What seemed to be the first in the Joseph Boakai-led government was witnessed yesterday at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Sinkor, when some staff of the agency beleaguered their Executive Director and prevented him from entering the compound.
According to one of the aggrieved protesters, the suspended Accounts Analyst in the Department of Compliance and Enforcement, Andrew M. Cooper, a writ of ‘Felonious Restrain’ was being issued by outgoing Executive Director Wilson Tarpeh on two leaders of the protest and who are currently at the Civil Law court based on an invitation by the court.
Cooper stated that their protest is in accordance with an Executive Order 123 Section 9 issued by former President George Manneh, directing all appointed officials of the CDC-led government to resign on or before the inauguration of then President-elect Joseph N. Boakai, and claimed that the return of Professor Tarpeh is a violation of the Act creating the EPA.
It can be recalled that three employees and a contractor were suspended for time indefinite, while another was relieved of his post by Professor Tarpeh nearly three weeks ago.
According to reports, a writ for ‘Felonious Restrain’ was issued for the suspended protesting employees, in persons of Andrew M. Cooper, Accounts Analyst, Department of Compliance and Enforcement, and E. Jerry Togba, Logistics Supervisor, issued by Madam Josephine Doles, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, and not Professor Wilson Tarpeh, as has been alleged.
However, in the wake of the protest, embattled Executive Director of the EPA, Prof. Wilson Tarpeh, termed the suspended employees’ action to block his return to the EPA as ‘unlawful and a show of gangsterism’, that must not be permitted to triumph in a democratic space.
Prof. Tarpeh stated that the revised Act of the Environmental Protection Agency of 2022, grants him the right for a seven-year tenure, and vowed to return to work until another Executive Director could be appointed by President Joseph N. Boakai.
In accordance with the EPA revised Act approved in November 2002 and published 2003, PART III – ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE AGENCY Section 16, on the duties of the Executive Director, it provides that “there shall be an Executive Director who is a person with wide environmental knowledge and recognized commitment to sustainable management of the environment, appointed by the President from a list of three names recommended by the Council, except that the President may appoint an interim Executive Director pending the formation of the Council.”
Count two of section 16 states that the “Executive Director shall serve for a period of 7 years and shall be eligible for reappointment, except that there shall be appointed an interim Executive Director.”
Section 16 further provides that the “Executive Director shall have security of tenure, but shall cease to hold office if he: a) Resigns; b) Is found guilty of gross misconduct on the advice of the Board and the approval of the Policy Council; c) Is unable to discharge the functions of his office for health reasons.”
Contrary to the assertion by Professor Wilson Tarpeh, in 2020, upon the inception of George Weah’s government, the President sought to bring many tenured positions under his direct control, thereby submitting a bill to the Legislature seeking to amend certain portions of the Act establishing key government entities, including the EPA, by removing tenure positions to grant him full authority over the institution.
