By Bill W. Cooper
Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon is threatening to drag his colleagues to court for not meeting the constitutionally required approval for concurrence in passing on a legal instrument.
The lawmaker’s comment stemmed from the recent decision of the Liberian Senate to concur with the House of Representatives granting the Central Bank Liberia’s (CBL) request to print new family banknotes amounting to LD48.7 Billion.
“I am therefore consulting lawyers to advise on the possibility of proceeding to court to place a prohibition on the unlawful decision. We must learn to do things right way so that posterity will judge us all well tomorrow,” he stated.
In his Facebook post dated on March 31, minutes after resolution was signed and voted, Sen. Dillon stated that the processes leading to the decision by the Senate to print the new banknotes is “illegal and unlawful” something which he said is unconstitutional and violates the laws that govern the Liberian Senate.
The Montserrado County lawmaker, among other things argued, “There is a legal maxim that is essentially quoted as, anything that is not done properly is not done at all. So was the Senate’s action today, claiming to concur with the House of Representatives regarding the printing of new Liberian banknotes. The action was not done consistent with established legal and legislative procedures.”
According to him, the Liberian Senate’s decision to concurred with the House of Representatives to grant the CBL the approval to print the new family banknotes did not meet the constitutionally required approval of the Legislature for printing new banknotes and maintaining of coins.
He added, “The constitutionally required approval of the Legislature for printing of new Banknotes and maintaining of coins can not be passed by less than two-thirds of the Senate and never has the Senate ever passed on a Joint Resolution to print money on the strength of less than two-thirds of the Senate.”
“The Resolution from the House of Representatives was passed by two-thirds of its total Membership before transmitting same to the Senate for concurrence. But the joint resolution of the Liberian Senate through which the decision to print new Liberian banknotes was reached, did not meet the threshold of two-thirds of the total membership of the Senate,” Sen. Dillon contended.
He argued further that, “The purported joint resolution did not meet the required threshold of the two-third signatures; the Resolution was signed by 18 Senators and 18 Senators can not constitute two-third of the membership of the Senate that consists of 30 members.”
Recently, the Liberian Senate with simple majority votes of 18 senators out of 24 seated senators concurred with the House of Representative to mandate the CBL to print a new family of Liberia dollars banknotes.