NPA’s suspended officials indicted

Several suspended officials of the National Port Authority or NPA, including Managing Director Matilda Parker, have been indicted formally for economic sabotage, theft of property and criminal conspiracy.

Those indicted along with suspended NPA Managing Director Parker are and her suspended team of officials, including Christina Kpabar-Paelay, comptroller Mr. Deneah M. Flomo and a sole proprietor of Denmar Enterprise, Mr. Deneah M. Flomo.

Defendants Parker and Paelay allegedly conspired with co-defendants Flomo and his Denmar Enterprise to defraud government of US$837,950 between July 2011 and December 2012.

They allegedly designed a criminal scheme in which co-defendants Parker and Paelay awarded two “sole source” contracts without the approval of the Public Procurement and Concession Commission or PPCC to defendants Flomo and his Denmar Enterprise.

The alleged contracts were aimed at awarding defendants Flomo and his Denmar Enterprise the removal of wrecks from the Port of Greenville and the provision of security consultancy at the ports of Monrovia, Buchanan and Greenville on behalf of the NPA.

The contracts allegedly valued US$500,000 and US$300,000 respectively, with claims of fraudulent payments of funds from the accounts of the NPA to co-defendant Flomo for their personal use and benefits.

Prosecutors claim in the indictment that defendants Flomo and his Denmar Enterprise did not possess expertise in regards to the contracts awarded, and that he and his enterprise did not render the services to the NPA under the contracts worth US$800,000.

However, the indictment insisted that co-defendants Matilda Parker and Christina Paelay knowingly conspired with Flomo and his enterprise to evade procurement processes and violated the PPCC Act by sourcing Flomo and his enterprise, as well as awarding the two contracts to remove wrecks from the Greenville Port and provision of security consultancy as purported Recognized Security Organization or RSO.

The wreck removal contract entered into by defendants Parker and Paelay allegedly valued US$500,000, and co-defendant Flomo allegedly signed the contract, claiming that he was “wreck engineer,” prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also claimed to establish that defendant Flomo did not own a firm with experience and qualification in the wreck removal and that the so-called Wreck Removal Firm did not have the required approval of the designated authority to undertake such a task so crucial to Liberia’s development agenda.

Defendant Flomo allegedly admitted to the Liberia Anti-corruption Commission or LACC investigation that he was only a high school graduate, and that he was not a wreck engineer. The defendant allegedly confessed that he never conducted any port facility security assistance; neither did he ever remove any wreck from the port of Greenville.