MONROVIA: After much speculations about the resolve of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to terminate all tenured positions in the country as a way of creating job opportunities for some of his diehard supporters, the President swoop on one of targeting institutions, the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) in the early hours of Tuesday morning when he dissolved the entire board of the entity and appointed a new one.
By the action of the President which came in a package where 139 appointments were made affecting a number of government institutions, the tenured terms which the affected officials were enjoying were aborted which according to pundits was a clear violation of legislations enacted to support the status of those who occupied the positions.
Going by the effect of the dissolution, the five member top management team which included the Chairperson, Madam Edwina Crump Zackpah, and commissioners, James Gbarwea, Israel M. Akinsanya, Zotawon D.Titus, and Osborne K. Diggs all lost their jobs suddenly.
In their place, President Boakai appointed Mr. Abdullah Kamara as Chairperson while those who were chosen as commissioners were Patrick Honnah, Clarence Kortu Massaquoi, Ben A.Fofana and Angela Bush Cassel.
Hitherto, the former board members were in their early stages of a 7 year tenure and by implications of the ouster means their tenures were cut short far before they could exhaust the terms.
It is not clear which legal reliance the President must have followed to sweep off the entire board of LTA which it is established a flagrant disregard of rule of law, an action pundits described as “dangerous to the our nascent democracy”
The Analyst was told last night from competent sources that the government has been exploring the option of paying off the affected officials for the rest of the years left of their tenure which will be structured in a way that will benefit both the government and the officials.
A top official of one of the development partners in the country told The Analyst in confidence that the decision of the President if allowed to stand will set a bad precedent in governance and will “above all paint an ugly picture of this government to the international community that it does not respect the laws on the book in the country”
“This is strange that an incoming government will engage in this sheer show of self-destruction by knowingly breaking the laws to suit its own interest and yet expect the international government to support its agenda with funds when clearly they are demonstrating traits of not being serious”, the top officials told The Analyst last night.
Pundits said the international partners are going to start reconsidering supporting the government “because it seems to be the government is bent on wasting money on breaching the laws for selfish reasons when they should be thinking about developing a roadmap how they are going to lead differently from the past government”
Pundits have postulated that in the midst of the harsh economic conditions the country is being plagued with, it would have been wise that the government could look in the direction of making prudent use of all its resources for the benefit of the people.
It is not yet clear what will be the response of the affected officials though sources close to some of them have it that they are consulting their lawyers before making the next move.
The decision by President to go all out against institutions with tenure position did not come as a surprise to many others as senior aides close to him after the inauguration had said it publicly that “we will make sure that all those who served in the past government whether tenured or not will be removed”
The government had assumed that the past administration nullified all the tenure positions in the country. The Analyst was able to establish that indeed attempts were made by the Senate to scrap all the tenure positions but could not obtain a concurrence from the House of Representatives up to the end of the 54th national legislature.
At the time reports had it that agencies such as the Liberia Revenue Authority, the Liberia Telecommunication Authority, and the Liberia Maritime Authority were affected by actions of the national legislature and that the lawmakers succeeded in removing all the tenure status of positions in those institutions. However, investigations reveal that the impact was limited to the actions of one chamber of the Legislature.
The Secretary of the Senate Nanborlor Singbeh responding to inquiry from the senate recently clarified that, apart from the Liberia Maritime Authority, the legislature did not succeed in removing tenure from institutions earmarked for such action.
Senate Pro-Temp Albert Chie further informed the body that, although the Senate attempted to remove tenure from the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) and others, their actions did not align with the House of Representatives, which had acted differently. Only a conference committee could have reconciled the differences, but that step was not taken.
Meanwhile, Representative Musa Hassan Bility of District 7, Nimba County has registered his disagreement with the decision of President Boakai to remove the tenure status of officials at government institutions which were covered by law. Bility made his position known via a facebook post a few hours after the latest list of appointments was published.
Dear Mr. President, Please be reminded that some of your appointments announced a few hours ago, are in tenured positions. For instance, the LTA. I trust you mean very well for this Country. Please don’t let pressure from your supporters for “Jobs” make you flaunt our laws. Liberians expect the very best from you. You see Mr. President, like you I swore to uphold the Constitution of the Republic of Liberia. So, if these appointments are not withdrawn in time, I will be constrained to take the necessary actions to “DEFEND AND UPHOLD” the laws. Mr. President, we condemned and criticized the past administration on this issue of tenure and we must ensure that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.