By Garmah Lomoh|Contributor
Ex Central Bank of Liberia Governor Milton A. Weeks has admitted to the printing of excess 10bn Liberian Dollars contrast to the mandate of the Legislature.
There have been controversies over the printing of the excess Liberian Dollars Banknotes that landed Mr. Weeks in Court to face trail.
Report had it that the Legislature only authorized the printing of 5bn Liberian Dollars as requested by the CBL in 2016.
The request of the 5bn Dollars by the CBL was to replace the mutilated Banknotes that were in circulation.
Mr. Weeks said the contract for the printing of the Country’s new currency was consummated before he took over the Central Bank of Liberia.
Mr. Weeks, however, blamed the Company that was contracted to print the 5bn Dollars, Crane Currency for the excess printing of the money without seeking approval.
“The first printing of the Liberian Dollars was done by a French Company which he was approached that the Company capacity to print the money was limited.”
“One hundred forty six Million two hundred and fifty thousand was caused to be in access by the CBL.”
Though, the former CBL Governor blamed Crane Currency for the excess printing of the new Banknotes, he said it was clear that the 5bn that the Legislature approved was inadequate to fully replace the mutilated Banknotes.
Mr. Weeks said after the printing of first 5bn additional amount was printed to address the challenge in replacing the roaming mutilated Banknotes.
He said there was a mix-up amount of money that led to the printing of the excess Liberian Dollars.
Mr. Weeks’ statement was contained in his testimonies made to the Court for his alleged role of printing excess Liberian Dollars Banknotes over the approval 5bn Dollars.
He quotes Crane Currency as saying the CBL contracted two other Companies during the vetting process and that those companies reserve the right to a specific design of printing currency.
The former CBL Boss also quotes Crane currency as saying it reserve the right to its own designs and would not have used the designs of other companies.
“During the first Prints, there was always errors with some of the Bank Notes, therefore, on the first printing, the Printer miss some features. This is what Crane Currency informed us that they did, the first Print was better than they expected and they advised CBL that they had such amount in Access and offered to make it available to CBL at an affordable cost.
Prior to his assumption to duty, the Son of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Mr. Charles E Sirleaf headed the CBL Management as acting Executive Governor.
Prior to his assumption to duty, Charles E Sirleaf headed the CBL Management as acting Executive Governor.
In May 2016, the Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance Development Planning informed the CBL to continue to sell USD due to huge foreign exchange constraints.
By early 2017, the CBL was summoned on numerous occasions to explain to the Legislature what the it was doing with the Rate rising abnormally.
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