Christopher Sankolo, the Director General of the Liberia Agriculture Commodity Regulatory Authority (LACRA), has dismissed media reports alleging financial mismanagement and irregularities within the agency.
Recent online reports highlighted concerns regarding the financial management of LACRA, particularly following the leak of the entity’s 2024 General Auditing Commission (GAC) audit reports. These reports allegedly indicate that USD $354,510 in export royalties went unaccounted for in financial records between September 2024 and February 2025, leading to increased tensions between senior management and cocoa exporters.
The reports also accused the LACRA Taskforce of harassing cocoa exporters regarding operational permits while allegedly extorting money from them.
In an interview with the New Dawn Newspaper on Wednesday, Director Sankolo stated that the allegati+ons of financial misconduct at LACRA are false and are mere propaganda from individuals within the organization who are opposed to proper protocols. “These are just baseless stories, far from the truth. They are individuals looking to undermine the efforts to do things correctly,” he said.
However, Sankolo acknowledged that there have been internal conflicts within the institution, expressing his frustration with some of his deputies, although he chose not to disclose specific names due to ongoing investigations by the LACRA board.
“To set the record straight, when we took over, we observed some leakages involving exporters, and some staff members were compromising their positions. We decided to conduct an internal review of export records, which led to some discontent among staff,” he explained.
“We have received reports of irregularities, including six containers of cocoa being smuggled out—over 300 tons. Given that each ton is valued at $50, just calculate how much revenue has been lost in royalties,” Sankolo elaborated.
“We couldn’t continue to overlook these issues, especially since there were numerous compromises within the agency. We initiated a review of internal export records. However, after announcing our actions, the Deputy for Operations became unresponsive when I tried to contact him,” he added.
Regarding the leaked audit report indicating that USD $354,510 in export royalties went unaccounted for during the specified period, the LACRA Director General expressed his willingness to undergo an audit. He clarified that since 2023, prior to his takeover in April 2023, no audits had been conducted.
Sankolo also revealed that when he assumed leadership in April 2023, the bank balance was only USD $470. Under his administration, the balance has increased to USD $700,000.00 has bank balance.
