Proving Tilman Collins Dead Wrong – Part II

The $8,000 travel and entertainment Saga

By Gibson W. Jerue

Before I proceed in discussing the controversy about the alleged $8,335 allotted to administrative and board use, I would like to lay a very significant premise here. That has to with “truth” and “facts”. In communication or say journalism truth and facts are not the same. Rather than defining them to bore you with journalistic jargon, I will give two examples that will make it abundantly understood. Example 1) The newspaper writes: Dolokan steals $20.00, and ex. 2: Pieces of evidence available show that Dolokan stole $18.98. Let say Dolokan admitted to stealing $18.98 and not $20.00.

Example 1 reports the truth that Dolokan actually stole money. Simply put, it is a simple “truth” Dolokan stole money, but the fact is wrong. Example two shows the fact in example one is wrong and should have been $18.98. So, if Dolokan decides to sue for defamation, he will lose the case. Why? Simple! In media law and ethics, truth is the defense of libel. Dolokan—not the newspaper—has the burden to prove that the newspaper publish the story with malice. In ordinary criminal case, it would be the newspaper having the burden of proof. Most difficult is that to prove malice, the “truth” must be absent. That is Dolokan did not steal at all. If Dolokan stole money and as close the two figures are, the court will throw the case outside against Dolokan and the newspaper will walk out in victory. That is why many people lose libel cases a lot in court.

Having said that, the RUSHing administration of Mr. Tilman Collins was wailing all over the Voice of Gedeh and the world the other day that allegations against his administration of allotting $8,335 were far from true. Mr. Collins depended on a negligible fact that of the $8,335 the administration actually enshrined in the budget and did get the amount of $6,400.00 for an ambiguous reason of “travel and entertainment”. That $6,400 is 77 percent of the $8,335, meaning only 23 percent of the amount goes for Board use.

So where is the denial coming from? This president is brave enough to ask for $6,400 for travel and entertainment! Ask yourself a question. When this president travels what does he bring back to replenish the coffers? He claimed to have traveled 15 times from his own pocket. How come the expenditure report shows the money was used? What did he use it for? If $8,335 was set aside for a cloudy administrative and board use, how come the president requested for a separate amount of money to extend Mr. Eric Kohn’s ticket while in Monrovia? What are we thinking about when the president will be using nearly $700 for entertainment and travel? What kind of entertainment are we talking about? Does the GGAA take pleasure in lavishing money on the president attending parties that bring back nothing to the coffers?

For those who ate Mr. Collins’ rice and must dance his dance, they could throw these begging questions into the streets. But if we all must get rid of business as usual, we must be concerned how our leaders use the little money that we have that came from the hot sweat of our people. The people of Grand Gedeh do not pay for presidents to go partying and traveling all over the place without bringing back good for good. Is this the administration that some people are putting their neck on the chopping board to re-elect?

I leaped recently with joy when I heard Mr. Fred Gwyan said he was going to safe the Association the $8,335. One of the reasons it is good to save the Association this amount is Mr. Collins has used all the money he allotted to himself, but he told Grand Gedeans that all the travels he did in 2011 and 2012 was paid from his pocket or paid by some other people. In effect, we will have $8,335 extracted from the coffers and Mr. Collins and his select “lovie-lovie” board members will be bragging they paid for their own travels and entertainment. Watch out for part III.