By Bill W. Cooper
The former Chief-of-Office-staff (COS) in the office of Montserrado County Senator, Abraham Darius Dillon has admitted to receiving salary for five consecutive months, despite resigning his job though he has restituted said funds.
Mr. Martin Kollah in admission to the allegation noted that he received a letter on February 3 from Mr. John Choloply, the administrative assistant in the office of Sen. Dillon informing him that salary payments were still being deposited in his UBA salary accounts for the period September 2021 to January 2022 and solicited his response to the receipts of salaries for the time indicated.
The monies were deposited in his UBA account from September 2021 to January 2022, even though he resigned his post as COS to the Montserrado County Senator on August 18, 2021.
But addressing a press conference on Monday at the headquarters of the Liberty Party, Kollah, who also is the party’s Secretary General said, he resigned on August 18, 2021, and his resignation took effect on August 31, 2021.
According to him, he expected his salary payments to have been deactivated upon his resignation as he was unaware that payments were still being made to the accounts until he got a letter from the administrative assistant.
“As a personal office staff to you, my salary accounts were opened upon submission of my name to the human resource office of the House of Senate, which subsequently placed me on the payroll. Therefore, the responsibility to remove me from the payroll after I resigned was in your purview to follow the same method by which I enrolled,” the LP SG intoned.
Mr. Kollah indicated that since he received the letter, he has retrieved copies of the bank statements which confirms that salary deposits were made to the accounts in the amount of US$3,111.20 and LD$127,098 accumulating the total of US$3,942 for the five months.
He stated further that for the five months from September 2021 to January 2022 the combined amount of US$3,942 was sent to him through electronic transfer by UBA to LBDI to service his mortgage loan, adding that he has already paid US$3,942 which covers full restitution of the balance of the amount in his bank account and transferred.
He alleged, “The entire saga about salary still being going to my account after I resigned was an evil plot and deception by Senator Dillon from the very beginning meant to incriminate me because of ill feelings towards me as a result of the negative public and media backlash Dillon received because of my resignation and political stance in the Liberty Party as the party SG.
It can be recalled that Montserrado County Senator, Abraham Darius Dillon accused Mr. Kollah of illegally receiving monthly salaries from the Liberian Senate as COS to his office despite his resignation on August 18, 2021, which subsequently took effect on August 31, of 2021.