Where is Grace Kpaan headed, now that – like her friend and guardian angel Mary Broh – she has presented her resignation to the Executive Mansion? The Executive Mansion disclosed that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf accepted the resignation of suspended Montserrado County Superintendent, Grace T. Kpaan, as she did Mary Broh’s over the weekend. Superintendent Kpaan resigned yesterday, March 7.
As she did with Mary Broh, the President thanked the former Superintendent for her service to country, and wished her well in what she undertakes to do next. Information Minister Lewis Brown relayed that information to the public at the Information Ministry’s weekly press briefing yesterday.
But the President fell short of assigning Grace to a new position. And, maybe, correctly so: Ellen has her hands full taking some flack over her readiness to put the nation’s “get the job done” legend – Mary Broh – back to work, instead of wasting time trying to please those that were unhappy that the former acting mayor was showing them up as simply sitting at their desks, doing little or nothing but waiting for the month to end to collect their paychecks.
So, might Grace Kpaan find herself on the road to the Omega Village later on, to give her friend and defender a much-needed hand in getting the new Omega Village underway? Don’t rule that out, some of those we talked to have been saying; in other words: it can happen!
The latest development in the Kpaan-Broh saga really didn’t come as such a shock to many in the public, since, in fact, there had been numerous calls for the former Superintendent to step down. Such pressure became more intense following the resignation of controversial Mary Broh, former Acting Monrovia City Mayor.
The argument had been that Mary dared to stand in solidarity with Grace and didn’t stop to worry about where that bold step would have landed her. And since it ended up costing Mary her job, it was now Superintendent Kpaan’s turn to dare to stand in solidarity with her peer, who braved the storm for her (former Supt. Kpaan) cause, many in the public have lectured.
Members of the House of Representatives on February 21 climaxed a long-lasting rigmarole between the former superintendent and members of the Montserrado County Legislative Caucus over reported misappropriations of the County’s development funds.
The tussle between Superintendent Kpaan and the legislators started in early January when plenary summoned her, Internal Affairs Minister Blamoh Nelson and Montserrado County Development Superintendent Sylvester Lamah to appear and give account of the status of the County Development Fund (CDF), scholarships for students in the county and other issues about Montserrado.
The three officials did appear and during that hearing, Supt. Kpaan admitting violating the budget laws by expending funds from the county without the approval of the County’s Legislative Caucus, the Minister of Internal Affairs and other relevant authorities.
That moved plenary to demand that Madam Kpaan arranged and made full payment of scholarships for students of the 17 electoral districts of the county. She was also instructed to cough up over US$50,000 that she reportedly “single-handedly expended from the county’s coffers.” Supt Kpaan was as well asked to bring back the County’s Project Management Committee chair she had dismissed.
However, at that Thursday hearing [on February 21], plenary voted that Madam Kpaan failed to deliver on the instructions from that body and, as such, there was a need to hold her in contempt, though they did not and still have not shown how her inaction disrupted or interfered with any proceedings of theirs---the only real grounds for exercising the ‘power of contempt’ by any branch of government so empowered by the Constitution. Plenary then voted overwhelmingly to “sentence” Madam Kpaan for what the House claimed, believed and explained as acts that the national assembly considered “unacceptable to legislative practices.”
The former Superintendent was sent to the Monrovia Central Prison where she would spend three days; but the imprisonment did not happen.
Members of the House of Representatives were acting in line with Article 44 of the 1986 Constitution, according to them. Article 44 states that “Contempt of the Legislature shall consist of actions which obstruct the legislative functions or which obstruct or impede members or officers of the Legislature in the discharge of their legislative duties and may be punished by the House concerned by reasonable sanctions after a hearing consistent with due process of law.”
According to the legislators, Madam Kpaan’s action had prevented them from doing whatever they do. However they did not tell the public how she had impeded (retarded, hindered or obstructed) the progress of their deliberative process, much less how she had set back the House’s progress. Just the same, they decided that the Superintendent deserved to be punished.
Superintendent Kpaan was escorted to jail by the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House, Gen. Martin Johnson, at about 6 p.m. on Thursday. But her incarceration didn’t happen. By the time the Sergeant-At-Arms and Kpaan arrived at the prison compound, Mary Broh, backed by some influential women, prevented the imprisonment of the former Superintendent by making away with her.
In response of this move on the part of the pair, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf immediately suspended them for time indefinite. Still, the prevention of the incarceration of Kpaan by Broh prompted an outraged plenary to declare both Broh and Kpaan “wanted fugitives and non-governmental materials:” The House gave the President a four-day ultimatum to dismiss the duo or her legislative agenda would be rejected by the Legislature.
In less than week, following the issuance of that ultimatum, Mary Broh tendered her letter of resignation to President Johnson Sirleaf. It took Kpaan another four days to follow suit; she, too, resigned her post.
Meanwhile, both ex-officials have filed separate writs of prohibition before the Supreme Court against the Legislature for denying them what they termed ‘due process of law’. The Supreme Court will be looking into the petitions on Saturday, March 9.
With an assist from Keith Neville A. Best
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