By Patrick N. Mensah, Maryland County
Just days after the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Agriculture Liberia, Armstrong Jarbah live Facebook postcard, accusing the Ministry of Agriculture of not providing any support to his organization since their agreement in 2022, the Maryland County Agriculture Coordinator Christian Neckie Natt and other heads of the Ministry of Agriculture have condemned the accusations, stressing that it’s false and misleading.
The CEO of Agriculture Liberia alleged during his recent live Facebook interview that the Ministry of Agriculture has not given him any support since they agreed in 2022.
But the Maryland County Agriculture Coordinator Christian Neckie Natt, expressed his strong disapproval saying Jarbah’s claims are false and unrealistic in his appreciation of the MOA and the government of Liberia.
According to Mr. Natt, Mr. Jarbah had only appreciated the government and the MOA for receiving support at the end of 2023, which he found to be highly inadequate.
He maintained that the CEO of Agriculture Liberia’s claims against the ministry are untrue stating that MOA has provided a great deal of support to Agriculture Liberia since June of 2022.
He disclosed that a 75-hectare irrigated and well-laid-out field was given to Agriculture Liberia in June 2022 and the ministry again provided 18-metric-ton capacity rice mill, along with all its accessories, storage, offices, generator, and garage to Agriculture Liberia in October 2022 through a written MOU without a single cost attached.
He pointed out that such disregard for government resources was precisely how they got wasted, as people failed to acknowledge them and hence could not make appropriate use of them.
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“It remains to be seen how the CEO of Agriculture Liberia will respond to this criticism from me if he knows the good the ministry has done for him,” Mr. Natt said.
The Maryland County Agriculture Coordinator clarified that the role played by Deloitte in the Agriculture Liberia (AL) MOA LACF grant was misinterpreted by Mr. Jarba and that it was Deloitte who incorporated them.
He stated that Deloitte’s role was to conduct due diligence on the business plans submitted by the business plan experts hired by the MOA.
The actual champions of AL’s application for the grant were the MOA Maryland team, the STAR project, and the Minister of Agriculture.
He further expressed dismay at the tendency of Liberians to downplay their efforts and glorify foreigners.
While emphasizing that credit should be given where it is due, and in this case, it is to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Government of Liberia.
For his part, Mr. Flomo C. Pshorr, the County Focal Person of the MOA STAR project, Agriculture Liberia (AL) said the matching grant was approved in May 2023 and disbursement started July of the same year.
He pointed out that with several verbal communications with AL Country Director (Mr. Chealy Brown Dennis), the CAC and Mr. Pshorr are still waiting for the inputs and equipment to be transported to Maryland.
He disclosed that materials including 444 bags of fertilizers of different kinds, 4 motorcycles, a truck, a tractor, two power tillers a mini harvester, and a mini paddy thresher among others, are still being received and currently kept by Armstrong CEO of Agriculture Liberia and his team in Nimba.
This situation has raised serious concerns by farmers in the county, who are questioning why Nimba when the vendor was supposed to deliver on site in Maryland.
In response, the County Agriculture Coordinator has instructed Agriculture Liberia and its CEO through Mr. Flomo S. Pshorr, Acting County Agriculture Coordinator and Focal Person of the STAR Project, that those materials in their Nimba warehouse belong to Maryland and should arrive in Maryland before the first of February 2024 to avoid any actions from the Ministry of Agriculture and the government for breaching the agreement.
Despite these clarifications from the Ministry of Agriculture, the CEO of Agriculture Liberia has claimed, that the organization hasn’t received anything from the Ministry of Agriculture since the signing of the Agreement with the ministry.
This paper have tried contacting CEO Jarbah of Agriculture Liberia but efforts seems fruitless.
