Rodney Sieh interviewed with James Butty - Download (MP3) 
Rodney Sieh interviewed with James Butty - Listen (MP3)

Liberian Information Minister Laurence Bropleh

In Liberia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has suspended Information Minister Laurence Bropleh pending the outcome of an investigation into a $300,000 scandal at the information ministry.

Rodney Sieh, publisher of the online magazine FrontPage Africa, said the suspended Minister Bropleh is expected to appear before police investigators Monday.

“On Monday morning, about 10 O’clock, we gather that Minister Borpleh or suspended Minister Borpleh will be appearing before the Criminal Investigation Division to answer questions related to the multiple charges of financial irregularity at the Ministry of Information. It’s not clear whether he will be arrested or how the interrogation process will work,” he said.

Sieh said investigators appear to have a mountain of evidence supporting Mr. Borpleh’s alleged involvement in the scandal.

“Reports gathered so far suggest that Minister Bropleh had put names of certain individuals on the payroll of the Ministry of Information, mostly relating to media personnel in the Foreign Service. And these people some of them claimed that they never received payment, while others have said they received one or two payments,” Sieh said.

He said investigators are also looking into whether these so-called Foreign Service media personnel assigned to Liberia’s embassies around the world were appointed by President Sirleaf.

From the Justice Minister to President Sirleaf’s press secretary to the Anti-Corruption Commission, almost most government officials contacted were tight-lipped about the alleged corruption case involving the information minister.

Justice Minister Christiana Tah would only say that her ministry was still collecting and reviewing documents related to the case.

“I, as a minister, I do not investigate these kinds of cases. We turn it over to the police and they conduct the investigation and they will report to me. They have not reported anything to me, and I cannot interfere with them,” Tah said.

In one of his articles about the alleged corruption case Sieh suggested that the fight against corruption in Liberia has been marred by selective justice and preferential treatment for senior government officials.

Sieh said there are several recent examples of what he called selective justice.

“There have been several incidents where lower level people have been arrested and sent to the CID (Criminal Investigation Division) for investigation, but we haven’t yet seen a senior government official actually arrested and tried for corruption,” Sieh said.

He cited the example of Information Minister Bropleh’s brother Albert Bropleh who, as chairman of the Liberia Telecommunication Authority was arrested and jailed in April this year for alleged financial irregularities. But his case has yet to be prosecuted.

Sieh also cited the example of former Public Workers Minister Luseni Donzo who was replaced this year after it was discovered his administration misused millions intended for road construction but has yet to be prosecuted.

Another high-profile case involves Liberia Petroleum Refinery Corporation Managing Director Harry Greaves who was relieved of his post last month over a disputed $24 million contract at the corporation.

His case also has yet to be prosecuted. Instead a senior government official told VOA Greaves’ case has been turned over to a government committee to review.

Sieh said his reporters cited Information Minister Bropleh Sunday driving around Monrovia in his government-issued vehicle.

“We did hear that he’s getting ready for his session this morning. Those who know him say he’s suggesting that the evidence in the government’s possession is forgery. So that could be an angle that we should look out for in the next couple of days,” Sieh said.

Deputy Information Minister Elizabeth Hoff has been named acting minister.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports out of Monrovia Sunday said lawyers for the comptroller and the chief accountant at the information ministry who had been held by authorities in connection with the same alleged corruption case have filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus.

Radio Free Africa thanks Gina Robbins for locating this story.

It was with great concern that I read about the Liberian Ministry of Information’s actions to deny the printing of “The Bi-Lingual” and “The New Broom”.  Having gained peace after years of civil strife, these actions are contrary to the advancement of civil society.  This demonstrates why Radio Free Africa is needed.

Growing up in Europe from 1974 to 1988, I was able to witness and absorb the plight of millions of Eastern Bloc Europeans living under the iron grip of Soviet inspired totalitarianism.  In fact one of my earliest memories of the consequences of this ideology was viewing programs about life in Eastern Europe that depicted empty shopping markets.  Bare shelves greeted hundreds of shoppers.  Usually, older women, all of them it appeared, dressed by the same tailor.  What a contrast to life in Italy or Switzerland.  Being from Liberia, I was astonished to realize that Europeans also lived in abject poverty.  I did realize however, that the reason for these conditions was manmade.   The citizens of Eastern Europe were subjected to third world status due to the policies of their governments.  Two of those policies were the systematic suppression of free speech and the press.  This policy reached across the Iron Curtain and touched me personally while I was living in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 1979, my family re-located from Rome, Italy, to Geneva, Switzerland.  In Geneva, one of the first purchases that my parents acquired was a large Grundig radio and record player combination that was short wave capable.   Standard routine in our household was to keep the radio on nearly twenty-four hours a day tuned to the British Broadcasting Corporation.  Those familiar with the BBC know that at the top of the hour, the station broadcasts an updated news transmission, keeping its listeners apprised of the ongoing news of the day.   In time I started to take note of a recurring event that transpired as the hourly news was being broadcasted.  As the transmission began, it was accompanied by higher than normal interference, sometimes making the broadcast incomprehensible.  I later learned that the interferences were manmade, caused by the Soviet Union.  Diplomats at the United Nations in Geneva had been voicing their displeasure vis à vis this practice by the USSR.   This deliberate attempt at the suppression of the free press and freedom of expression, being extended past the borders of Eastern Europe, paled in comparison to the attack on these institutions in countries such as Poland, Hungary or the Czech Republic.   Radio Free Europe served to counter the effects of the suppression of a free press in countries behind the Iron Curtain by transmitting uncensored news to the citizens of these countries.  I remember reading and hearing about the hope, and the will to act against the status quo, that Radio Free Europe inspired among Eastern Europeans.

Radio Free Africa has the potential to be for Africa that which Radio Free Europe was for Eastern Europe.  Radio Free Africa can inspire, educate and help to empower Africans, not only on the continent, but also those in the Diaspora to take concrete steps into becoming transformative agents.  Time is definitely not on Africa’s side; in fact, Africa is running out of time.  In a few months we will be celebrating the year 2010.  Africa will be celebrating a return to the 1970s as the next generation of dictators prepares to assume power.   We have already seen the preview of this in Niger, Gabon and Mauritania.  Guinea is ripe to continue this legacy.  This is why Radio Free Africa is so crucial at this juncture.  Radio Free Africa can reinforce and help to sustain indigenous and grass roots efforts at self determination in Africa as Radio Free Europe once did in Europe.  As history will judge, attempting to control the free press in Africa will meet the same fate as such actions did behind the Iron Curtain.

Jacien Carr currently lives in the United States and works in finance.  He is a volunteer for Radio Free Africa and can be reached at jacien.carr [at] radiofreeafrica.org