Glassco resigns, Boakai thanks her as probe yields no findings

Published: November 28, 2025

MONROVIA — President Joseph Boakai has accepted the resignation of suspended NaFAA Director General Emma Metieh Glassco, closing a protracted saga in which months of scrutiny and public allegations produced no conclusive findings of wrongdoing against her. The President, according to the Executive Mansion, thanked Glassco for her service to the nation.

Glassco resigned on November 11, citing personal reasons and requesting that her departure take effect immediately. In the Executive Mansion’s statement on November 27, President Boakai expressed gratitude for her contributions to Liberia’s fisheries and aquaculture sector.

Her resignation was accepted alongside that of LIPA Deputy Director-General for Training and Development Mariama Kamara Macauley, who stepped down for unrelated personal reasons.

Glassco’s suspension on February 12 resulted from complaints about leadership disputes and internal conflicts at NaFAA. The most serious allegations involved claims that over US$800,000 from a World Bank–funded project had been allegedly misused. However, throughout the public debate that followed, no oversight agency, including the World Bank, the Ministry of Finance, NaFAA’s project office, or the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, has issued any report, finding, or statement indicating that she engaged in misconduct.

Glassco consistently maintained that all disbursements under the Liberia Sustainable Management of Fisheries Project were approved through the World Bank’s “no-objection” process and executed by the Ministry of Finance, which applied standard accountability controls. She said the expenditures were linked to project-mandated activities, such as procuring vehicles, motorcycles, generators, and other logistics used by NaFAA’s Project Implementation Unit.

She repeatedly dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and harmful to the reforms she initiated. Supporters have argued that the absence of any institutional finding reinforces her claim that she was unfairly targeted.