This paper has gathered that there have been serious disagreements and arguments over duty free privileges that are expected to bring boost to the country’s economy.
Our investigation revealed that the West Kevon Inc. that was contracted for the construction of the New Redemption Hospital Project in Upper Caldwell is importing its materials due to its quality and are requesting duty free privileges.
But the issue of leveraging duty free to this company seems to have brought serious disagreement between the Assistant Minister for Administration, James T. Forkpa and the Deputy Minister for Administration, Norwu G. Howard.
In email exchanges dated April 22, 2019 gathered by this paper recorded that the company expressed interest for duty free which was circulated to MOH administrators because in a technical meeting that was chaired by Mr. Bennie D. Tickey, Director for Infrastructure Unit along with the project team on April 30, 2019, West Kevon expressed dissatisfaction that some of the materials they needed for the construction were not available in the country.
They also emphasized the need to import materials because most of the materials on the local market in Liberia did not meet the project’s material specifications and during similar meeting they requested that the MOH communicates with the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and the National Port Authority (NPA) about the nature of the project and the essence of the timely expedition or execution of services in relation to evaluating and releasing its imported supplies.
When the communication reached Deputy Minister Howard, she responsibly replied in an email, “I will have the lawyer review the request and get back to you.” While Assistant Minister Forkpa’s respond was, “Good morning to all, this West Construction issue with duty free is not going down well with me, why should we give West Construction a duty free privilege when it as a construction company is being paid by the World Bank for all their construction work at the CMS.”
Forkpa responded further, “West Construction should pay taxes to government for their equipment brought into this country, West Construction is not doing favor for the Ministry of Health or the Government to build that CMS; unless if someone can tell me something else! This is my take on this whole West Construction and I am willing to go further with this.”
However, a letter dated April 20, 2020 from the company’s Country Manager, Abraham Bah, which is in the possession of this paper to Deputy Minister Howard, requested for an addendum to the contract of the New Redemption Hospital Project that provides for duty free privilege.
The letter reads, “Dear Honorable Minister, Please accept our compliments and well wishes. Please be informed that we have been experiencing increasing difficulties in freeing materials and equipment containers from the port of Monrovia. These delays have started to affect the progress of the project.”
This paper gathered that, the Deputy Minister for Administration is charged with the responsibility of performing and overseeing performances of all administrative functions of the Ministry of Health subject to the authority of the Minister and the function of the Assistant Minister is directed by the Deputy Minister for Administration or the Minister of Health.
The Deputy Minister was left with no option but to write the Commissioner of LRA requesting for a duty free privilege for the company’s smooth operation during the construction of the redemption hospital.
Meanwhile, writing for a request for duty free privilege was not the first of its kind, a letter dated November 6, 2018 was written by Assistant Minister James Forkpa as Acting Deputy Minister for Administration, a claimed he admitted to during our investigation.
For Deputy Minister Howard, when contacted, she referred the investigation to MOH communication person who responded from an earlier press released that vehemently debunked media speculations about Deputy Minister Howard allegedly taking kick back to grant duty free.
The release among other things clarified, “following a Technical Management meeting on April 30,2019, the Ministry then forwarded the company’s request to the LRA which is the agency of government solely responsible to grant or deny duty free privilege. LRA granted the company’s request in the interest of the government and people of Liberia to ensure the successful end and a durable product” the release added.
In response the company said, “We appreciate your interest in our operations and by extension the New Redemption Project. The communications you reference in your email emanated from us. The sole purpose of the said request was to ensure that the redemption project gets quality construction materials from the United States and other foreign markets at no additional cost to the project” among other things it clarified.
See several exchanges of communications from the office of the DMA, the Assistant Minister and West Kevon on page 2.