MONROVIA – The Liberian Investigator has obtained documents revealing that Monrovia City Mayor John C. Siafa allegedly replaced long-serving employees of the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) with new recruits, primarily from the ruling Unity Party, without issuing formal dismissal letters. Among those reportedly removed is the recently appointed Director of Public Latrines, Samuel Weah.
According to highly placed sources within the MCC, the dismissed workers are mostly partisans of the opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), while the newly hired employees are believed to be affiliated with the Unity Party. The new recruits, about 32 individuals, have been placed on a supplementary payroll created by Mayor Siafa and have already been paid for the months of July and August, despite no formal announcement from the Civil Service Agency (CSA) regarding any new national government hires.
Insiders from the MCC’s Human Resource Department, speaking anonymously, claim that these new hires are being paid using internally generated funds from businesses operating within Monrovia, while the old workers remain on the national payroll. However, the situation has become dire, as the revenue generated by the MCC has reportedly dropped significantly, causing a financial strain in paying both old and new employees.
Many of the old workers on the government payroll, including Mr. Weah, have not received their September salaries. Several of these workers, who bank with Afriland Bank, have expressed frustration after discovering their salaries were not deposited. This has raised suspicions that Mayor Siafa may have quietly transitioned the new recruits onto the national payroll by removing the old staff—many of whom are believed to be CDC partisans—without any legitimate cause.
One anonymous source within the MCC accused the mayor of exploiting the city’s financial limitations, stating, “The MCC cannot collect the same revenue it used to generate, so Mayor Siafa instructed the HR department to remove our names from the national payroll and replace us with his people on the supplementary payroll.”
The situation escalated further when Mr. Samuel Weah, after visiting the MCC to inquire about his missing salary, was reportedly detained by Monrovia City Police for about an hour. According to sources, this detention occurred under the alleged orders of Mayor Siafa, communicated through the Director of the Monrovia City Police, Mr. Alphonso Paypay. The situation prompted a heavy presence of Liberia National Police officers after Mayor Siafa reportedly called them, accusing Mr. Weah of resisting police orders. However, the intervention of a senior MCC staff member diffused the situation, preventing Mr. Weah from being forcibly removed from City Hall.
The turmoil at the MCC is showing no signs of calming, as sources reveal that a protest by the displaced workers may be imminent. The workers, many of whom claim to have been removed from the payroll without due process, are demanding the restoration of their salaries and a formal resolution to the matter. Among those affected are notable former employees, including Varney Dunor, Human Resource Compliance Manager; Abdullah A. Sarnor, Inspector of City Planning; Susannah Bolongei, Revenue Staff; and Tennie Jallah, former driver to ex-Mayor Jefferson Tamba Koijee.
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