By Bill W. Cooper
The Deputy Minister for Administration-designate at the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, Atty. Cornelia Kruah-Togba, has accused the administration of former President George Weah of bloating the Ministry’s payroll.
Atty. Kruah-Togba said it has been discovered that over 730 non-civil servant names were on a supplementary payroll at the entity following an assessment conducted by the management team.
She made the disclosure Wednesday, February 14, 2024, when she appeared for her confirmation hearing before the Senate’s Committee on Executive.
According to her, such payroll was privately managed by former Finance Minister, Samuel Tweah, and the Ministry of State itself, during the CDC regime.
Atty. Kruah-Togba noted that despite such a huge financial burden on the Ministry, the institution has 385 employees recognized by the Civil Service Agency (CSA) as legitimate staff, plus over 730 unrecognized employees, pushing the total staff to over 1,000.
She explained that the Senior Management Team of the Ministry is currently working with the CSA and the Governance Commission (GC) to do a total assessment of the institution.
“We are currently working with the CSA and the Governance Commission to ensure that we do not just have employees at the Ministry but people’s time, energy, and the positions they serve in, contribute to the overall efficiency of the Ministry,” she asserted.
Atty. Kruah-Togba disclosed that as a result of the over 730 extra employees, the Ministry has spent over US$2.7m annually only on salary.
She emphasized, “We believe that once we address these issues at the Ministry that hosts the seat of the presidency, it’s easy for other ministries to mirror similar patterns or similar administrative decisions that are taken by us.”
Atty. Kruah-Togba also revealed that during the assessment, almost all of the systems were apparently not existent or not working, as well as the procurement unit that has not functioned for the past six years.
She added that staffers at the Ministry were individually doing their own procurements, while the institution also does not have an office space or a department responsible for the audit unit, despite the presence of internal auditors, thus making it impossible for transactions to be audited.
She then committed to working with her bosses, once confirmed, to setup a system that will bring accountability back to the presidency of the Ministry of State.
