Review of Liberia’s ‘Missing’ Cash Finds No Banknotes Lost

MONROVIA (Capital Markets in Africa) – A review into the alleged disappearance of almost $100 million in cash that Liberia’s government said was printed abroad and went missing after arriving at the port found no evidence to support the charge.

The government of President George Weah ordered a probe in September into the disappearance of 15.5 billion Liberian dollar ($96 million) in banknotes between 2016 and 2018 and banned some current and former central bank officials from leaving the country while the review was carried out. The investigation was conducted by Kroll Associates Inc. and sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Monrovia.

Read more: Liberia central bank says it received all money printed abroad

“Kroll found no information to support allegations that a container of banknotes went missing,” the embassy said in a statement on Thursday.

The review found lapses in the accuracy and completeness of the central bank’s internal records and identified “shortcomings in Liberia’s fiscal and monetary management processes that are longstanding and continue to the present day,” it said. Kroll handed the government a technical security assessment and recommendations, the embassy said.

Elected as president in December 2017, retired soccer star Weah has pledged to fight corruption in the West African nation that was hit by the Ebola crisis only a decade after the end of a protracted civil war.

Source: Bloomberg Business News