The management of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) has sharply reacted to a media article accusing the entity of approving the exportation of illegal timber valued at nearly US$1 million out of the country.
Recently, a Daylight story published in the Front-Page Africa newspaper, alleged that the FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab, approved the illegal exportation of illegal timber valued at nearly US$1 million from the country.
In a release issued yesterday in Paynesville, the FDA termed the publication as yet another intentional misrepresentation of the facts and a predetermined ploy maliciously designed to tarnish the image of the entity and its new leadership led by Merab.
According to the FDA, it is quite aware of the Daylight’s traditional style of making up stories against the FDA merely to suit the taste of its external or internal sponsors, whose aim is to tear down the good image of the FDA and make it appear ghostly in the eyes of the public.
“So, the management of the FDA categorically maintains that the story is grossly misleading since it was structured based on inventory data only to analyze Export Permit, thereby misrepresenting the facts.
Because the management had earlier given the Daylight a full response to all the questions it had inquired, but regrettably, the paper ignored the facts provided, only to publish what it had pre-planned,” the release stated.
The release furthered, “The FDA management also terms the publication of the Daylight as not only grossly unprofessional, but an act designed to create artificial dark clouds over the FDA and the government as a whole.”
Meanwhile, the FDA also clarified that the export process is very long and technical, saying, “The government has a third-party verifier which happens to be a group called SGS, a Swiss Integrity company. The SGS signs Export Permits (Export Permits) which Daylight labeled as illegal.”
FDA Managing Director, Rudolph Merab, in the release, further narrated that he is aware of the traditional role being played by the Daylight as a paid agent who is being used as a tool to always paint the FDA black.
He added that the FDA, under his watch, is not deterred and will not allow itself to be dragged by detractors, one of which happens to be the Daylight, and asserted, “In the soonest possible time, when the public shall have come to realize the kind of progress we are making, the Daylight will only be seen as irrelevant.”
“Again, my team is highly professional and is robustly set to make the desired changes as per the expectation of the government and international partners, and the FDA considers breaking through the Liber Trace system and bringing out an Excel file without knowledge of its running as criminal.
So, this current management of the FDA will not allow anyone with the sinister motive of destroying the image of the institution to succeed during this administration, because the current leadership will do everything humanly possible in strengthening and rebranding the governance of the forest sector,” Merab intoned.
