What’s in Tarlue’s envelope? 

By Lincoln G. Peters 

Central Bank of Liberia Executive Governor-Designate Henry F. Saamoi discloses that the Government of Liberia has fully paid off his predecessor, suspended Governor J. Aloysius Tarlue, for his unexpired tenure but is tight-lipped on the amount. 

President Boakai suspended Governor Tarlue following an audit report that links the Central Bank to unapproved or illegal withdrawal of funds. The President did not want him back in the Bank despite him being a tenure official. Tarlue ran to court to compel the government to pay him off, including the remaining years of his tenure.

Now, it has been disclosed and confirmed that the embattled executive governor got what he wanted, but the public is yet to know how much he received from the government.   

Making the disclosure on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, during the senate confirmation hearing, Acting Governor Saamoi said President Joseph N. Boakai settled Mr. Tarlue, something he says prompted the outgoing governor to withdraw a lawsuit filed against the government from the court. 

“So, the Government of Liberia or the Bank settled or paid out former Governor J. Aloysius Tarlue, who the President suspended for his unexpired terms. This process allows me to officially take over the Bank to end the tenure of Aloysius Tarlue if confirmed by the senate”, the incoming Governor explains before the committee on banking and finance. 

Mr. Saamoi extols President Joseph N. Boakai, Sr., for the trust and confidence reposed in him to lead the Central Bank of Liberia during this period.

“We believe we are confident that we are prepared to lead the CBL team of professional technocrats to manage and achieve the CBL’s objectives of price stability, financial sector stability and support the government’s economic agenda for inclusive growth as enshrined in the CBL Act of 1999, and as amended and restated in 2020”, he vows. 

According to him, over the last few months at the CBL in his acting capacity, they have identified several critical areas and challenges of the CBL, including limited reserves, non-compliance with policies and procedures, as well as corporate governance challenges, as detailed in the GAC Compliance Audit Report, low level of technological enhancements leading to vulnerabilities, and other operational risks, and risk to price and financial stability. 

He said as part of efforts to remedy some of the GAC findings, they immediately commenced restructuring and fully constituting critical committees of the Bank to enhance operational effectiveness and efficiency. 

“These included the Monetary Policy, Compliance & Risk Management, Financial Stability, and Procurement Committees, among others. We also immediately began addressing all the issues and recommendations of the GAC and other audit reports. In line with our vision to transform the CBL and to become one of the model central banks in the sub-region, we have developed a new Strategic Plan (2025-2029),” Mr. Saamoi adds. 

He explains that the new SP is fully aligned with the ARREST Agenda with the overarching goals of achieving operational efficiency, promoting macroeconomic stability, promoting digitalization of the financial system and financial inclusion, as well as regional integration, adding “Our medium-term goal is to transition the Liberian economy into a cashless economy.” 

“One key risk we will continue to monitor closely is cybercrime, as we tighten controls to ensure digitization is more secure. The intensification of our internal control environment, as envisaged in our new strategic plan, will reduce operational losses over the years. The draft strategic Plan has been reviewed and shared with our partners and stakeholders for their review and insightful comments. We plan to launch the new plan by February 2025.”  

Outlining his achievement in the interim period, the incoming Governor said on August 1, 2024, they have made several gains from the economic, internal governance, operations, and multilateral relations perspectives in the face of many challenges. 

Governor Saamoi says they have managed to keep average inflation in a single digit from 8.5% at the end of July 2024 to 8% for the period August to December 2024; “We moved the month of import cover from less than 2.5 months to 2.8 months at the end of December 2024 and increase the net international reserves to about US$234.5M from about US$199M as at the end of July 2024”, he further details.

He said besides, they had sustained relative stability and soundness of the banking system, ensuring that capital adequacy and liquidity ratios remained above the regulatory thresholds. 

“We deepened our engagements with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, resulting in the payments of over US$4M to commercial banks as part of the government’s long outstanding obligations with the aim of re-building confidence in government’s commitment to service its obligations, which is important for the development of the debt and financial markets.”  

On the monetary policy side, Saamoi continues that they have set up a monetary policy committee (MPC) to support the Bank’s monetary policy decisions. 

“In light of the current moderation in inflation rate, and to support economic activity, the Committee recently adjusted the monetary policy rate (MPR) in December 2024 from 17.5 percent to 17 percent with the aim of managing the Liberian dollar liquidity in the economy; regarding the operational achievements, we have successfully reduced the wage bill of the Bank through a staff rationalization exercise”, he informs the senate. Editing by Jonathan Browne