LIS Officers Want NTR for Suspended Boss – ‘We Don’t Want Him Back,’ They Ask President Boakai

By H Matthew Turry

MONROVIA – Some officers of the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS) have requested President Joseph Nyuma Boakai not to lift the three-month suspension on their boss, Commissioner General Steve Zargo. In fact, they want him never to return to the LIS.

The immigration officers who spoke to The Analyst over the weekend on condition of anonymity for fear of possible reprisals say the prestige of the Service is dwindling since the takeover of Mr. Zargo.

“I am very happy because for his suspension or ultimately for his dismissal because, for a little over one year that Commissioner Zargo took over Immigration, instead of improving the institution, he is retrogressing it day by day,” one officer said.  

“We have been expecting this suspension long ago. The President even delayed the suspension. We are pleading with the President; the suspension is not enough for Steve Zargo. He deserves dismissal.”

Another LIS officer added: “I want to say thank President Boakai for suspending Zargo. If the president has done nothing for Immigration, this one is enough – suspending Zargo is the best decision of his entire presidential life. But he must go a step further. Save the LIS. Sack Zargo.”

“The suspension of Steve Zargo is welcoming,” he continued. “We welcome the decision of the President for holding the highest standards of professionalism and accountability amongst the public servants. We are glad for the President to take this decision at this stage, because there are several issues against Steve Zargo. When you see officers jubilating for his suspension, it means something is not right at the LIS. This is the first time to see officers celebrating, where in your boss is suspended. Everybody is happy at the office right now. We are very, very excited.”

A third LIS officer, a female, who spoke to The Analyst, said: “We can give you so many reasons. So many counts for his dismissal. For me, the President has no reason to bring Zargo back to our entity. For example, the issue of Contact Global, an alien company, that Steve Zargo gave the issuance of Resident Permit that supposed to be done by the Liberian government through the Liberia Immigration Service to generate revenue.”

According to her, the action of Commissioner Zargo is causing the government to lose a lot of revenues.

“When you go to the Finance Ministry right now, the Government cannot generate the actual revenue that officers used to generate. How can you give a Resident Permit that supposed to be issued by the country Immigration to an Indian company to issue it?” she questioned. “Now, they introduced one company called Celtic, another foreign company to issue Airport Visa and Re-entry that the LIS supposed to do.

“These companies give four cars to all the various Commissioners – the Commissioner for Administration, the Commissioner for Naturalization, and the Commissioner for Operations, only Zargo does not have a new car, because he took it in cash,” the officer alleged.

The Liberia Immigration Service officer noted that it was a deal that the company give all the Commissioners car, but because Commissioner Zargo have a new Prado from Contact Global so he cannot hold a car, while the officers don’t have car to commute themselves.

Another officer of the LIS said: “So many complaints have been around Commissioner Zargo in a short period of time. When you can remember, since the president appointed Zargo, whenever he was travelling, he would put his Chief of Office Staff (COS) charge, one Anthony Nagbe, to be signing on documents instead of the deputies. The Commissioner for Administration can attest to that. He has various deputies, but he allows COS that he brought from outside to act in his absence.”

The LIS personnel accused Commissioner Steve Zargo of bringing one of his relatives from the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) and one other Retired General from the U.S Army as Director for Training.

“My dear, I feel so proud of the President for taking such decisions because of what Zargo has been doing since he came to the entity,” one officer said. “We, as Immigration officers, are not happy with the issue concerning the Contact Global, looking at what we been raising at the Service for government over the past 12 years.

“No more can we even get up to 10 percent of revenue we were raising before because of the things that Zargo has put his hands into. So why should he remain,” he said. “You bringing a company that will do the work that Immigration officers supposed to be doing. The company is not proceeding well and Commissioner Steve Zargo is not doing anything about it.”

“Commissioner Steve Zargo is not an administrator. Nowadays, you come to the Immigration office, you will see Immigration officers outside. No system, no work is going on here,” one said. “We don’t want to see Steve Zargo coming back to this Service because he is not qualified to run the LIS. I pray that Zargo should not come back in our system. He brought all of his relatives to the Service who didn’t go through the training process.”

Another officer said. “If you can remember, the Ivorian government gave us some motorbikes and one pickup, but as we speak currently the pickup is packed in his yard.”

The aggrieved officers also accused Commissioner Steve Zargo of allegedly manipulating the recent recruitment process of 500 personnel into the LIS system by putting people who did not go through the vetting process.