Official Thieves: Liberian Customs Extortion Scheme

Finance Minister Amara Konneh - Presiding over a rogue ministry and customs

A Government represents the interest of the people. It protects the citizenry and provides opportunity for social, economic and political growth among the people. The social contract that binds the governors and the governed does not only mandate the governors to put the people first, but it also makes a clear distinction between what goes for the people and for aliens. It is that distinction that makes the citizens to feel a sense of belonging to the state.

But this whole thing about protecting the people, providing them with opportunity for growth, seeking their wellbeing, etc. are not parts of the government of Liberia’s priority. The Liberian government’s policies, actions and operations clearly place the people at a disadvantage. When the price of a bag of rice is sky-rocketing, when young girls are reverting to prostitution due to poverty, when young men are looking up to armed robbery as a means of survival, when unemployment is taking an upward steep, when infant mortality is increasing, when aliens are having free ride, all the Sirleaf administration is concerned about is to institute an administrative policy regulation that seeks to punish citizens because they brought vehicles older than ten years into the country. My family was victimized by the official thieves are the Freeport of Monrovia Customs Collectorate, when they double taxed my four vehicles and every item in a container my wife and I had transported to Monrovia. Here is how.

Review of facts I, II and III
Again let’s review previous facts. It is now established that the Customs officers at the Freeport of Monrovia, led by a greedy woman identified as Amanda Roberts, overcharged my Ford Explorer. The Customs taxed my Ford Explorer twice, and after all the calculations, the government of Liberia owes me $832.07 on the Ford.

READ ARTICLE – FACT I

The Customs also overtaxed my Toyota Pickup, and after the calculations it was also established that the government owes me an additional 549.57. The total of what the government owes me on the Ford Explorer and the Toyota is $1,381.64, representing the total overtax amount.

READ ARTICLE – FACT II

But that is all. Additionally, the government also overtaxed my Nissan Pickup. After charging my Nissan twice I realized that the government taxed $579.28 more than we should have been charged. So if you add that to the amount owed my family on the Ford Explorer and Toyota, the total would be $1960.92. This amount is the excess of the money my wife paid on three vehicles (Ford Explorer, Toyota Pickup and Nissan Pickup).
READ ARTICLE – FACT III

Fact IV: Over-taxing My Ford Contour
Now that we have reviewed the previous articles, let look at how the government of Liberia punished my family when it levied huge tax twice on my Ford Contour Sedan. I like to interject here that one of the reasons they heavily overtaxed the Ford Contour is because my wife called it “Sedan”. The Customs officers who appraised the vehicle considered “sedan” to be some kind of heavy jeep or (truck as we call it in the US). Every time my wife made the correction that a sedan was not a jeep, the officers would argue it is. So they levied huge tax on it, not once but twice. At this time, the customs officers were not only charging the Ford sedan based on the age, but also because it is a “sedan”, and in their understanding, a sedan is a big vehicle in the jeep family. As you may know, all the while, the container was not yet opened for them to see the kind of vehicles in it. They were acting based on the bill of landing, which has on it the names of the vehicles and their make and model.

READ ARTICLE WITH EVIDENCE HERE

On December 27, 2013, the Customs charged $403.18 for my Ford Contour Sedan. Upon submission of the receipt to Amanda Roberts at the Freeport, she snapped. Amanda hearing Ford Contour Sedan, she said it was a valuable vehicle so it needed to be taxed more. The previous charged was based on the Kelly Blue Book value of $2106. In my mind and by the value, the first levy was fair.

But just before my wife could leave her office, Amanda told her, “I will add more money.” Again, as my wife tried to argue that it was unfair to continue to levy double charges on her vehicles, the Customs Collector threatened that she may lose her whole container if she did not pay the second levy. And that levied was twice the previous amount - $1,156.57. This latest tax levy was not based on any value. Certainly it was not ten percent of $2106, neither was it even twenty percent, just in case Amanda was levying a second 20 percent. The total amount paid on the Ford Contour was $1559.75. Since the vehicle was within the 20% punitive tax range, it was expected that the total tax amount would have been $631.80. That means the Customs levy the first ten percent and another 20 percent. As it is the government of Liberia owes my family $927.95.

Now let’s see how much the Government of Liberia crooked my family of. Add $927.95 to $1960.92, the total over taxed amount was $2,888.87. This amount is what the government owes my family, and we want this money back.

Now that we have concluded our presentation of the facts and documents on the four vehicles in the container, I will present to you how the Customs at the Freeport overcharged every item in the container. In fact, each of the items was charged twice. Even the one stereo tape set my wife carried to put in our house for our personal used was taxed twice. But after they taxed it and we paid, the same Customs officers stole it plus other items, making us to lose huge number of our person effects.

The question is, with this punitive tax regulation, couple with the blatant over taxing of our materials, is the government working in Liberians’ interest? I will tell why the government decided to treat my wife that way. Well, she carried my last name, so it was obvious. Let’s connect the dots later after the facts are presented to the public.