few other members perceived as a clique by some aggrieved colleagues, has come under scrutiny following allegations of questionable expenditures.
This situation has forced one member of the task force, Economic Freedom Fighters of Liberia’s Emmanuel Gonquoi, to resign in an attempt to save face from anticipated embarrassment which he claims is slowly creeping into the task force.
Gonquoi, according to sources close to the Asset Recovery Taskforce, raised concerns about the lack of coordination and the poor leadership exhibited by Cllr. Martin.
Gonquoi’s resignation comes amidst mounting pressure from the public, questioning the effectiveness of ongoing activities of the team, with many raising eyebrows on alleged funding being received by members without any tangible work.
The EFFL arrowhead had recently come under immense pressure from the public about his hush on the ineffectiveness of the team when he is noted to be a robust leader.
Gonquoi did not stay mum on his action but also took to his official Facebook page, which also went viral on Friday, May 20, announcing his resignation from the team.
Gonquoi wrote, “Fellow citizens, I just stepped down from the Assets Recovery Code Team by submitting my official letter of resignation to the office of the President. I’m particularly grateful to the president for always trusting me and my leadership. I’m still committed to your agenda, not just as a leader of the EFFL but also as your son. I believe in your agenda for a better Liberia, and you can count on me as always for support. We will think of Liberia, love Liberia, and build Liberia together.”
FrontPageAfrica has gathered that Mr. Gonquoi has already submitted his official communication to President Boakai, citing a lack of willingness and effectiveness in his coworkers to carry out the task given to them.
Gonquoi is reportedly angry about the allegation that the head of the team, Cllr. Martin, and Unity Party Chairman, Luther Tarpeh, are merely concerned about requesting a huge budget for the team and grabbing said amount for their pockets without doing the job assigned to them.
Meanwhile, the Asset Recovery Team is yet to make an official comment on the latest action of one of its members, Emmanuel Gonquoi.
Just a day following Gonquoi’s resignation, a communication from Martin Kollie, a member of the team, was leaked to Facebook. The communication also directly accused the chairman of Asset Recovery Team of acts of corruption. The letter went viral on social media during the weekend.
Kollie raised concern over an expenditure of 41.7 percent of the total budget approved for the task force’s operation when they were yet to commence on a full scale.
In his communication to Chairman Martin, dated May 5, Kollie expressed outrage over Chairman Martin allegedly single-handedly using US$311,200 of their entire US$750,000 budget to rent office space without consulting the entire team.
He alleged that the rental was also not carried out in conformity with the Public Procurement and Concession Commission Act.
He stated in the communication: “The inability of AREPT to make progress after two months is attributed to the reasons supra. We cannot continue to proceed like this because when people are discussing AREPT, my name is usually at the forefront, even though I have never been a part of any of the major decision. The hasty and unauthorized expenditure of US$9,800 per month on billboards, the crafting of the AREPT budget. To date, some of us haven’t seen that fiscal instrument as though it is a society bush, signing of US$311,300 leased agreement to tent an office space for ATEPT without even discussing this agreement with everyone.”
Kollie noted that Cllr. Martin is doing more harm than good for the task force, which is intended to recover ill-gotten wealth.
He said Cllr. Martin continued to disregard the inputs of other members of the task force, which continued to create a scene for members.
Kollie is recommending that all previous decisions made by the Cllr. Martin Cliche be revoked, and the decisions on operations and expenditures considered by all members of the task force.
He further threatened that failure to do so, the attention of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission will be called to investigate the task force’s financial transactions.
“If this isn’t the public waste we are trying to fight, then you tell me what it is. The government has several public buildings with offices, so why this desperation to hurriedly rent an office space and money on needless projects and activities, even though we are an ad-hoc committee and not an enacted committee? I thought our primary focus should be access recovery.
Meanwhile, Kollie has called for full disclosure of all financial transactions carried out by the Special Presidential Asset Recovery Taskforce since March through a comprehensive report.
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