As part of effort to revamp the troubling economic status of Liberia, President George Manneh Weah has announced a retirement for Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) Executive Governor Nathaniel R. Patray, III after taking over the entity just 10 months.
The Liberian leader nominated Patray to be the new governor of the country’s central bank on July 4, 2018 a day after the resignation of former governor Milton Weeks.
Making the disclosure wedesday during his nation-wide radio address which was broadcast on national radio, Weah said Weah acknowledged that the lack of system and control mechanisms have eroded the credibility and trust of the central bank of Liberia.
He added that two investigative reports; Kroll Associates and Presidential investigative Team all points to lapses point to a major lack of systems and controls at the Central Bank of Liberia, and call into question the ability of its present leadership to effectively revamp its internal mechanisms to provide greater accountability and professionalism.
This according to president Weah has reduced confidence and credibility to be restored at the institution.
Weah said: “To provide the opportunity for the Central Bank to have a new direction, I have accepted the resignation of the Deputy Governor for Economic Policy. The Executive Governor is scheduled for age-related mandatory retirement in the next three months”.
“At the completion of the “mop-up” exercise, criticisms and allegations were made, that the process had not been done in a proper and professional manner, and that there had been irregularities and issues of mis-management”, said Mr. Weah.
New leadership
The Liberia chief executive noted that during this period, he will work to transition the bank to a new management.
President Weah further told Liberians that the new CBL leadership will be recruited by a vetting committee to be established in the soonest possible time. “It will be composed of an independent team of professional Liberians, to be named shortly”, he intoned.
At the same time the president is encouraging any qualified Liberian interested in becoming a part of the new CBL leadership team to submit applications to the vetting committee, regardless of their present location, gender or political affiliation.
A new board of governors, the president added will be announced next week.
The expected new governor will be the third Executive governor of the central bank in less than five years after the expiration of tenure of former governor Mills Jones in 2016. An executive governor of the bank is supposed to serve for a period of five a year term and can be re-nominated by the president with recommendation from the board of governors.
Dr. Mounir Siaplay, Deputy Governor for Economic Policy at the Central Bank of Liberia resigned on May 27, 2019 while rumor was roaming that Mr. Patray was due to do same.
Governor Patray will be the second person to whose five years tenure was cut short in the Weah led administration that was ushered in 2018.
The retirement of Governor Patray is among several recommendations that some Liberians, mainly opposition have been calling on the president to do following the release of the Kroll and GAC reports on the missing LD16 Billion and US$25million mop-up exercise respectively.
Council of Patriots’ mandate satisfied?
The council of patriots (COP) who is planning a mass peaceful protest on June 7, 2019 has been strong on the president Weah to take action against governor Patray and Finance Minister Samuel Tweah for allegedly misapplying US$25 million that was intended to mop-up excess Liberian dollar banknotes on the local market.
In addition to restructuring the Central Bank of Liberia, President Weah however, noted in his message Wednesday that his Government will shortly announce a series of policy measures that are intended to stabilize Liberia’s economy in the short term, and position it for growth in the medium to long term.
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