*Buchanan Administration Building

*Superintendent Cassell

By: Nat Bayjay, nbayjay2010@gmail.com

A bi-monthly summary of findings and recommendations reported by a monitoring team from Arcelor Mittal conducted early last month has reported numerous troubling irregularities noted in the management of the Grand Bassa County Social Development Funds projects, with the plight of youth, vulnerable groups and women’s groups ignored.

The team stressed the need for all the projects to be halted immediately as the documentation provided by the Project Management Team (PMT) gave conflicting information about budgets, costs, among other things.

According to a signed Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) between Arcelor Mittal and the Liberian Government, a county development fund was established to be funded by an annual contribution of US$3 million that will be provided by the company to Nimba, Bong and Grand Bassa Counties. In accordance with the agreement, Nimba County will benefit 50 percent of the amount, Bong County will receive 16.7 percent and Grand Bassa County will get 33.3 percent of the funds.

According to the Section Two of the MDA, youths, vulnerable groups and women’s groups should be given priority since they are the broad-base and grassroots participants of Grand Bassa County. Section 2.1.3 states, “Prioritization of needs will be done on the basis of needs assessments conducted for this purpose”.

But the Arcelor Mittal Company, widely known as Mittal Steel in Liberia, has reported numerous massive and troubling irregularities in funded projects of the Grand Bassa County Social Development Funds, alleging that the County Superintendent is at the core of single-handedly misdirecting funds and usurping the functions of the project manager.

The company instituted a monitoring team whose investigation of the projects has led to the discovery of the Project Management Team (PMT) ignoring the original proposal and earmarked projects but has elected to diverge from the original projects as a result of the County Superintendent, Julia Duncan Cassell’s own guidance.

The report speaks of Superintendent Cassell’s direct influencing of the Project Manager (PM) over the management of the projects, which the team believes is a combination of a calculated attempt to ignore the system of checks and balances instituted by the Dedicated Funds Committee (DFC) and the County Development Management Committee (CDMC). The team’s report stressed that the lack of adherence to the original project proposal is problematic as the company has already widely publicized the list of approved projects, especially in the local communities in Grand Bassa County.

The report cites administrative malpractice in which it is stated that the Superintendent is taking all decisions unilaterally or in consultation with one or two legislators of the County or officials of Government. It also states that it is convinced that the Project Manager at no point in time had the authority to make decisions on the daily management of the projects without the tacit approval of the County Superintendent.

“It was clear from the reviews of payment requests, copies of signed checks and other documents that the County Superintendent was actually managing the Secretariat of the CDMC and making all decisions unilaterally or in consultation with one or two legislators or Government officials”, the report stated.

“If projects are changed without adequate information dissemination, this is likely to engender dissent and protests among local communities and youth groups”, the report said.

The DFC, which comprises the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Lands, Mines, and Energy, and Finance, is the national coordinating and regulatory body for the management of the County Social Development Funds, while the CDMC, which comprises of some of the County’s Legislative Caucus members and prominent members from the County’s civil groups, oversees the management of the fund at the county level. But the report speaks of the total isolation of the two vital groups by the Superintendent of the County Julia Duncan Cassell.

The Mineral Development Agreement provides for the approval of projects by the DFC and for the determination and prioritization of balanced development needs in each county by the CDMC. On the contrary, the Arcelor Mittal County Social Development Funds of Grand Bassa County is not following this procedure, which has led to the company expressing complete dismay and frustration over the implementation of the projects.

In its four-page documentation report, Superintendent Cassell is firmly accused of usurping the function of the project manager and getting involved with signing other dubious deals verbally. “This usurpation of the role of the Project Manager by the County Superintendent contravenes the guidelines and opens up room for lack of transparency and accountability”, said the report. It continues, “The County Superintendent has quashed all requests for basic office equipment and facilities. In line with the guidelines, the interference by the County Superintendent in the daily running of the CDMC Secretariat and projects should be immediately reduced. She should henceforth refrain from entering into verbal agreements with contractors”.

Additionally, Cassell is accused of entering into several verbal contracts, key among them being the one with the Buchanan Renewable Energies (BRE) operating and located in the port city.

“The County Superintendent entered into a verbal contractual agreement with Buchanan Renewables to provide road rehabilitation services. She instructed the payment of US$200,000 without having a written contract and without the signatures of the designated signatories to the County’s bank account. This is quite alarming!” the Marcus Wleh-led Arcelor Mittal Team reported.

Several efforts to get a response from Superintendent Cassell about the Arcelor Mittal’s monitoring team report yielded no results. Phone calls were first made and even a face to face meeting was attempted with the County Superintendent in Buchanan, but all resulted in deliberate tactics of avoidance from Superintendent Cassell.

Several other efforts, including a trip to the provincial capital Buchanan, were futile as the Superintendent again suggested her tight schedule made it impossible to speak on the matter.

An encounter with the Superintendent on Friday, September 25, 2009 in the port City of Buchanan was postponed to ‘sometime later’ as she said she was busy with county programs.

At the same time, the Arcelor Mittal Monitoring Team has recommended the immediate halt to all project activities pending the implementation of several things, including making available a final project implementation plan and operational budget by the CDMC and using templates provided by the Dedicated Funds Committee.

“The Monitoring Team notes the fact that since it is only the road rehabilitation project that has started, it is now an opportunity to institute some rapid changes to the current Grand Bassa County project management system in order to address the inadequacies and challenges discovered during the monitoring visit”, the Arcelor Mittal Monitoring Team said as it provided its recommendation.