The Executive branch of the Boakai-led government has landed in court for overlapping the function of the National Legislature by “illegally” suspending the Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), J. Aloysius Tarlue, Jr., based on the Auditor General’s Report from the Compliance Audit of the Central Bank for the fiscal year 2018—2023.
Governor Tarlue was appointed by former President George M. Weah, and was confirmed on Thursday, July 15, 2021 by the Liberian Senate, to serve for a five-year term.
However, on July 30, 2024 President Joseph N. Boakai wrote Governor Tarlue informing him that he was suspended from office as Executive Governor of CBL without compensation with immediate effect, pending the results of an investigation that he had ordered into Tarlue’s stewardship of the bank. He went further to appoint the then President of International Bank (IB) Liberia Limited, Henry Saamoi, as Acting Governor of the CBL.
But in the wake of the suspension, Tarlue has dragged the Executive branch, through the Ministry of Justice, to the Supreme Court, requesting that the court places a stay order on President Boakai’s decision because it is illegal and contrary to what normally obtains in such cases and circumstances. He also prayed that the court orders his reinstatement as Executive Governor of the CBL, with all his salary, emoluments and all other rights as though he was never removed from office by President Boakai, as the President’s decision is tantamount to depriving him of his property right and right to work without due process.
In a petition for a writ of prohibition filed to the Supreme Court against the Executive Branch of government (respondent), Governor Tarlue (petitioner) stated that he had a definite term to serve and could not be dismissed by the President of Liberia or removed from performing his function except by impeachment by the National Legislature, noting that his suspension is not supported by the law controlling the removal of the Executive Governor of the Central Bank; hence, it is arbitrary, inconsistent with governance by the rule of law, and constitutes a willful violation of the Amended and Restated Act Establishing the CBL without any legal justification.
He argued that the Amended and Restated Act Establishing the Central Bank of Liberia (1999) provides for the removal of the Executive Governor only by impeachment by the National Legislature, and contains no provision for the suspension of the Executive Governor by the President of the Republic of Liberia.
The “suspended” CBL Governor contended that, if President Boakai is not prohibited from removing from office officials in the three branches of government with tenures protected by law or whose removal can only be by impeachment or other legal procedures and for specifically stated legal grounds, such arbitrary action may become a precedent for the removal of other protected officials, including members of the Supreme Court, through “suspension”, thereby making the Executive Branch a superior branch of government, contrary to the intent of the framers of the Constitution and the people of Liberia.
Tarlue emphasized that the word “suspension” constitutes a slippery slope for all tenure officials in the three branches of government that needs to be made unavailable to the Executive branch of government by the Supreme Court; otherwise, Liberia will gradually slip into dictatorship by default of the court and through the tricks and chicanery of the Executive branch, given that the word “suspension” as used by the Executive for the removal of tenure officials of government is, conceptually, a clever attempt to circumvent the law.
Section 14.4 of the Amended CBL Act says, “The Executive Governor, Non-Executive Governor or Deputy Governors shall be removed by the Senate from office only upon a bill of impeachment submitted by the House of Representatives based on any of the following grounds: gross breach of duty, misconduct in office, conviction of a felony, declared bankrupt, disqualified or suspended from practicing his profession in Liberia by order of a competent authority made in respect of him personally, and adjudged or otherwise declared to be a person of unsound mind or incapable of properly performing the functions of the office owing to ill-health.”
Political pundits are of the opinion that President Boakai has no legal ground to suspend the Central Bank Governor, not even on the basis of alleged corruption. They told the Hot Pepper that “audit reports” are not verdicts, and the President should not be allowed to use audits as sufficient evidence to remove a tenure-position occupant.
According to the pundits, President Boakai needs to do the needful by reinstating Governor Tarlue, prosecute him in a court of competent jurisdiction as required by law, and then use the verdict to request the House of Representatives to initiate an impeachment proceeding against him, but anything short of this is equated to circumventing the rule of law.
They recalled the scenario of former Associate Justice, Kabineh Ja’neh, who was impeached during the administration of President George M. Weah, and underscored that a similar due process needs to be granted to Governor Tarlue if the Boakai administration means well in its fight against corruption and political patronage.
They expressed confidence in the Judiciary to not grant a precedence where the President will become more powerful than he should be, as the deputy governors and other tenure position occupants may not escape the wrath of the President’s political shenanigan.