Several volunteer workers of the dissolved beach project have vowed to visit the residence of President Weah to disclose the alleged criminal acts of Minister Zeogar Wilson in handling the new project.
The aggrieved volunteers told the media over the weekend that the Youth and Sports Minister illegally changed the official name of the project under the budget line of 2023 to Temporary Employment for Community Youth or TECY for his selfish gains.
The aggrieved workers however indicated that on tomorrow, Wednesday April 19, they will pay a visit to President George Weah to explain the attitudes of Minister Wilson.
They further accused Montserrado County District 16 Representative, Dixon Seboe of misleading them with information.
The citizens narrated that Representative Seboe presented himself like a problem solver after he had collected the documents bearing their names as former workers of the dissolved Beaches and Water-ways Project.
According to them, the lawmaker promised them he would have engaged the Minister of Youth and Sports to include all previous workers on the new project named and styled, TECY.
But they stressed upon the return of the lawmaker and surprisingly, Rep. Seboe told them that Minister Zeogar Wilson said he would absorb some of the former workers in line with what is in the budget and based on the lawmakers’ appeals.
Also, one of the heads of the aggrieved workers, George Android Young, said Minister Wilson has been giving the Liberian leader false impression about the new project and further accused the Minister of ordering all district coordinators of the Coalition for Democratic Change to send 100 names each from the party to be included on the project.
Young, as former Region Coordinator of the dissolved project, averred that the former workers waived 11 months of their arrears to the Liberian government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports after the close of the project.
He said, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the beach workers and the Liberian government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports in which it was agreed that the workers were waiving their 11 months on grounds that at the opening of the new project, they would have been considered to work.
But according to him, Minister Wilson chose to go contrary to the agreement at the detriment of the struggling citizens, criminally renamed the Coastal Sanitation Project to TECY to divert the funds.
Young believes the aggrieved workers meeting the President at his Rehab residence on tomorrow, will give President Weah a better picture of how the project is being handled by his Minister.
Meanwhile, when contacted the Youth and Sports Minister about the allegations, he described Young and his likes as liars who have nothing to offer.
Minister Zeogar Wilson also clarified that the Liberian government has done nothing illegally as claimed, stressing that the government has the right to name its program any way for implementation.
The Youth and Sports Minister recounted when the CDC government came to power, it met 2,088 workers on the dissolved project.
But he said to his surprise and following an investigation launched due to the many controversies surrounding the project, it was established that Mr. Young and Region Two Coordinator, Edwin Kanneh included additional names of the payroll taking the number to over 5,000 people without his consent.
Based on this alleged act, he said, the two coordinators begged not to drop those authorized names but they could settle with the government on a win-win situation.
Minister Wilson added that he listened to the appeal and told them the government had US$2 Million to pay everyone and they as heads should decide how many months each worker will receive since they knew when and how each of those new workers was added and that the government will not owe anyone again after the payment.
The Minister said it was finalized and the government paid everyone based on that agreement, adding it baffled him when he hears the former workers claiming they waived eleven months to the government.
Also speaking to this institution, Representative Seboe clarified that him and other lawmakers appealed to the Minister to include their previous people on the first project since the first project was operating on US$1 Million budget but has now increased to US$2.5 Million.
According to him, Minister Zeogar Wilson has done nothing illegally by implementing the new project through TECY.
He also warned the aggrieved workers to desist from claiming that there was an order for the ministry to recruit only partisans of the ruling CDC.
