Kaydor's Letter to President Sirleaf

Cooper Farm, Rehab Community

Paynesville City

Republic of Liberia

25 August 2015

Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

President

Executive Mansion

Republic of Liberia

Madam President:

I most respectfully present my compliments and wish to acknowledge receipt of your communication, dated 21 August 2015, informing that I have been relieved of the position of Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Your communication informs that I should remain in country and fully participate in the ongoing investigation by the Ministry of Justice regarding the misuse of Japanese grant project funds, and that I should turn over to the Ministry all Government properties in my possession.

Your Excellency, I like to thank you for the time afforded me to serve your government and our great Country in the positions of Assistant Minister for Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Deputy Foreign Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration. Let me inform that I am in Liberia and have already met with the Justice Minister to provide documentations about my role in the management of the Japanese funded project at the Ministry. I did turn over all Government property to the Ministry today, Tuesday, 25 August 2015.

I met the Minister of Justice on Saturday, 22 August 2015, based on his request for me to avail myself for some discussion on the project management. During that meeting, I explained all that I know about the projects at the Ministry, and I presented all relevant documents regarding the projects and the funds. I presented the project document and budget, the internal audit report, and the detailed bank statements presented to the Ministry.

I also presented a fraudulent letter through which Mr. Augustine Nyanplu, Project Manager and Senior Desk Officer recruited by my predecessor, sought to get an overdraft from the bank in an attempt to cover up the depletion of the funds from the project account. Mr. Nyanplu, in a treacherous and sinister letter, dated 9 April 2015, just one day after I assumed full responsibility over the project, forged my signature, but fortunately for me he missed it by using a different signature under my name and title. I have attached all relevant documents conveyed to the Justice Ministry for your kind perusal and record.

In retrospect, Madam President, prior to the end of my tenure at the Ministry, I thought I would have had a chance to meet Your Excellency to brief you about what I know of the Japanese funded project and the fraud that is being investigated. However, since I did not have that opportunity, I wish to provide you the below summary.

Your Excellency, you nominated me on 2 December 2014 after I had completed my second post graduate degree in Development Policy at the Australian National University. I returned to Liberia on 21 December 2014, got confirmed by the Senate on 19 March 2015, and subsequently appointed by you on the same date.  I officially took over the capacity building project on 8 April 2015 after the bank received the change of signatures to the account as requested by my predecessor on 6 April 2015.  An internal audit was conducted for the period June 2014 to December 2014 on the project before I assumed oversight responsibility.

The audit report was presented to Minister Ngafuan and my predecessor, Mr. Shoniyin with copies to me and other Senior Managers in early April 2015. The report shows that there were very serious violations of both the procurement and financial management laws of Liberia. Specifically, the audit report among other things states the following:

·        ‘The Department does not have established policy on the selection of staff that should benefit from Top-up allowances, scratch cards and gasoline;

·        There is no evidence to indicate monthly withholding on allowances; aggregate allowances paid exceeded the approved budget for the period June to December 2014;

·        Procurement of the project's vehicle valued US$ 49,000.00 did not go through an approved procurement method; moreover, the payment check was written in the name of Augustine Nyanplu, Senior Desk Officer (IECI);

·        The required PPCC procurement methods were not met for most of the transactions carried out by the department;

·        Transactions were not routed through the main financial system; they were not routed through Internal Audit Bureau for vetting, and procurements are solely initiated and completed by the Department without the intervention of the financial bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;

·        We also noticed alterations on financial documents; while there were some payments made that were not supported by receipts or invoices;

·        There is no register for fixed assets; moreover, assets are not coded for identification’.

Despite the serious violations of the procurement and financial management laws of Liberia as contained in the Ministry’s Internal Audit Report, no punitive actions were taken against those responsible for misappropriating the project fund.  The Minister, for reasons yet to be explained, chose not to avail the audit’s findings to Your Excellency. He equally failed to take action against those responsible for misusing the project fund. As then Deputy Minister, I could not have unilaterally presented the report to your office, for such act would have contravened the rules of reporting to your esteemed office.

It is important to note that while I was representing the Government in New York in May 2015, my Special Assistant, Mr. Monie Momolu, informed me that the internal audit report appeared in the media, and that Deputy Minister Elias Babatonde Shoniyin had accused me of being the one who leaked the audit report to the press. Since then, the audit report became a matter of public debate around Monrovia and elsewhere. What is worth noting is that the audit report was issued in the    Ministry and        shared with various officials at       the Ministry         by the Internal Audit Bureau, meaning       the report was not a classified document and I was not the only official who received a copy of the report.

Madam President, you may come to discover that in order to prevent fraud, abuse, waste and theft, we took series of actions to address the control weaknesses identified as a result of the internal audit conducted on the first year implementation of the Project at the Ministry. First, we insisted and ensured that the Deputy Minister for Administration became a signatory to the project account because it was not our statutory mandate to manage funds at the Ministry. This was important because it was my expectation that the Department of Administration would ensure due diligence since my work was such a very busy one. Second, we developed a policy guide on the project management, implementation and reporting, instituted direct bank deposit of staff compensation under the project, and created logs for staff attendance record system.

Third, we opted to pay all taxes on staff personal income under the project to the Liberia Revenue Authority because during the first year of implementation, all those who received income from the project did not pay income tax to Government from April 2014 to March 2015. A check to pay the tax arrears and current tax deductions to Government was with the Internal Audit Bureau at the time we discovered that the requisite funds in the bank had long disappeared before my assumption of duty over the Department. The check for the taxes is currently with the Internal Audit Bureau at the Ministry.

Fourth, during my tenure at the Department (8 April 2015 to 21 August 2015), the Ministry’s procurement unit conducted all procurement processes in line with the PCC and the PFM laws. All procurement was done through the Procurement Unit at the Ministry, and all payments were reviewed, cleared and endorsed by the Internal Audit Bureau prior to concluding transactions. Fifth, we cooperated with the Department of Administration on the coding of all assets for the project at the Ministry, except that we could not code the project vehicle due to Deputy Minister Shoniyin’s refusal to turn it over and have it labeled and coded.

The project vehicle is still in the possession of Mr. Shoniyin despite calls by the Ministry of Commerce that all project assets should be used for project implementation purposes, and marked with Japanese and Liberian insignias. It can be recalled that Mr. Shoniyin refused to allow the Japanese Ambassador use the project vehicle bought out of Japanese grant during one of the Ambassador’s visits. The vehicle rented for the Ambassador broke down thus bringing a big shame and disgrace to the Ministry, Government and Country.  Notably, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry raised issue about said vehicle during the meeting with Your Excellency on Monday, 10 August 2015 when matters regarding the full implementation of all Japanese grant projects were discussed with ministries implementing said projects.

Last, we renovated and fully equipped the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Resource Center. About 100 staff of the Ministry have signed up for the impending basic and advanced computer literacy programmes. The Center would also be used to carry out internal training in writing, research and documentation, and further address various capacity gaps of staff at the Ministry.

It is important to inform you, Madam President, that the fraud being investigated took place prior to my advent at the Ministry. The fraud was uncovered due to the stringent anti-fraud measures we instituted in addition to the ones stated supra. Although the internal auditors did not detect the fraud during the audit as they relied on bank statements provided them by my predecessor and the Project Manager appointed by him, we got to know that the accounts were depleted when payments vetted through the Procurement Unit and the Internal Audit Bureau, and approved for vendors during the period May 2015 to July 2015 could not be completed due to insufficient funds in the project account. Based on the official bank statement obtained from the Afriland Bank, the funds were virtually depleted before I took over the project.

The bank statement also reveals various anomalies. For instance, over $1.6 million Liberian Dollars got withdrawn from the account prior to the initial deposit of the project funds. Also there were several intermittent deposits into the project account when the funds got depleted at several intervals. How could deposits be made into a project account as though the managers were operating a personal account? What were the sources of funds deposited into the project account when indeed only the single deposit of the first half of approved project funds remained the singular funding source? Many other questions about the operation of the project account remain unanswered; hence the need for a more robust investigation so as to uncover what I consider a ‘criminal syndicate’.

Your Excellency, please permit me to throw light on the question of ‘leaking’ the fraud documents to the public as alleged by Deputy Minister Shoniyin during his 14 August 2015 press conference. On Friday, 21 August 2015, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I met, and he informed me that he was extremely hurt by a story published in the Democrat newspaper in which he was accused of being part of a fraud regarding the Japanese capacity building grant at the Ministry specifically under the Department of International Cooperation. Minister Ngafuan also informed that ‘you were angry about the widespread negative publicity of the fraud in the media especially where your photograph had appeared in the media’. He intimated that ‘it was likely that Your Excellency would take some action on this especially against me as it was perceived that I had leaked the information’. He then urged me to use whatever ‘strong connections’ I had to provide Your Excellency full insight about my role in this premise.

I did not meet Your Excellency as advised by Hon. Ngafuan up to the time you relieved me of the post. Interestingly also, I do not have any ‘strong connections’ that could have averted any decision Your Excellency would take. In fact your letter is dated the same day; hence, not much could have been done about this. My conviction was that the Minister, as head of the Ministry, is fully armed with all relevant information about the fraud, and could have provided you an informed and comprehensive picture in this regard.

Madam President, for the record, it is the Ministry that officially published the fraud information on its website on 7 August 2015, informing the public that Mr. Augustine Nyanplu, the Project Manager recruited by my predecessor, was on the run after it was discovered that funds which should have been in the project account were depleted. The press release, amongst others, calls for the arrest of Mr. Nyanplu. When this event unfolded, I was on an official trip in New York where I led the Liberian Delegation to the Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Your Excellency, the expected amounts in the project accounts are estimated at $124,706. US (for the capacity building project), and $53,400. US for the Monitoring and Evaluation project fund. After a comprehensive bank statement has been received from the Afriland Bank based on official request, it turned out that the capacity building project account is in negative with a deficit of about $18 thousand US. The M&E account only has less than $150. US. All the two projects accounts are run in Liberian dollars. As a result of this fraud, the three staff (two in the Minister’s Office and one for the Japanese Projects Monitoring and Evaluation) recruited under the projects cannot be paid. Indeed, this situation is so embarrassing; hence those responsible for such fraud must be held to account.

Once again, for the record, I have no involvement with the leakage of any official information about the fraud. It was my former work colleague, Mr. Elias Babatonde Shoniyin, who held a press conference on 14 August 2015 during which he accused me of ‘being the one who had leaked information about the fraud’. He also displayed copy of a Liberian Dollar check valued at about $3,000. US and accused me of ‘double dipping’.

I wish to inform and clarify that the check in question was issued me to pre-finance my trips to Addis Ababa and New York from 11 July 2015 to 5 August 2015. The check was issued because my Daily Subsistent Allowance (DSA) could not be processed and paid prior to my departure for both trips that were back to back. I paid said check to the order of Mr. Augustine Nyanplu who promised to send the funds to me in Addis Ababa. Up to date, the check has never been liquidated, and I cannot confirm where it is since Mr. Nyanplu is at large.

I wish to further clarify that the intent of pre-financing my trip was not meant to fraud or cheat Government. I made this very clear to Minister Ngafuan. My intention (as indicated in the Memo for the request) was to repay the funds after my DSA would have been processed. This was expedient because the delay of DSA should not undermine the effective and efficacious representation of the Republic of Liberia.

Madam President, while in Addis Ababa, I intimated to some official colleagues from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, and the Central Bank about the embarrassment I was going through due to lack of funds wile in Exile on an official trip. On several of my official trips, I had to use my ATM card to pay accommodation, transport and feeding bills just to ensure that Government was adequately represented. It is so sad that as we made patriotic and nationalistic efforts to represent our great country, others were busy projecting us as ‘unpatriotic agents’. However, our conscience remains our guide, and God Almighty remains our ultimate judge. Our patriotism is reinforced by the unfounded criticisms we get due to our commitment to serve our Mother Land.

Madam President, permit me to chronicle few of the tough and hard times we faced during our service. As I write, some of my outstanding DSA, dating back to June 2015 for approved official trips is still outstanding as am repeatedly told it is being processed by the Ministry of Finance. We more often than not represented Government using our personal funds, and returned home before chasing after our DSA at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

For the record, I personally had to repair an old vehicle at the Ministry to commute from home to office. Up to date, the Ministry is yet to reimburse the funds I spent on the repair of the official vehicle despite its prior approval for me to proceed as such. I can recall using my private vehicle most times for official functions. These and many other things are some of the tough and hard experiences we have had, and selfless sacrifices we have made as a Government Official. However, we are grateful to God that we played our role for Liberia so dearly and did with the highest level of integrity, sincerity and commitment.

Your Excellency, in an attempt to defend my character and integrity, I officially wrote Hon. Minister Ngafuan to allow me hold a press conference to clarify issues about my role in the project management just as my colleague was given the chance to hold a press conference, but my request was denied. I therefore kept quite in order to preserve the pristine image and integrity of the Ministry, the Government and the State. Prior to this, I requested a Senior Management Meeting that would discuss issues about the mismanagement of the project funds in an open and frank manner. This request was also denied. Despite these, I kept quiet and worked diligently for the Ministry and Government.

I made these efforts because I have built my reputation over the years. I am a very strong advocate for societal transformation and change. I am opposed to injustice, oppression and suppression of the weak and the poor. I believe that all humans are equal and should be treated as such. I believe that corruption is an enemy of societal progress, and am therefore convinced that each dollar stolen from Government or the private sector makes one Liberian poorer. I will continue to uphold the highest level of integrity humanly possible. My parents taught me how to work hard and earn an honest living. This value I will keep for the rest of my life.

Madam President, I love Liberia. I will therefore do nothing to undermine the country’s development progress. I will forever remain committed to the development and growth of Liberia. I am overly grateful for the opportunity provided me by the Government and people of the Republic of Liberia to serve first as Assistant Minister for Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and later as the Deputy Foreign Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration. We did a lot, we achieve a lot, we learned a lot, and we look forward to serving our great country in other meaningful ways we can for the rest of our life. I like to thank Your Excellency for allowing me an opportunity to contribute to the rebuilding and development of Liberia under your astute leadership. You are a great leader; hence I remain your admirer.

Madam President, kindly permit me to reflect a bit on our fight against corruption in Liberia. I am strongly convinced that the various anti-graft and anti-corruption institutions and measures put in place under your leadership are meant to curb and alleviate fraud, waste and abuse of public and private resources. I therefore find it very troubling that some public officials would be offended by the appearance of fraud and audit reports in the public. I think all public officials need to be transparent, accountable and open in their official dealings, and where necessary, private life as well.

The Freedom of Information Law passed under Your Excellency’s aegis demands that public officials must provide information to the public where and when necessary. The Whistle Blower Act also demands that patriotic Liberians must provide information about corruption and fraud when such acts occur in public and private institutions. Such patriotic personalities (whistle blowers) must be fully protected. I therefore like to use this medium to urge all public officials offended by the disclosure of corrupt deals to divert their attention to preventing waste, abuse and fraud so that our domestic resource base and fiscal space would be wider. This will allow Government substantively invest in economic growth sectors to spur development and reduce the widespread poverty in the country.

Madam President, let me once again thank you for the time you have provided me to serve Liberia, especially by permitting me to lead the country’s delegation at the various rounds of Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. I strongly believe that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that will be signed by Heads of State and Government at the impending UN Summit in September 2015 will propel inclusive and pro-poor growth and development in Liberia over the next 15 years. It is my ardent hope that Liberia will domesticate the SDGs sooner than later to achieve the best results by 2030. May God continue to bless Liberia. Liberia First!

Finally, at Your Excellency’s convenience, I would wish to be given an opportunity to physically present further details of the summary narrative provided herein. Please accept, Your Excellency, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration and esteem.

Respectfully yours,

Thomas Kaydor, Jr.

Former Deputy Foreign Minister for International

Cooperation and Economic Integration