The_Open_Door_deel1

-292-
County which agreement was approved by President Tolbert on
February 5, 1974- Though the Deputy Minister of Finance, Edwin
Williams, acting on behalf of his Minister in a letter to the
Minister of Agriculture (August 30, 1974) acknowledged that
JLAO's concession agreement pre-dated Matro's - and subsequently
entitled the company to the disputed area - the decision which
was finally taken was in favour of Matro (68). In 1978 H.
Grigsby, President of Matro Company, operated by the Liberian
Industrial Timber Enterprises under a management contract (see
the preceeding section on the complexity of the forestry sector),
reported to the Concessions Sectretariat of the Ministry of
Finance that Matro Logging Company had never gone into
production and he subsequently revoked the agreement.
The "Sayeh-case" is important as it had strong political
implications in the Liberian context. If it had been a mere case
of conflicts of interest its significance would have been much
less than It was now. However, (i) the fact that Sayeh (as well
as Togba Sr. and the others) were of tribal origin and (ii) the
way those in power (representing the Americo-Liberian elite)
reacted give this case its particular significance.
On June 20, 1974, the Coordinator of the Concessions Secretariat,
John Woods, recommended to his Minister, who was at the same
time Chairman of the Concession & Investment Commission, to
invalidate the four Concession Agreements (with BALCO, LOVCO,
Tripple Enterprises & JLAO) for involvement of the principal
officials of the Bureau of Forestry (69). It is worth mentioning
here that when the management of the African Fruit Company, owned
by the Minister of Finance, In the same period claimed a
concession area of over 1 million acres - although the agreement
granted an area of "only" 600,000 acres - (see Chapter 4) nobody
in the Concessions Secretariat reacted.
The fact that the confrontation Sayeh & Togba vs. the Government
was a political one is very clearly demonstrated by the following
extracts from two letters. One was written by the Minister of
Justice, Clarence Simpson, to his very close friend Stephen A.
Tolbert, Minister of Finance. In this letter, dated May 23, 1974
Simpson reacted on a request^of JLAO International Inc. to add
the optional area (Area "B") to its concession area. He wrote:
"(...) I have reviewed the (...) Addendum and found some
to be in order legally. However, I would advise that, in
executing this Addendum, Government should take in consideration
the fact that Mr. Alfred Sayeh, former Assistant
Minister of Agriculture for 7orestry, who was dismissed
due to conflict of interest in some of these Timber
companies, is a shareholder of J.LAO Enterprises Inc.,
and in arriving at a decision to grant the request of
that company for additional 200,000 acres of forest land,
you may' want to take into account the degree of influence
which this official's position might have had on the selection
and granting of this additional area" (70).