The actual cause of the current discontentment in the CDC administration is in two folds: the first cause is the denial of awarding the Port of Buchanan to Prista Port by the National Port Authority (NPA), and the second cause is the assumed plot to remove Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor from office. The second cause of the confusion within the ranks of the CDC administration does not yet have the level of impact on the subject matter under review, so same is laid to rest until the appropriate time.
During the early days of the CDC government, a former wife of Charles Taylor led a team of highly-placed government officials to Dubai to initiate a plan to have Liberia’s Consul General in place in the United Arab Emirates to seek Liberia’s interest economically and politically. The delegation included a current sitting Judge, a current Senator and a high-ranking member of the CDC Party. Each member of the delegation received a handsome pocket change, feeding and boarding paid for and, away from the rest of the crew, a beach property was purchased by the Consul General-designate for the ranking member of the CDC.
The Consul General-designate of Dubai visited Liberia for his conferment as Consul General to Dubai, to represent the Government of Liberia (GOL) in Dubai. After his confirmation, a large and oversized delegation would be sent to Dubai as an advanced team under the pretext that the Chief Executive was invited to the Special Olympics, when in fact not one of the members of the delegation visited with the Liberian Special Olympics Team. At most, they were invited to the Chief Executive’s hotel and given some money for their subsistence.
With the exception of the sitting Judge, all members of the initial group were on the second trip to Dubai. Each member of the delegation, according to the Hot Pepper investigation, received an IPhone 8, US$1,000 international credit and a huge allowance as pocket change, boarding, internal transportation and feeding paid for.
This was when the Liberian Consul General introduced the multi-billion Hungarian company, Prista Port, to the Liberian delegation. All of the lavished gifts and spending were allegedly provided by the giant Hungarian company.
Before the arrival of the Chief Executive and delegation, a deal was already being consummated, granting a stake in the concession agreement to the sitting Senator, the ranking member of the CDC and the wife of the jailed former President of Liberia. In fact, the sitting Senator and the ranking member of the CDC were the go-to men on the ground. They received huge amounts of money to be distributed among government officials for the attainment of the Port of Buchanan.
The company, being a reputable company of international standards, was ready and set to transform the Port of Buchanan, initially employing 500 Liberians and, within a period of one calendar year, was expected to reach the employment of Liberians up to 2,500. A general manager was already dispatched to Liberia and took up residence in the Boulevard Palace Hotel in Sinkor.
The agreement between the Government of Liberia (through the National Port Authority) and Prista Port Buchanan was approved on August 14, 2019, signed by the Chief Executive of the Republic on September 12, 2019 and sent to the Legislature for ratification and concurrence. The Senate would ratify the Concession Agreement on September 30, 2019, with Act #41 during an extraordinary sitting, after receiving a very handsome amount from the sitting Senator who had become an ordinary shareholder in the company. The Concession Agreement gave Prista Port Buchanan the right to manage the port for 25 years and to infuse US$277 million into the Liberian economy. The Concession Agreement was then forwarded to the House of Representatives for concurrence. The Representatives had already received a very handsome amount, each, to concur with the Senate, but before the document was finalized a call from the Ministry of State informed the Speaker of the House of Representatives to put to an immediate halt the concurrence of the Concession Agreement.
The Hot Pepper’s probe later found out that, through the intervention of the former United States Ambassador, Christine A. Elder, the Executive Mansion was informed that an American company with more money and influence was interested in the Port of Buchanan, with a lot more possibilities.
Apparently, the US Ambassador’s intervention was necessitated by a letter from ArcelorMittal, accusing the government of encroaching into their concession areas.
At the beginning of the Prista Port Buchanan deal, ArcelorMittal protested through an undiplomatic letter to the Minister of State, Nathaniel McGill. The letter, being more threatening than diplomatic, said in a nutshell that ArcelorMittal will not commence the second phase of their Concession Agreement until the Government of Liberia discontinues the Concession Agreement with Prista Port Buchanan. The letter written by the Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal Liberia, Scott Lawe, expressed the company’s objection to a Concession Agreement entered into by the National Port Authority of Liberia (representing the Government of Liberia) and Prista Port Buchanan on ground that it included and overlapped majority of the current Concession area of ArcelorMittal in Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
However, in a reaction to ArcelorMittal’s letter to the Minister of State, the Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy wrote to ArcelorMittal reminding them that the Concession Law of 2005 was amended in 2007. In Article 7, sub-section (C) (a), relating to land and facilities which constitute the Concession area, the Mineral Development Law (MDL) states that all infrastructure, assets and facilities of the Yekepa-Buchanan Iron Ore Port do not constitute part of the ArcelorMittal Liberia Concession.
Good money had gone into greasing the elbows of the Executive Mansion and the Legislature. Even some highly placed members of the Press got lucrative Public Relations work and were prepaid for their current and future roles. The dreams were dashed overnight, the running men (ranking member of CDC and the sitting Senator) pleaded with the Executive Mansion and the leadership of the Senate and House of Representatives but their pleas went in vain. They opted to increase the signature bonus and even tried to relinquish their ordinary shares in the business to the powers-that-be just to secure the Concession for Prista Port Buchanan, realizing how much money, effort, work and time had gone into the endeavor to be nullified at the last minute. Again, all efforts went in vain. The guys were heartbroken, the General Manager would hang on at the Boulevard Palace Hotel for another two months hoping that something would change, but nothing did.
The running men, who later became ordinary shareholders in Prista Port Buchanan, were to be likened to Benoni Urey and Emmanuel Shaw of Lonestarcell MTN with financial security for another twenty-five years. Unfortunately, the Buchanan Port concession agreement has been locked in the international courts with the wife of former British Prime Minister as the prosecuting lawyer. The guys have blamed and have not forgiven President Weah and Minister Nathaniel McGill for the decline in the Prista Port deal. Of late, all the negative statements in the secret recordings that were made public were made out of frustration relative to the Prista Port Buchanan deal.