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the company had in previous years not reported any production
of diamonds.
The "Diamond Corporation of West Africa Ltd." in 1977 still
formed the nucleus of the Diamond Appraisal Office, though
a new agreement with the Government - upon the latter's
request - had been signed in 1973, and had in 1974 been approved
by President William Tolbert. The annual fee was reduced from
$ 30,000 to $ 25,000 a year, two Liberians were sent to London
where they underwent training in diamond appraisal (at the
company's expense), and the company accepted that a representative
of the Ministry of Lands and Mines (created in 1971 and which
includes the Diamond Appraisal Office) should be present at all
appraisals of diamonds (23). In 1977, the conditions in Liberia,
though improved, were very different and compared unfavourably
with those in Sierra Leone in the 1960's where De Beers had a
management contract with the Government for the management of
the Government Diamond Office, created in 1959 by the_ Sierra
Leone Government, and was the sole buyer and exporter of diamonds
under the Alluvial Diamond Mining Scheme (a government sponsored
programme by which Sierra Leoneans can mine and sell - to the
Government Diamond Office - diamonds on their own behalf). The
Sierra Leone Government controlled the Government Diamond Office
through an executive board of five members, three of whom were
appointed by the Government and the remaining two by the managing
company, the "Diamond Corporation of West Africa Ltd." (24).
Diamond mining concession policy and practices during the
Tolbert Administration
The continual granting of diamond mining concessions to
foreign investors during the Administration of President
William Tolbert appears in contradiction with the negative
impression of the country's potential diamond production as
given by previous concessionaires. Their evaluation of Liberia's
diamond.potential seems to have been (to say the least)
arbitrary. This is shown by the value of the diamond exports in
1972 and 1973, $ 31.7 million and $ 49.3 million respectively,
making diamonds the second most important export item of
Liberia, next to iron ore (25). One should, however, be
careful when analysing Liberian diamond export figures as the
smuggling of diamonds from Sierra Leone should be taken into
account =
On May 16, 1972 an agreement was signed by the then Minister
of Lands and Mines, James Y. Gbarbea, and S. Richard Stern,
President of the "Diamond Mining and Management Company Inc.",
a U.S.-company in which three Liberians also participated,
including President Tolbert's oldest son, A.B. Tolbert. The
then Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs, Burleigh
Holder, in a Memo to the President commented that "there are
Several worrying provisions from the point of view of the
law as well as benefits to be derived by the Government" (26)
and an improved agreement was drafted and signed on July 17,
1972. However, as the "Diamond Mining and Management Company"