MONROVIA – Ongoing scrutiny of applicants for one of Liberia Revenue Authority’s important jobs is reportedly favoring former Small Arms Commission boss, Atty. Teklo Maxell Grigsby, II, as reliable sources close to the vetting committee divulged to The Analyst that he has come on top of over 96 other candidates.
The unimpeachable sources disclosed that Atty. Grigsby emerged as the top candidate in the LRA Domestic Tax Department vetting process which commenced in April 2024.
It can be recalled that in April 2024, the Liberia Revenue Authority posted a vacancy on its website for the recruitment of Commissioner of Domestic Tax Department and solicited applications from Liberians across the globe to take advantage of the process.
The LRA, in its advertisement, encouraged female candidates to take advantage of the application process.
The vacancy was created as a result of the resignation of Mr. Darlingston Y. Talery, who was credibly reported to have secured a top job at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission.
Mr. Talery was professionally recruited in 2014 in the formative years of the Liberia Revenue Authority under the stewardship of Madam Elfreda Stewart Tamba, the first appointed Commissioner General under the Unity Party led Government headed by Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Former President of the Republic of Liberia.
Upon the resignation of Commissioner Talery, it was reported that the Executive Mansion and highly placed individuals within the ruling Unity Party recommended several partisans deemed qualified to occupy the high-level post but the Commissioner General, Honorable Dorbor Jallah, refused to accept political recommendation for the job.
Commissioner General Jallah insisted that a transparent and inclusive recruitment process would be conducted with the participation of the donors supporting the LRA and Civil Society Organizations. He then commissioned a team comprising the Liberia National Bar Association (LNBA), Center for Transparency and Accountability (CENTAL), Liberia Institute for Certified Public Accountants (LICPA), Liberia Chamber of Commerce (LCC), Association of Human Resource Professionals of Liberia (AHRPL), representative from the United States Embassy accredited near Monrovia and representative of the Swedish Embassy.
The independent panel was supported by the human resource staff of the LRA as requested.
The Independent Panel received over 96 applications for the position and agreed on three layers of scrutiny to include: review of the credentials of the applicants taking into consideration their qualification compared to the academic requirement for the top; the candidate’s experience in Tax Administration and other similar leadership roles as well as additional professional capacities that could be very helpful in executing the task of Commissioner of Domestic Tax Department, Liberia Revenue Authority.
The scrutiny also required administering of written exams to eliminate candidates and select the best five candidates, and a final Interview with the top five candidates to select the best candidate for the Job and therefrom recommend the top candidate for employment at the Liberia Revenue Authority.
According the sources close to the LRA vetting committee, at the climax of the first stage of the vetting exercise for two months (July & August), a total of 22 candidates were shortlisted and contacted to sit a written test to move to the next stage of the vetting process.
During the administering of the written test, 17 of the 22 candidates were present and sat the test for three (3) hours.
The Independent Panel supervised the administering of the test and corrected the papers and selected five candidates who scored the highest in the test to include. The five persons included Assistant Commissioner Sebastian A. Weah of the Medium Tax Division-LRA, Atty. Teklo Maxwell Grigsby, II, former manager, Medium & Small Tax and Former Acting Manager Sector Ministry, Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and immediate past Chairperson, Liberia National Commission on Arms (LiNCA), Assistant Commissioner.
Other included former Enforcement Manager Large Tax Division-LRA, Madam Mageret Krote, Assistant Commissioner for Real Estate- LRA, James A. Jappa and former Officer-In-Charge of the Board of Tax Appeals, Mr. Albert Nyanguan Jr.
The five candidates were informed that they were picked for the final round of the vetting towards the selection of the best candidate and that each of them would be required to attend an interview comprising two components namely: PowerPoint Presentation for 15 Minutes and Questions and Answers on several critical issues concerning domestic resource mobilization for 45 minutes totaling one hour before the Independent panel at separate time intervals.
Our sources also divulged that the presentations and interviews were conducted and at the climaxed of the vetting, Atty. Teklo Maxwell Grigsby, II was unanimously selected by the panel and approved by representative of the US and Swedish embassies.
Atty. Grigsby holds a Bachelor’s Degree (BSc.) in Economics from the Department of Economics at the African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU), Master of Public Administration (M.P.A) from the Graduate School of Public Administration of the Cuttington University Graduate School of Professional Studies (CUGS) and a Bachelor’s of Law Degree (LL.B) in General Law with emphasis in Tax and Corporation Laws.
Atty. Grigsby holds several professional certificates in Executive Leadership, Weapons and Ammunition Management, Risk Management, Legislative and Policy drafting among others.
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