Liberia: RIA’s Relief In Sight?

Danesius Marteh, Director of Communication, Liberia Football Association 

The Roberts international airport (RIA) has been in the local and international news for the wrong reasons.  Due to a dark runway, a Royal Air Maroc flight was forced to abort its landing on February 20. Those onboard were dropped off in Freetown, Sierra Leone, however, the change left several passengers stranded at the RIA.

 And on March 28, President George Weah and scores of government officials were greeted with darkness upon their arrival at the RIA from the United Arab Emirates where they had gone to participate in the Dubai EXPO 2020.

Also, SN Brussels, one of the most consistent airlines from Europe to Monrovia, was forced to abort landing at RIA and return to Freetown due to a power outage at the airport and on the runway on April 27, 2022. The scary situation did not only cause panic among passengers on board but annoyed other passengers who were suddenly delayed at the RIA, waiting to board the flight for their respective destinations.

These embarrassing situation, many says is the result of poor leadership on the part of RIA management. And former Finance & Development Planning Minister, Amara Konneh has named someone who is capable of fixing the RIA problems. On April 5, Konneh urged President Weah to appoint Alex Cuffy, one of the founding members of the Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) to fix or repair the RIA. 

“Alex Cuffy, an internationally recruited financial controller (a CDCien, I must add), worked with the UP government and implemented a controls system to improve financial management. Between 2006 and 2009, Cuffy worked with Julius Dennis and Abraham Simmons, successive managing directors at RIA, to implement a series of reforms to make the airport viable again.

“They established financial controls that helped bolster the airport’s financial position, eliminated unnecessary workers, trained the remaining staff, wrote a complete operating manual, and purchased much-needed equipment with financial support from donors. 

“With these reforms, RIA met International Civil Aviation Organization standards, and US regulators approved the facility to handle flights to and from America. Results: major airlines like Delta, British Airways, Air France, etc., added RIA to their routes. I am not sure what Alex Cuffy’s current political affiliation is. Still, if we are serious about having a well-managed international airport by international standards, he is perhaps the best to do it. 

“Alex is a Liberian with strong managerial skills and experience with a deep understanding of systems, politics, and culture. I hope the regime will look beyond partisan politics on one of the most important strategic economic infrastructures in our land,” Konneh wrote. 

Cuffy was the Governance and Economic Management Assistance Program (GEMAP) internationally recruited financial controller at the RIA from 2006 to 2009.  GEMAP, introduced in September 2005, was in recognition of the fact that Liberia’s financial systems had broken down as a result of the civil war and needed considerable assistance to rebuild.

In an exclusive interview with UNMIL FOCUS magazine in January 2007, then-President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf acknowledged that GEMAP played a significant role in arresting corruption in Liberia and helped to improve accountability, transparency, and good practices. 

As part of the program, in key ministries, state-owned enterprises and public corporations, internationally-recruited experts worked with the Liberian leadership to establish transparent financial management systems, trained and built capacity of Liberians and reported openly on their operations, revenue collection and expenditures. 

The RIA was one of GEMAP’s success stories, recording nearly US$1 million in net profit in December 2006.  This was a sharp contrast to an RIA that could not even pay its employees or give staff their severance pay, recording a net loss of over US$548,000 at the end of 2005.

But Cuffy with Simmons as head sustained a positive cash flow by exceeding every target. It was a success story also recognized and praised by the United States Secretary of State Hilary Clinton on a visit to Liberia on 13 August 2009. 

“Some of the things that RIA could not do in the past, we are gradually doing now, including obtaining airport liability insurance, buying communications and other equipment for the airport, renovating staff accommodations, and so on,” Cuffy told UNMIL FOCUS magazine (December 2006 to February 2007 edition), attributing the positive achievements to the controls, policies, and procedures that were put in place at RIA. 

“Gone are the days when people were holding cash for days, transacting business in cash and without adequate support. All these controls that we have put in have made the process work to ensure that the monies that are generated by the airport are deposited into the bank. We have revamped the whole process and hope it will be sustained when we leave,” said Cuffy.

That was a hope for change, which is gradually fading away and returning the RIA to where it was before Cuffy and Simmons took the helm. And Cuffy thinks the RIA’s ongoing struggles need quick, robust, and timely interventions.  

“The airport needs someone, not necessarily an engineer, with a track record of turning an organization around, from mess to best. Aviation is such that you must have very limited people on the airside. You have to optimize. You have to review contracts and cancel somewhere necessary.  Dennis wasn’t an agent of change. That’s why Ellen removed him because he didn’t listen to the GEMAP financial controller. Simmons was the guy who helped me to turn things around,” said Cuffy, who resides in Dallas, Texas, United States of America.

Asked if he would accept an appointment from President Weah, Cuffy said: “Given the governance structure in Liberia today and where I am at in my profession and with my family, I will need to have a serious conversation with the president.”

“I must have a performance contract with the president as was done by Ellen. I must have unhindered access to meeting the president, who must provide the needed resources. I must have the flexibility to approach international partners and others for financing as I did in obtaining the needed funds from the US government to complete emergency works at the airport by 2009 that allowed Delta and other flights to come in. “The president must fire me if I don’t do my job because I am going to submit an eight to 10-year work plan, which will include a 90-day deliverable, a two-year plan till the end of the president’s tenure, and for the next six years. That will be developed within 90 days.” 

Cuffy has stood up for integrity at many places of work in Liberia, including at the RIA, Ministry of Agriculture, University of Liberia, and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU).  He was the first Director-General when the FIU was established as an autonomous agency by an act of the legislature in 2012 (approved on April 30, 2013, and published on May 2, 2013), as the central, national agency of Liberia responsible for receiving, requesting, conducting preliminary investigations, analyzing and disseminating information to competent authority concerning suspected proceeds of crime and terrorist property.

With the support of then-President Johnson-Sirleaf, legislature, and judiciary, Cuffy’s FIU formulated several laws and policies to deal with money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism [AML/CFT] in Liberia.  He took the FIU to leadership positions at ECOWAS’ inter-governmental action group against money laundering in West Africa (GIABA).

Under Cuffy’s leadership, the FIU gained recognition from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which is the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog, and the United States Treasury Department.