Paynesville City Mayor Undermines US Corruption Fight?–Accused Of self-Enrichment, Lawlessness, Lack of Integrity
Kolubah Amos Yogiee, a former Supervisor for the Solid Waste Management Department of the Paynesville City Corporation (PCC), gave his vehicle for a one-month collateral to a chap to pay his children’s school fees, hoping that Mayor Palm Belcher-Taylor would pay his eleven months of salary arrears to free his vehicle from financial surety guarantee bond and focus on his family affairs, but it went the opposite: the mayor illegally dismissed him without pay and he lost his car in the end.
“It was a calculated attempt. Some part of last year June the city corporation was indebted to some employees up to January 2022. So the city corporation decided to pay for June. When they (Mayor Taylor and coworkers) did the payment, I did not get mine. So I went to inquire why I did not receive mine. The finance man told me, ‘You have to meet Ms. Hawa Sheriff the Human Resource (HR) because we [are] paying for July, and not June.’ ‘You have not paid for June but paid for July?’”
He said the HR told him to bring his bank statement for verification, and he did so, and she confirmed the matter and promised to pay him, but it was a fiasco.
“I took it to her and [she] said, ‘Amos, we saw your bank statement and we did not pay for June. We will talk to Mallay N’Dorbor, the Comptroller, to do your payment.’ He did not do the payment for three weeks,” Yogiee said. “I went back to the HR and said, madam, I pond [collateral] my car for US$500 to send my children to school or pay their tuitions for one-month guarantee, so give me half of the 500!”
After numerous calls without answer and emails without reply to the comptroller, on January 28, 2022 Yogiee said he approached the comptroller and said, “This is enough!”
In a mockery tone, Sheriff said, “We are trying to work your sheet.” This was after two months when he earlier told them that he gave his car up for one-month collateral to a fellow in order to settle his children’s tuitions.
The comptroller’s jeer statement caused a heated debate between Yogiee and him, and Yogiee said, “You try writing my checque and two months ago!” In that moment, Mayor Taylor’s Chief of Office Staff, Madam Nymale Gibson, walked in the HR’s office and asked, “What kind of talking I am hearing here?” The HR said, “It is Amos’ salary he’s talking about.”
In an angry tone Yogiee quoted her as saying, “And so what? Let Amos shut up his mouth and get outside.” At a verge of frustration and impaired by Gibson, Yogiee said he turned to the HR and asked, “You hearing what I am hearing?” He said the HR calmed him down and he (Amos) said, “I am not talking about her. If she says that to me, she wronged me.” In response he said Gibson said, “Who is Amos to say I wrong him, but you will see what will happen.”
After a few days, he was dismissed without payment and being served with a verbal or warning letter.
“They dismissed me and did not pay me. I am a married person and the corporation [is] yet to pay me. I am going through stress. The Mayor’s office assistant asked me out of her office. I wrote Labor Ministry for Manpower and Development,” Yogiee said, recounting the maltreatment the corporation has meted against him for his salary.
Amid the hullaballoo of salary arrears and illegal dismissal of employees and contractors, the Mayor is heartless. She well paid her personal staffs at her Todee Farm in Montserrado County and restaurant in Grand Cape Mount County, but she has set up a jungle justice system at the Paynesville Town Hall, which prohibits employees, contractors from requesting for salaries arrears or inciting others against her. They are witch-hunted and fired. She often suspends and illegally dismisses anyone who is caught in a peaceful manner protesting for his her salary or sits in a group and mentions her name. Under her leadership, the City of Paynesville is a stockpile of garbage, causing the entire city to be a breeding center for mosquitoes and causing pregnant women and children to fall prey to malaria, typhoid, among other sicknesses.
Due to Mayor Taylor’s un-Constitutional deportment, Yogiee took his complaint to the Ministry of Labor for re-dress. The Labor Ministry investigated the matter for one month and found Mayor Taylor and her coworkers guilty.
The Ministry told Mayor Taylor, through its Assistant Minister for Manpower Planning, Ruth Baryogar, that management should pay Kolubah 11 months’ salaries, which summed up to US$7,700; that Kolubah was wrongfully dismissed because he was not given due process by management and he should be reinstituted, among others.
According to Yogiee, since Minister Baryogar’s ruling on July 4, 2022, Mayor Taylor has vowed not to pay Kolubah his US$7,700 arrears, and is boasting that no one can do anything to her, even the international community that is indicting her colleagues.
The situation at the Paynesville City Corporation is alarming and has made the working atmosphere there oppressive and servitude, a situation which undermines human rights advocacy and corruption fight in Liberia.
The indictment of the three former government officials, Nathaniel F. McGill, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Sayma Syrenius Cephus, Solicitor General, and Bill Twehway, Manager Free Port of Monrovia, by the American Treasury Department on August 15, 2022 for their involvement in public corruption in Liberia should serve as a deterrent for all government officials and others to come, but she does not regard it and the parlance, “The falling of a dry leave is a warning to the fresh ones.” The Constitutional act, “balance of power”, which is practiced by the three branches of government before one overshadows the other in power exertion, is meaningless to her as she has turned down the Labor Ministry’s ruling in Yogiee’s case.
Mayor Taylor began her lawlessness immediately when she was appointed by President George M. Weah in 2018, and it has spread like wildfire, according Joseph Duo, Former City Police Director of PCC.
“Greed and power, and other people feel they are more citizens than the others. When the City Mayor took over, she had the motive of dismissing everybody and bringing in her own people. I was there for the right things to be done. The first day she told me to protest against the previous city mayor, Cyvette Gibson, with the city police department in order for her not to enter the office when she had not been confirmed by the Senate,” Duo said, revealing how evil and power greedy she was before coming to power.
While the American Ambassador, Michael McCarthy, is battling corruption through the US Treasury Department in order to restore Liberia’s asset loss, Mayor Taylor is opposing it and allegedly dining and wining in corruption.
“She sent me on the Somalia drive, now Japanese Freeway, for us to clean-up the highway. While cleaning up, we parked 23 trucks in the parking lot and she illegally sold 13 of those trucks, plus the city corporation’s own car that was in a movable condition,” the former City Police Director said, indicating that the Mayor is allegedly swimming in corruption pool. “She sold all those trucks. When the trucks owners started asking me for their trucks, I engaged them (Mayor Taylor and accomplices) that they were wrong, even the trucks we impounded were overdue, and we should have sued the trucks owners to the Paynesville Magisterial Court—that is what the city ordinance says so that they can be given due process of the law.
“If they (trucks owners) fail to release those trucks through the court, the court will sell them and give what for the City Corporation and what for the truck owners, and not the mayor’s responsibility to do so,” he explained.
Some of the trucks were taken from garages along the Japanese Freeway, according to Sheriff, who owns a garage immediately after 72nd intersection, before getting to Nezoe’s intersection when coming from Redlight.
“Some of the trucks owners are currently in Sinoe County and are not around,” Sheriff said.
However, under previous Mayor Cyvette Gibson’s administration, the city of Paynesville had a facelift, corruption was decimalized and no one witch-hunted anyone for salary arrear expression or protest, the working relationship between the city administration and employees and contractors was cordial, according to employees who Mayor Taylor owes for eight months and just paid one-month salary.
She also paid the contractors for all their four months arrears, but vowed to pay Yogiee over her body, according to an insider who eavesdropped her.
She has gone the extra mile in implementing the city order. Whenever the City Police impounded a car under the former mayor, they hired the tow truck, brought the car to the compound of the PCC and paid the difference.
“She fixed her own fine book that is not in line with the city ordinance. Normally, universal wide, traffic violation is punishable by fine, and the fine is US$25.00 and not more and less than it,” Duo said. “Her fine book started finding people [cars owners] US$100, 150, 200, 300, and up to 500.
“So I said [that] it was too much, harsh and torture…the past city mayor fined 100 dollars because we were using tow truck—25 dollars for the corporation and 75 dollars for the tow truck, but she said no; the car should be driven to the town hall [by the car owner], and the person should [still] pay the US$25.00, and we said no,” Duo added.
The city generates a huge sum of money from garbage collection, hall rental and business entities in Paynesville and its environs, but employees and contractors grieve for months for salary payment.
According to the City Public Relation Officer, Jeremiah Diggen, on the issue [of] the PCC owing their employees, “I will say to you the city corporation is challenged. It is true that we owe some of our employees, not all of them because there are some employees here who are 100% on government payroll, which has been regular.
“There are some who are partially on government’s salary and that of Paynesville City Corporation (PCC), and some 100% on PCC payroll, so we acknowledge. It is a great concern, and the management regrets the situation. The comptroller and HR of PCC are currently engaging with partners and also national government to remedy this situation. We are not happy about this—to say the Mayor is sitting and is not doing anything. The Mayor is gravely concerned as the,” he insisted.