Published: October 1, 2026
Monrovia – The 5,000 bags of Saudi-donated rice that never reached the National Disaster Management Agency’s Gbarnga hub are what prompted the government to move 13,895 more bags into General Services Agency custody, former Internal Affairs Minister Varney A. Sirleaf testified Wednesday at Criminal Court ‘C’, where prosecutors have treated the transfer as unauthorized.
Sirleaf, a defendant in the case, told the court that an inter-agency technical team reported on April 27, 2023, that the NDMA warehouse was poorly ventilated and its rice improperly stacked, making an accurate inventory difficult. The same report raised questions about the 5,000 bags reportedly sent toward Gbarnga, he said.
He said he then wrote Mary T. Broh, then director general of the GSA, asking that authorities suspend further distribution while they examined the situation.
Sirleaf also disputed the arithmetic behind the indictment, which alleges that 25,054 of the 29,412 bags Saudi Arabia donated were diverted or unlawfully distributed. The government values the alleged diversion at about US$425,918.
A prosecution witness earlier testified that the 13,895 bags were added to 11,200 bags already stored at GSA, bringing GSA’s holdings to about 25,095 bags, with a discrepancy of 41 bags. Sirleaf put the stock already at GSA at about 6,200 bags, which he said brought the total under GSA custody to about 20,095. The difference between the two accounts is 5,000 bags, the size of the Gbarnga consignment.
Sirleaf questioned how investigators could add the 13,895 bags moved to GSA to the 11,200 bags to reach 25,054, set aside the 5,000 bags pre-positioned for Gbarnga, and conclude that the defendants stole the rice. He also disputed testimony that NDMA at one point held 25,000 bags of the donation.
An audit commissioned after the technical assessment produced a report dated June 7, 2023 that raised concerns about transparency surrounding the pre-positioning of the 5,000 bags, Sirleaf said.
With disaster conditions continuing in Monrovia and other parts of the country, he said, he wrote Broh on July 3, 2023 authorizing distribution to resume under a protocol requiring requests from disaster-affected areas to be directed to NDMA. The 13,895 bags were subsequently moved from NDMA to the GSA warehouse, he said.
Sirleaf said 17,814 bags were authorized for distribution to identified recipients, with approval letters accompanying the deliveries.
A prosecution witness from NDMA testified earlier in the trial that the Gbarnga shipment never arrived and that the largest quantity he personally received during the period was 280 bags. Sirleaf did not dispute that the delivery failed.
He rejected prosecution testimony that he decided alone to move the rice and that NDMA Board members were unaware of it. He said the board is made up of representatives of ministries and agencies and that, as internal affairs minister, he was its statutory chair, responsible for setting policy direction and working with the NDMA executive director, who serves as board secretary, to convene meetings.
With the country facing disasters and approaching the 2023 elections, Sirleaf said, arranging a formal board meeting could have taken months and left the rice exposed to further risk.
He said the NDMA executive director was fully involved and that the agency took part in the inter-agency decision. He described portions of prosecution witness Atty. Kumeh’s account of the transfer and distribution as erroneous and unfounded.
Sirleaf said former Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayah told him that Saudi Arabia intended to donate about US$500,000 worth of rice, 29,412 bags, and sought his involvement to ensure it reached the intended beneficiaries. The Saudi side selected its own local vendors for rebagging without his involvement as board chair, he said, and his first significant involvement was the symbolic handover.
He said he later joined Kemayah and a Saudi delegation on visits to the NDMA and GSA warehouses after Saudi representatives became concerned about where the rice was stored. At NDMA, the representatives raised concerns about ventilation, he said. At GSA, they expressed satisfaction with the storage conditions.
Sirleaf said the original audit report on the monitoring and donation of the rice was intended to remain with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that he received only a copy for decision-making.
Broh testified Monday that the transfer was carried out under an interagency mandate rather than for personal benefit. Former NDMA Executive Director Henry O. Williams previously testified that he authorized 185 bags for agency employees who had helped unload, transport, and store the rice, and denied stealing thousands of bags as alleged. The defense has also introduced video footage of rice distributions.
The defendants face charges including theft of property, economic sabotage, misapplication of entrusted property, abuse of office and criminal conspiracy. Prosecutors allege a scheme to take unauthorized control of the humanitarian rice and divert it from disaster victims.
Sirleaf said the indictment had damaged his 18-year public-service record and his relationships with international friends, and that officials who voluntarily submitted to the investigation should not be portrayed as having deliberately stolen humanitarian assistance. He said the allegation that he and his co-defendants stole the rice was untrue.
The trial continues before Criminal Court ‘C’.
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