PRESS STATEMENT

(Wednesday, May 27, 2020):The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) sets record straight on the following:
Alleged Termination of Workers’ Contracts

The Minister of Agriculture, Honorable Jeanine M. Cooper, was informed by means of an official communication from the Deputy Minister of Administration, Honorable Precious K. Tetteh, -the lead on the Ministry’s personnel matters -on May 6, 2020 alerting her on the pending expiration of some workers’ one-year contracts as of June 30, 2020.
Following this administrative notice as is standard administrative procedure and best practice, the MOA informed those on the contracts of the pending expiration of said contracts.

The MOA notes that it has not terminated such contracts as is being rumored in the Liberian social media space.
The termination of contracts at the MOA is done –in accordance with official human resources procedures; Civil Service Agency’s standards and employment laws of the Republic of Liberia–through official communications to affected workforce.
The MOA challenges anyone to prove with a duly signed letter addressed to a worker that his/her contract has been terminated in the letters sent to contractors on May 25, 2020.
 

Fake News on Awarding of Contracts
The MOA states categorically that the document circulated on social media and the narrative associated with it does not represent the actual happenings at the Ministry of Agriculture in the award of contracts.
The said document was a draft proposal sent to the Minister of Agriculture in an email dated March 4, 2020 –after her commissioning as head of the Ministry –for the setting up of an Agribusiness Development and Growth Unit Innovation Labs Programme, a component which was never approved by her and is non-existent at the MOA at this time.
The Ministry challenges anyone to prove through certified contract copies –duly signed and stamped with the amounts stated therein and proof of payments received.

MoA Remains Focused
While this may be considered a distraction, the MOA remains focused on implementing the recently approved World Bank’s US$ 10.5 million funding support to the Government of Liberia (GOL) through the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) for its COVID-19 Food Security, Nutrition and Livelihood Plan.
Upon a recent request from the GOL through the direction and support from His Excellency President George Manneh Weah, the funding was drawn from the Contingency Emergency Response Component (CERC) within the World Bank’s funded Smallholder Agriculture Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project (STAR-P) which kicked off in 2019 and is directed and supervised by the MOA.
Discussions are still ongoing with the Bank to finalize the transparent and fair procurement practices taking into accounts Liberia’s governing regulations and the Bank’s own procurement standards.
The MOA reinforces that no amount of disinformation or false narratives and fake news will distract it from ensuring and working towards food security for Liberia.

SIGNED: OFFICE OF THE MINISTER