The former Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Nathaniel McGill, Solicitor General Cyrennius Cephus and the Director of the National Port Authority Bill Tweahway for acts of corruption. The sanctions fall under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act.
According to him, the US government will also carry out enforcement actions against institutions or individuals that are involved. Ambassador McCarthy pointed out that though the sanctioned imposed on the five individuals are not directly on the Liberian government; anyone supporting these sanctioned former and current government officials"may be opened to sanctions themselves."He said the action against the five men is not a prosecutorial action, but the US feels that it has the"right and obligation" to stop people from abusing democracy and engaging into acts of corruption.
When quizzed whether or not the US government will support the NEC if it accepts the nomination of any of the sanctioned former and present government officials, Ambassador McCarthy said:"we do support the NEC until they give us reason not to support them." "We feel very confident that if anyone did a real investigation, they will find the evidence. The allegations were all in the press."McGill, according to the US Treasury Department bribed business owners, received bribes from potential investors, and accepted kickbacks for steering contracts to companies in which he has an interest.
Twehway orchestrated the diversion of $1.5 million in vessel storage fee funds from the NPA into a private account. Twehway secretly formed a private company to which, through his position at the NPA, he later unilaterally awarded a contract for loading and unloading cargo at the Port of Buchanan. The contract was awarded to the company less than a month after its founding.
"Varney Sherman, now a prominent lawyer, Liberian Senator, and chair of the Liberian Senate Judiciary Committee, offered bribes to multiple judges associated with his trial for 2010 bribery scheme, and he had an undisclosed conflict of interest with judge who ultimately returned a not guilty verdict in July 2019," the release said.
Pay-for-play, sometimes pay-to-play or P2P, is a phrase used for a variety of situations in which money is exchanged for services or the privilege to engage in certain activities. It added:"Johnson is designated pursuant to E.O. 13818 for being a foreign person who is a current or former government official, or a person acting for or on behalf of such an official, who is responsible for or complicit in, or has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.
Enumerator trainings were conducted across the country with the government, through LISGIS failing to provide food, water and sitting fee for those who attended. He further called on opposition politicians in the country to"ask their supports not to disrupt the census."