A rejoinder: Response to Daily Observer Story

2 February 2018
My attention is drawn to a story in the 2 February 2018 edition of the Daily Observer entitled ‘Deputy Minister-designate says his hands are clean’.

The paper reported that ‘the Deputy Minister-designate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Elias Shoniyin, has reacted to media reports linking him to the much-publicized misuse of the Japanese Grant in the amount of US$731,412, which was given to the Liberian Government in 2014 to build the institutional capacity of the Department of International Economic Cooperation and Integration (IECI) at the Ministry’.

The Daily Observer reported that ‘Shoniyin further disclosed that I (Thomas Kaydor), a short-term former Deputy Minister for the IECI department who severed from April to August 2015, and Augustine Nyenplu, manager of the project, oversaw managing the fund’. The paper furthered that ‘he Deputy Minister-designate also displayed bank slips to indicate that the bulk of the withdrawals were made by both Kaydor and Nyenplu without his knowledge, confirming a report that L$21,394,360 was disbursed without adequate supporting documents’.

I wish to categorically state that this information is false, misleading and unscientific. I like to reveal that the Forensic Audit Report and the GAC Final Report on the grant found Mr. Shoniyin and his handpicked Project Manager (Augustine Nyenplu) responsible for withdrawing funds from the bank without adequate supporting documents. Mr. Shoniyin himself has confirmed that they acted wrongly as indicated in his response to the GAC Final Report. Both Audits have found out that L$21,394,360 was disbursed without adequate supporting documents’. Also, the reports found Mr. Shoniyin guilty of singularly signing cheques in the amount of $9,620.12 US and chasing them for his personal use.

Furthermore, the GAC found Mr. Shoniyin guilty for making payments to third parties in the amount of $4,691,990. Liberian Dollars without justification. The reports indicate that Mr. Shoniyin flouted the Financial Management and the PPCC Laws by procuring a $50,000. 00 US vehicle outside the PPCC law, leasing cars from his personal Car Rental Service (Bee Car Rental), and completely mismanaged the project for one year (April 2014 to April 2015). During this period, I was not a government employee.

I also like to inform the Liberian people and the new government that the hands of Elias Shoniyin are very much unclean. He is a thief and a rogue that must be prosecuted and made to account for the stolen resources of the Liberian people. Both the Forensic Audit Report by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) and the GAC Final Audit report have found Mr. Shoniyin and Augustine Nyenplu culpable of stealing and embezzling a total of $227,140.65 US. These reports are attached for publication.

The Daily Observer opined that ‘according to GAC audit the amount of US$731,412 was provided by the Japanese Government for a two-year capacity building project.

By Thomas Kaydor