By Grace Q. Bryant
The Deputy Governor for Operation at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), Nyemadi Pearson, has disclosed that the CBL never had a conversation with the President regarding the balances of the Central Bank of Liberia.
According to her, their reports go to the Ministry of Finance, adding that the transition team requested for documents and they provided all the CBL balances they needed.
‘’How those numbers were interpreted to the outgoing or incoming president, we cannot be held liable for it; we have come with the statement attached, and the statement is not created by me or the governor; it comes from the system.
According to her, the consolidated balances are shared with Ministry of Finance on a daily basis as per their request for said balances, “What we do from our system is to print the balances in Liberian Dollars and the US Dollars; we do not convert.’’
She furthered that at the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Finance will write the CBL to open a new account, and in the period of three months, the Ministry will again write the CBL to close the account in order to move to the next account, so all the money will be transferred to the new account.
Meanwhile, The House of Representatives voted for the Transitional Team and the (CBL) to be subjected to an investigation of the Banking and Currency Committee, to address information regarding the data of US$20.5m which President Joseph N. Boakai announced during the State of the Nation Address (SONA).
According to the motion proffered by Montserrado County District 16 Representative, Dixon Seboe, the House’s Banking and Currency Committee should probe the Central Bank of Liberia, including the Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia, J. Aloysius Tarlue, and his deputies, Musa Dukuly, Deputy Governor for Economic Policy, and Madam Nyemadi D. Pearson, Deputy Governor for Operations, as well as the Transition Team, to ascertain which data was submitted to the President to have said that the report of US$40m as the government’s consolidated account balance as of January 19, 2024, is not supported by the fact.
District 16 lawmaker, in his motion, said the testimony of the Central Bank of Liberia indicated that as of January 19, there was over L$2.4b in the Consolidated Account, as well as more than US$27 million; and as per the approved prevailing rate of US$1 to L$188.36; that means the total amount in the Consolidated Account on January 19 was about US$40.4m.
The motion said the Banking and Currency Committee will report to the August Body on Tuesday, February 6.
Plenary’s decision on Thursday was triggered, following testimonies from CBL Governor Tarlue and Deputy CBL Governor Pearson on clarity of bank balances on December 31, 2023 and January 19, 2024.
During his deliberation, J. Aloysius Tarlue confirmed to the body that as at January 19, 2024, the total balances in the government’s consolidated account in Liberian dollars is L$2, 434,886,996.88 and US$27,665,071.82.
This grand total is a sum of the balance in the government’s consolidated account as at January 19, 2024, (from 2023 to January 19) which is L$1,001,747,090.35 and US$$16,104,783.61.
It is also in addition to the report as at January 19, 2024, the balance in the government’s consolidated account in Liberian dollars is at L$1,433,139,906,53 and US$11,560,288,21.
Despite concerns by lawmakers that the CBL Governor do the conversion of the two figures, the Governor justified his refusal by the fact that the Finance Ministry did the conversion to get the total that was announced by former President Weah.
He told the lawmakers that President Boakai received the amount he announced from the transitional team after it was given by the Central Bank, but said figures weren’t interpreted by the bank.
President Joseph N. Boakai on Monday, during the State of the Nation Address (SONA), disagreed with former President George Weah that he left US$40 Million in the country’s reserve. President Boakai stated in his annual message that he met US$20.5 Million in the CBL reserve, instead of the US$40m announced by former President Weah.
The decision to have the CBL governor invited was based on a communication written by Margibi County District 2 Representative, lvar Jones, seeking the indulgence of his colleagues to probe as to how much was left in the consolidated account by the past government.
