Published: August 23, 2026
MONROVIA – The University of Liberia’s finance chief, the official faculty and staff member blamed for the payroll purge that shut the campuses down, has resigned days before the semester is due to open, leaving the university’s finances under a comptroller who now holds both jobs.
By Lennart Dodoo
Dr. Lester Tenny submitted his resignation as vice president for finance via email. UL President Dr. Layli Maparyan informed the university cabinet, the Internal Audit Department, and her own office staff in a memorandum. She named Comptroller Togar M. Gibson acting vice president for finance and fiscal affairs, effective immediately.
“Yesterday, I received a letter via email from Dr. Lester Tenny resigning from the post of Vice President for Finance,” Maparyan wrote. “In response to this departure, I have appointed Mr. Togar M. Gibson as Acting Vice President for Finance and Fiscal Affairs.”
Gibson will hold both posts at once while the university’s governing body is consulted.
“During this time of transition, Mr. Gibson will continue to serve as both VPF and Comptroller until the Board of Trustees can be consulted about the way forward,” the memorandum said. “Please direct your communications and concerns about any finance-related issue to Mr. Gibson, effective immediately, and please share this information with your networks.”
The memorandum gives no reason for Tenny’s departure, does not say when it takes effect, does not say whether Maparyan accepted it, and does not address whether Tenny remains on the faculty. Maparyan closed by thanking Gibson “for his willingness to serve in this capacity.”
Tenny’s exit removes the single official the University of Liberia Faculty and Staff Association had most directly targeted in the standoff that has kept faculty and staff off all campuses since July. At a joint general assembly at the Fendall campus on July 17, faculty and staff passed a vote of no confidence in Maparyan and extended it to Tenny, then acting vice president for finance and fiscal affairs, and to Associate Vice President for Human Resources Reginald Gaye. Among ULFASA’s demands is an audit of the university’s financial system.
The university’s financial management under Tenny was serious enough for President Joseph Boakai to intervene. After mediating between the two sides at his Paynesville residence on Aug. 15, Boakai announced a special committee to investigate the university’s financial management system, which ULFASA has alleged was compromised after Tenny took the job. The committee’s membership and timetable have not been disclosed.
Tenny has consistently said the campaign against him was retaliation for cleaning the payroll, which he described as removing not only ghost names but also full-time UL employees who hold full-time positions at other ministries, agencies, and concession companies.
“I will not encourage double-dipping under my leadership as VPFA. You will decide where you want to work. We have over 800 adjuncts with double master’s and PhDs, but they are not added to the payroll because of faculty members who have double jobs,” Tenny told The Liberian Investigator, adding, “This will not work under my current fiscal priorities.”
During a Facebook podcast appearance, Tenny linked his departure to the retirement exercise that made him a target and said he was stepping down from the vice presidency, not from the university.
“I initiated the whole process with the retirement, which made me very unpopular. Because I was the Vice President of Finance, I needed to address that issue,” he said. “Doing the right thing in this country makes you unpopular. However, we have to do the right thing.”
“Resigning from the university after I have achieved my deliverables shouldn’t be a problem. I’m a full-time professor, so I’m a faculty who teach. I’m resigning the position as vice president,” he said.
The retirement plan Tenny referred to has been contested since it surfaced in September 2025, when Maparyan confirmed to the Liberian Senate Committee on Education that the university was retiring more than 203 faculty members. Critics said the list included professors who had not yet reached the statutory retirement age of 60, including former Central Bank Governor Dr. J. Mills Jones, Prof. S. Morris Cooper, and Prof. Wilson Tarpeh, and argued the exercise was intended to clear space for new appointees.
Tenny came to the finance post through a route ULFASA has also disputed. After taking office in January 2025, Maparyan appointed him to act as vice president for fiscal affairs and finance, then advertised the position. Tenny applied, underwent vetting, and secured the position. Faculty and staff leaders have argued that he should not have applied while acting in the same role, but they have not supported this objection with a cited rule.
Gibson inherits the books at the moment of maximum pressure. The Board of Trustees has directed the administration to reopen the university on Aug. 25 and to demonstrate visible progress on employee grievances before doing so, while ULFASA’s press release following the Boakai mediation instructed members to refrain from academic and administrative duties until it sees evidence of implementation.
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