President George Manneh Weah, on Monday November 14,2022 sacked with immediate effect the Acting Director General of the Liberia Institute for Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS), Wilmot Smith, and the Deputy Director General for Statistics and Data Processing, Alex M. Williams.
The decision, the Liberian Leader was based on administrative reasons.
Both men are ordered to turn over all properties belonging to the institution in their possession.
However, President Weah has designated the LISGIS Deputy Director General for Administration, Lawrence George, to act as Director General while Prof. Francis Wreh is on a leave of absence.
Public holiday for census
Liberia declared a public holiday on Friday so people can stay at home to be counted in a much-delayed census, yet none of the 71,000 counters hired for the job are out counting because of a dispute over their fees.
There was also a last-minute disagreement between top officials of the Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services – it’s head insists preparations are complete, but another senior official in charge of statistics disagrees, and warns that any attempt at premature counting will not be accurate or credible.
In their confusion, people in rural places have been phoning others in Monrovia to find out if the census will actually happen.
