By Ethel A Tweh
Former Deputy Foreign Minister for International Cooperation and Economic Integration, Thomas Kaydor has rubbished report that he was involved with the Japanese grant under former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Speaking here Tuesday, April 25, with Truth FM, Mr. Kaydor, who also served as Assistant Foreign Minister for Afro-Asian Affairs, said audit report by the International Economic Cooperation and the Integration Japanese Grant project showed that the project was done between 2014 2015 he said he was in Australia.
According to him, when he returned to Liberia, Ebola has already disrupted the country.
The report was done in 2015, 2014 June when the project was done, I was in Australia. When I came back Ebola has disrupted the country, he said.
He said when he came back and became Deputy Minister, he asked for the bank statement, regarding the project something, he noted brought Dr. Wede Brownell as signatory to the account.
Prof. Kaydor said that former President Sirleaf requested the Japanese people to supply petroleum to Liberia and US$35 million worth of petroleum was supplied, besides supplying rice through the Ministry of Commerce so that the rice could be stable on the Liberian market.
He added that the group that published a report against him is not a registered group in Liberia, saying that the group supporting Nathaniel McGill.
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Kaydor said he was dismissed by former President Sirleaf for conduct unbecoming of a senior official, for publishing audit report.
“CDC supporters who are professors at the University of Liberia and they think the university is for CDC, and the President cannot teach a single course at the university except it is a football course,” Kaydor added.
Meanwhile, report says the Internal Audit Bureau has conducted a forensic audit of the International Economic Cooperation and Integration Japanese Grant Project to ascertain the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the Project funds and documents and activities undertaken for the period June 1, 2014 to July 31, 2015.
The audit was conducted based on a request from former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, as a result of allegation of suspected fraud in the management of the Japanese funds.
“This report contains our findings and recommendations, based on the audit conducted of the project funds and evidence gathered. Based on the audit of documents and records of the Project, we gathered the following findings:
The Department has no project accountant to periodically monitor, review and institute internal control over the Project funds;
No bank reconciliations of the two Project Accounts were kept at Afriland Bank; There was no segregation of duties of the financial activities of the Project; all the financial activities were conducted by a single individual, the Project Manager; signature specimen obtained from the bank indicates that the Project Manager and the former Deputy Minister for Economic Cooperation empowered themselves with exclusive rights to withdraw funds from the accounts with a single signature requirement; this action set the basis for potential fraud.
Professor Kaydor said based on the audit and review of documents provided by the Department of IECI and Afriland Bank, it was observed that transactions valued at LD$19,079,815.00 with its equivalent of US$227,140.65 at the exchange rate of 84, represent net fraud amount during the period, as there were no supporting documents to validate the transactions.
He also pointed out that Afriland First Bank did not exercise due diligence in protecting the Project Accounts kept with it. Editing by Jonathan Browne
