The management of the National Port Authority has termed as unfounded, false and misleading, a recent publication by the SmartNews Liberia online paper, in which suspended Buchanan Port Manager Charles Macarthur Gull linked NPA Managing Director, Bill Twehway, to reportedly withdrawing US $1.5M from the account of the Buchanan Port.
The online newspaper in its August 24, 2021 publication, claimed that the suspended Manager of the Port of Buchanan, Mr. Gull, alleged that the amount stolen from the Buchanan’s Port account was not US $200,000, but rather US $1.5M, thus linking Mr. Twehway to that effect.
According to the publication,
in a short dispatch from the United States, Mr. Gull alleged that the NPA Managing Director personally withdrew the US $1.5M under the title Special Order, and made away with the money without written communication from the NPA Buchanan Account Department.
The NPA debunks what it describes as a malicious lie, purportedly made by the suspended Buchanan Port Manager, terming as a malicious story being published by the SmartNews Liberia online outlet.
Malcolm Scott, the Director of Communications at the NPA, says he finds it baffling and confounding when the paper references claims purportedly made by the suspended Buchanan Port Manager were contained in a dispatch from the United States, when it has established that there is absolutely no dispatch where Mr. Gull made the specific claim that Mr. Twehway has been allegedly linked to a US $1.5M scandal.
According to Scott, the publication is only flooded with smear campaign by underground operatives whose motives are meant to manipulate the independence and social media followers into what he termed as subversive tactics in defense of documented corruption testimonies.
The NPA spokesman further clarified that contrary to the purported claims being flagged by what he called the questionable dispatch and publication, all revenues from the outstation Ports, including Greenville, Harper and Buchanan are not kept in those outstation Ports accounts, stressing that they are rather channelled to the NPA’s Central Account which he said makes it impossible for a single individual to effectuate unilateral withdrawal.
The NPA maintains that it investigated Mr. Gull and Mr. Kamara over allegations of opening a bogus Global Bank Account where the pair have since admitted to depositing over US $300,000 for personal gains.
Meanwhile, the NPA Director of Communications cautioned the SmartNews Liberia online paper to verify information before publication and desist from what he calls deliberately misinforming the public with malevolent intents.
