State witness in the theft of property, economic sabotage (misuse of public money, property of records, theft), misapplication of entrusted property, criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation and violation of PPCC Act and the PFM Law case between the Government of Liberia (GOL), by and thru the Liberia Anti Corruption Commission (LACC), Plaintiff, and former Chairman of the National Investment Commission (NIC), O. Natty B. Davis and Quinton A. Tunis, former NIC comptroller, defendants, took the witness stand on Tuesday, January 4, 2022 at the Criminal Court “C”.
LACC, through its investigative team, based on the General Auditing Commission (GAC) report held accountable NIC former Chairman Davis and Comptroller Tunis for US$708, 463.53 vouchers for Fiscal year 2011, of which US$686,985.47 are unsupported, while for fiscal years 2011/2012 payment vouchers for accounting US$796,045.00, of which again US$719,796.00 is without expenditure records.
In his testimony, one of LACC’s investigators, Titus A.A. Goeh, said his investigation did not consider a report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Legislature. According to him, the LACC investigation, which held Davis and Tunis accountable for misapplication of funds at the NIC, was mainly based on GAC audit report for the above mentioned fiscal years.
“Mr. Witness, you did not mention Madam Ciatta A. Bishop, whom the report also held culpable in their audit. How did you exonerate Ciatta A. Bishop as official administrator of the NIC?” the defendants’ lawyer asked.
In response, witness Goeh said the investigation was not a photocopy of the GAC audit report. So, the witness underscored that it was not just in the business of holding everybody, as was done by the GAC audit report. Goeh could not answer clearly the question of why his investigation did not consider the report from the PAC of the Legislature.
The act that created the establishment of GAC called for submission of all audit reports to the Legislature through its Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for final review before submitting them to the President. The PAC, while reviewing the GAC Audit report on NIC, held Ciatta A. Bishop and others in leadership position culpable, but the LACC investigators freed Bishop, who was the Executive Director of the institution.
Those in the NIC leadership position during the period under review are O. Natty B. Davis, Chairman, Ciatta A. Bishop, Executive Director, James Boker, Director of Finance and Administration, Grisper G. Garteh, Administrative Officer, Tarletta Reeves, Legal Counsel, Nathaniel John, former Comptroller, Quinton A. Tunis, Comptroller, Sam Doe, Assistant Comptroller, Alex Sower, Internal Auditor, Rene L. M. Mapleh, former Human Resource Manager, Tearaletta L. Brown, Human Resource Manager and Boimah Gibson, Procurement Manager.
When the witness was also asked if he investigated the above mentioned staff at NIC, he said some of the staff communicated with him through an email exchange. Investigation continues.