President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says she has submitted the Special Forensic Audit Report of the Auditor General on the Sale of Iron Ore for the period January 2004-January 2006 to the Justice Ministry for review and subsequent action.

President Sirleaf made the disclosure last Saturday at her Foreign Ministry Offices during  a tete-a-tete with editors and Media Managers. 

The Chief Executive, who spoke on wide range of national issues during the tete-tete, said she submitted the audit report after she went through said report.

She said the submission of the audit report to the justice Ministry is part of her continuous campaign against corruption.

However, she said she could not state whether the Justice Ministry has commenced preparing indictments for those implicated in the report.   

Auditor general John S. Morlu, II, in his Transmittal Letter to the president and members of the National Legislature recommended that former Lands and Mines Minister Johnson Mason, former President and CEO of LIMINCO S. Ciapha Gbollie, and businessman George Haddad are jointly or severally held to account and are made to restitute US$3,938,201.09, adding , “this being part of the proceeds from the direct sales of Shandong.”

Auditor General Morlu: “I have further recommended that former Lands and Mines Minister Johnson Mason and the former President and CEO of LIMINCO S. Ciapha Gbollie be held to account and made to restitute jointly or severally for US$1,478,965.87, representing portion of the iron ore proceeds paid by Metalimex.”

He continued: “I have furthermore recommended that former Deputy Finance Minister Tugbeh Doe should therefore be held to account and made to restitute US$2,038,977, representing the amount for which he falsified a letter in the name of the former Minister of Finance. This amount supposedly represented the Government of Liberia’s share of the proceeds.”

He finally recommended that former Auditor General Francis B.S. Johnson is reprimanded for producing a “purported audit report” that undermined the financial interest of the Government of Liberia.

“As you will note in the details of the report with respect to the pricing scheme employed, this iron ore transaction was asset stripping of the highest order and a demonstrable blatant assault on public resources by Government officials and their private sector,” the Auditor General asserted in his Transmittal Letter, which was contained in the audit report on the  Sale of Iron Ore.