The_Open_Door_deel1

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(1) None of the Liberian lawyers hired by the about forty logging
companies had been recruited by means of advertisements in
the local newspapers. Their employment or working
relationship with these companies had been mainly based on
personal and/or political relationships (see Chapter 9,
notably Annexes 19 and 20).
(2) Another example is provided by the employment of a former
Deputy Director of Police, John Payne Tucker, by the LAMCO
J.V. In 1976 John Tucker had been sentenced to seven years
imprisonment because of his participation in a counterfeit
money gang but the following year he was employed by LAMCO
in an important position (12). (John P. Tucker's brother,
Gabriel J. Tucker, was Minister of Public Works and married
to Wilhelmina Tubman, only child of the late President
Tubman and Mrs. Antoinette Padmore Tubman. His sister, Mrs.
Leona Tucker Chesson, had been married to a well-known
Liberian lawyer, Joseph F. Chesson - nicknamed Liberia's
Perry Mason - who was to play an important role at the end of
the 197O's as Minister of Justice). The case of John Payne
Tucker unfortunately is not unique though it does represent
an extreme example of using political pressure and relations
by the political elite in order to have relatives and/or
friends appointed in foreign companies.
It is important to refer here to an expatriate Bong Mining
Company staff member, of the company's Personnel Planning
Office, who in an interview admitted that top government
officials always, seemed to have someone who needed
employment (13). The author of a study on the relations
between the Bong Mining Company and Liberia/the Liberian
Government concluded that this mining company and other
concessionaires were viewed by those in power as an
extension of the political patronage system. In this system
jobs are rewards for political support (14)-
As the political elite is formed by Americo-Liberians and their
allies of tribal origin it is not surprising to find many
Americo-Liberians - with close relations with the ruling clan -
in important (staff) positions within the foreign companies. An
attempt to conduct a thorough investigation on the subject failed
owing to the unwillingness of these companies to co-operate (15).
Nevertheless, the examples are numerous. It is worth mentioning
that most of these positions were administrative and/or
managerial ones, technical positions not being aspired to by
most Americo-Liberians - most of whom would not qualify for them,
anyway. It thus appears that those Americo-Liberians who had
received a certain education or training but who upon their
return (from studies abroad) could not be absorbed by the
country's political and administrative system were given wellpaid
jobs with the concessionaires as a reward for their
political support of or their alliance with the Tolbert
Administration - which in 1973 had introduced this
"Liberianization Policy". The concessionaires thus became a
parking place for Americo-Liberians and tribal Liberians who were