MONROVIA — Former General Services Agency (GSA) Deputy Director General for Operations Edris Bility has told Criminal Court “C” that records from the agency show all 5,000 bags of Saudi-donated rice released for pre-positioning at the Gbarnga Regional Hub were signed for and taken out of the GSA warehouse.
Bility made the statement Tuesday, September 29, while testifying in the ongoing trial involving the alleged mismanagement of Saudi-donated rice.
He identified 10 gate passes covering the release of the rice between April 12 and April 26, 2023.
According to Bility, each gate pass carried signatures from GSA warehouse staff, security, an NDMA representative and the driver transporting the rice. The documents also listed Gbarnga Regional Hub as the destination.
“As per our 10 gate passes dated April 12, 2023, to April 26, 2023 wholeheartedly indicates that the NDMA received, signed for, and transported 5000 bags of rice out of the premises of the GSA,” Bility told the court.
The court was shown the gate passes, which included quantities of rice released on different dates.
The first pass, dated April 12, showed 500 bags of 25-kilogram rice bags released to the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), leaving a balance of 4,500 bags.
Another 500 bags were released on April 13, followed by additional releases on subsequent dates until the balance reached zero with the final 250 bags released on April 26.
The documents were later marked by the court as 2D/1-in-bulk, containing 22 sheets, and Bility confirmed them as the same documents he had identified during his testimony.
But the testimony came against evidence already presented in court that the 5,000 bags did not reach the Gbarnga Regional Hub.
Former NDMA Executive Director Henry O. Williams had testified that records showed the rice was removed from the GSA warehouse but did not reach the intended hub.
Williams told the court that the situation led then Foreign Minister Dee-Maxwell Saah Kemayan to call officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, GSA and NDMA to an urgent meeting at the GSA.
Bility, however, maintained that his responsibility ended with the storage and release of the rice after the required documents were presented and signed.
He said the GSA had a system requiring designated officials to sign before government supplies could leave its warehouse.
“At the GSA, we don’t release items except that those to whom the items are being delivered are present and are made to sign,” he testified.
Bility also rejected the allegation in the amended indictment that he and co-defendant Augustine Tamba squandered 4,000 of the 5,000 bags.
He described the allegation as false and said he never took any of the rice.
“I, Edris Bility in my capacity then as Deputy Director General for Operations (DDGO) of the GSA, and even after that did not steal and could not have stolen a grain of rice as stated in the Indictment,” he said.
Bility said the GSA’s role was limited to warehousing, storage and facilitating the release of government supplies.
“We did not exceed our orders and our statutory responsibility,” he told the court.
The former GSA official also became emotional while explaining the personal impact of the case, recounting how his young daughter was told that he had stopped taking her to school because he had been taken to court for stealing rice.
He told the court that the incident caused him to break down in tears.
Bility ended his testimony by maintaining that the records presented in court support his position that the rice was properly released.
“We were providing warehousing, we were authorized to release the rice, the rice was signed for, gate passes available and with God above, we shall obtain a not guilty verdict,” he said.
The trial is continuing before Criminal Court “C,” with the prosecution alleging that thousands of bags of Saudi-donated rice were mismanaged or could not be properly accounted for. The defendants have denied wrongdoing.
