US$$2.5m Million Bribery Deal: Pres. Sirleaf Calls on Cllr. Negbalee Warner
Kirkpatrick Weah
| Liberian Officials US$$2.5m Million Bribery Deal Leaks; Sirleaf Orders Probe 06/07/2010 - Samwar S. Fallah, sfa...@FrontPageAfrica.com( 231-077-920-058 | ||||||||
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resident Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has established a committee, headed by Counsellor Nabelee Warner, to undertake a thorough investigation of the Carbon Credit deal between the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) and the Carbon Harvesting Corporation (CHC), which was the subject of a June 4 story in The Financial Times.
A statement responding to a FrontPageAfrica inquiry Saturday said, the Government of Liberia, through the proper checks and balances built into the concession system, has already taken measures to fully evaluate this deal. “When it came up in the FDA, representatives from other ministries correctly noted that sole-sourcing was inappropriate for a contract of this size, and if Government was going to sole-source this particular deal, it would first have to go to the Inter-ministerial Concession Committee (IMCC). Having a proposal go before the IMCC does not mean it is accepted; that body would have to evaluate the merits of the proposal and see whether it made sense.”
No negotiations on Carbon Credit
Nevertheless, the statement said it should be made clear that there is no ongoing negotiation on the Carbon Credit as President Sirleaf rejected the request made in May by the Chairman of the National Investment Commission to constitute an IMCC for this purpose. The Chairman was asked instead to prepare a proper briefing for discussion by the Cabinet at a June meeting which has not yet taken place.
The President wishes to assure the Liberian people that the results of the investigation will be made public and those found culpable will be prosecuted in accordance with the law.
As reports continue to abound over bribery and other malpractices in the awarding of contracts in Liberia as the Liberian government has now awarded dozens of contracts to bogus companies, many of which lack the potential to invest in Liberia, police in Great Britain are investing a Briton who was said to have initiated a deal here to bribe Liberian Government officials US$ $2.5m to be awarded contract for carbon emission in Liberia’s forest.
The ratification process of major contracts and concession agreements in Liberia has been marred by widespread reports of bribery with some concessionaires’ publicly providing gifts to lawmakers.
From the passage of the Arcellor Mittal agreement to Sime Darby and many other forestry contracts, allegations of bribery has played a key part with credible information that lawmakers request tips before ratification.
Members of the National Legislature were said to have demanded US$500,000 before ratifying the Sime Darby agreement, the company that has now taken over the former Guthrie Rubber Plantations Company in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount Counties.
Similar situation occurred with the AmLib United Mineral concession agreement where some lawmakers were seen dishing out money to colleagues immediately following the ratification of the company contract to carry out mining in some South-eastern Counties.
During the ratification process of four forestry contracts by the National Legislature sometimes ago, International Watch Dog Group Global Witness along with other local civil society organizations including the Sustainable Development Institute and others alarmed that many of the companies entering the contract with the Liberian government were incapable of performing what were included in the contract.
The lawmakers ignored the warning and ratified the four forestry contracts but today the companies are yet to begin operation with many abandoning logs in their concession areas due to their inability to ship these logs abroad.
Bogus Carbon Contract
Carbon Harvesting, a bogus carbon company seeking to carry out carbon emission in River Cess County few years ago prepared a contract in which the non existing company said it will manage 400,000-hectare concession.
The bogus company designed a website in 2006 on which it posted that it is operational in Liberia and was seeking more business partners overseas to expand business when in fact it had nothing on the ground.
FrontPageAfrica gathered that the false declaration by the carbon company that it had concession in Liberia was brought to the attention of the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) by some forest monitoring civil society organizations but nothing was done to trace the company and breakup the fake website.
The company also prepared a contract accordingly with the knowledge of some of its contact persons at the FDA and has been awaiting the process of ratification by the National Legislature before British Police broke up the criminal business deal Thursday and made some arrest. Senior officials of the bogus Carbon Company according to investigation started the process of lobbying with lawmakers and some officials at the FDA for the speedy ratification of the contract using the US$2.5 million.
British Police Breakup
Meanwhile, a leading British Newspaper Financial times, reported last week that British Police made some arrest in connection with the bogus carbon company.
Police are probing a planned deal for a British company to rent one-fifth of Liberia’s forests, in a striking example of possible criminal activity around the expanding business of carbon emission trading. The City of London police on Thursday arrested the director of a Merseyside-based business in connection with an alleged plan to pay Liberian officials $2.5m (£1.7m) in connection with land concessions the company hoped would earn it more than $2bn, people familiar with the matter said.
The case, which centres on one of Africa’s smallest and most densely forested countries, is likely to stoke worries over potential abuses around efforts by foreign investors to buy up jungle in less industrialised nations to offset greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.
City police said they had arrested a 53-year-old man and carried out searches at residential premises in north-west England, after receiving a report from Global Witness, the anti-corruption campaign group, which suspects that sums paid or proposed, may have amounted to bribery. People familiar with the matter said the man arrested was Mike Foster, director of Carbon Harvesting Corporation, a one-time internet payment software business that is overdue on filing its accounts to Companies House. Mr Foster could not be contacted.
The case focuses on global efforts to protect trees and combat climate change by paying forested nations carbon credits that can then be sold to companies covered by the European Union’s carbon dioxide emissions cap. The market in greenhouse gas emissions is now worth $144bn annually, according to the World Bank.
The United Nations has been reluctant to award carbon credits to forestry projects on the same basis as other emissions-cutting initiatives, such as wind farms or solar power installations. These are regarded as less prone to fraud and the carbon savings are more easily measured.
Global Witness said it had become aware of the Liberian deal while investigating concerns about the proposed carbon credit deal between the country and Mr Foster’s company.
The campaign group said that, under the proposed agreement, CHC would pay land rental a year for a 400,000-hectare concession, which it hoped would earn it up to $2.2bn from selling carbon credits.
Liberia would have been liable to make up any shortfall on the $2.2bn earnings figure, Global Witness claimed, although this could not be immediately be verified with the Liberian government.
Global Witness said that when it asked Mr Foster about the deal, he defended it, adding that CHC did not condone bribery and was committed to working with the campaign group to end illegal activities in Liberia. Global Witness considered, however, that the matter should be referred to police.
Forestry preservation projects are particularly difficult to manage effectively and transparently in less industrialised countries, because they tend to be in remote areas where governance is a problem.
Until 2003, Liberia suffered a period of civil war and dictatorship, during which many of the population were killed or displaced, infrastructure was destroyed and illegal logging was rife.
The concerns over the relationship between forested countries and carbon credits are being discussed at an inter-governmental meeting this week in Bonn.
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