MONROVIA: Despite the -wider acclamation made by donor institutions about the stewardship of Madam Emma Metieh Glassco, the decision by the government of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to seek her removal as Director General of the National Fishery and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) has been described as a retrogression of governance, disincentive to hard work.
The orchestrated plan to evict Madam Glassco from her tenured position by the government for no cause is coming at the time when the country’s development partners who have been instrumental to make the once insolvent state enterprise now a high yielding national asset have repeatedly asserted that the level of confidence reposed in Madam Glassco cannot be rubbished by any attempt to soil her reputation and her principle to work and produce results without plunging NaFAA in a huge leadership deficit.
The development partners have on several occasions lauded Madam Glassco for the reforms and innovation she introduced at the entity and the seamless results that came out of the process, which according to them is uncommon in running state enterprises that perpetually reported poor returns.
“We have worked with some other state enterprises in Liberia and our findings have it that there is a unique feature they all share which has to do with refusal to implement necessary reforms proposed to them as well as the refusal of management to be honest with resources and introduce innovation when necessary.
“But at NaFAA, it has been a different story entirely because of what Madam Glassco has been able to achieve in such a short time and we expect to see more from her given the fact that she has set up the basis for everything to fall in line positively”, a top staffer at one of the donor institutions in the country told The Analyst last night.
Madam Glassco who has been impacting the future of NaFAA in short period she has been serving as DG further cemented her relationship with the donor community when she secured whooping USD88m in both grants and loans to undertake and implement unprecedented projects in the fishery and aquaculture subsector of the economy, the outcome which has in no small way attributed to the envy of her detractors.
Given some hints of the money, the source told The Analyst that a total of USD88m in grants and loans approved by the donors for NaFAA of the under the management of Madam Glassco and gave a breakdown of the funds as USD50m for the construction of fishing port and landing and facilities for local fishermen across several coastal counties and another USD20m pending for construction of laboratory and dry stock through OPEC international funds as well as another tranche for the construction of fiber glass board which is a world bank initiative to promote a sustainable semi-industrial fishing economy for Liberia amongst others.
“Unfortunately they do not understand how these come about and how they are monitored so that the intended purposes are realized. A good percentage of the money does not physically get in the hands of the Director General or senior management team at NaFAA.
The decision to remove her became a mantra of the government since its inception for the mere fact that there has been no trace of corrupt practices or any act of ineptitude to warrant such removal. In what could easily be referred to as witch hunt, the government knowing fully that it does not have the legal standing to do so because the tenure of Madam Glassco is guaranteed by an act of the national legislature, has taken the route of engaging in acts to distract her and force her to lose concentration.
A female staffer at NaFAA who has witnessed the transformation of the entity in such a short period expressed utter condemnation by the government and its agents to seek the removal of Madam Glassco for no reason other than to destroy her legacy and by extension destroy arguably the most thriving state asset in the country.
“Human beings are very quick to forget what Glassco has brought to this country; respect has been restored and we now have specific studies on fishery development and we should be proud about that.
“She took the industry from nowhere and today it has become the toast of other sectors where formerly it was reporting USD80k annually to the budget and now it contributing about USD4m to the national coffers”, he said
To demonstrate how the government was bent on removing Madam Glassco without any legal reliance, it has chosen one Marthaline Dargoseh to take over NaFAA as Officer in Charge (OIC) pending appointment of a substantive DG even when Madam Glassco still has 2 more years before her tenure expires.
Madam Glassco when contacted to speak to the media about the orchestrated actions against her told The Analyst that she was unperturbed by the antics but very engaged with her work and the passion she attaches to it which “brings me joy as our development partners continue to assure us of more support for our work and our country which is more important to me for now”.