A former deputy director-general at the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS) is grateful to President George Manneh Weah for the time afforded him to work in his government.
Wilmot F. Smith, Jr. also served as LISGIS acting director-general for more than four months and demonstrated exemplary leadership, which culminated into the holding of the much-delayed 2022 national housing & population census.
Smith was dismissed by President Weah along with Alex Williams, who was deputy director-general for statistics and data processing, on 14 November.
Williams, who has been on a propaganda against the census, challenged his dismissal on Spoon Talk but Smith said it was a privilege to have been selected to serve the government from among qualified Liberians.
He was speaking at the 50th Gala Anniversary of the St. Michael Catholic High School and installation of the leadership of the alumni association in New Georgia on 26 November.
“I want to use this occasion to thank President Weah for the confidence reposed in me to work in his government at LISGIS, especially during my time as acting director-general and the extraordinary leadership he demonstrated towards the census. It was an honor and a privilege to have been chosen from among many Liberians,” he intimated.
“The Constitution of Liberia vests the power of the executive branch in the President. He has the power to appoint and dismiss. Anyone questioning the vested authority of the President, especially to hire and fire those, who serve at his will and pleasure as laid down in the constitution, needs to see a psychiatrist,” Smith stated.
He recounted his stewardship, which began with acquisition, staff training and provisioning of 21,000 tablets and power banks from the Ghana Institute of Statistics for the holding of Liberia’s first digital census.
Smith also drilled his audience on the management of census funds by dismissing allegations that he stole money.
“The census budget is being managed by the UNFPA. There is a joint-cost workplan funded by the government of Liberia, World Bank and UNFPA and no member of the government, including the ministers of finance and development planning and justice and LISGIS director-general is a signatory to the census basket fund,” he explained.
“The basket fund supports all financial activities of the census, including sitting fees for those who went through the enumerators’ training and payments for enumerators and supervisors,” Smith elaborated.
Smith has threatened legal proceedings against a number of institutions that tarnished his reputation during his stewardship at LISGIS.
Although he won’t fully let the cat out of the bag, he said they will be given the benefit of the doubt.
“My lawyer will be contacting these institutions this week to issue a public apology. Failure on their part will leave us with no alternative but to begin a lawsuit so that justice will prevail,” Smith threatened.
“It is not a crime to work for government. It is a not a crime to serve your country. While we welcome criticisms be it positive or negative, we can’t allow people to willfully tarnish our reputation simply because they don’t love us or want to satisfy their selfish political agenda against the President,” he stated.
It is understood that Spoon Network, which broadcast several activities at LISGIS with Williams serving as “whistleblower”, is number one on the list.
The blackmail took another dimension when the headquarters project of the Liberia Football Association (LFA) went viral on social media as a property of Smith-acquired stolen funds at LISGIS.
It was easy to believe because Smith took a selfie of the building while on an inspection visit as LFA vice president of operations and head of the Project Committee on 7 December, 2021.
The international partners, made-up of UNFPA, World Bank, Irish Aid, Sweden, USAID and United Nations, issued several joint-statements on allegation of corruption about the census funds and census governance, including on the census holiday on 11 November.
Ecobank-Liberia was compelled to issue a disclaimer after Williams alleged on Spoon Talk that LISGIS transferred thousands of United States dollars to an unknown account in Ivory Coast belonging to Finance & Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah, Jr.
