12/31/2025
Burden of Proof: Mo Ali Must Substantiate Every Claim
Mo Ali is not a court of law, yet he has chosen to make criminal-style accusations in the public space. Once an individual alleges theft, illegality, and prosecution, the burden of proof rests entirely with the accuser. That burden is not satisfied by emphatic formatting or political rhetoric; it requires verifiable documents, specific dates, named institutions, identifiable decision-makers, case numbers, and supporting evidence. Without these, such claims do not inform the public, they mislead it. The guiding principle is straightforward: Mo Ali made the claims, therefore Mo Ali must prove them. If he cannot produce receipts, records, and legally cognizable facts, then the allegations amount to propaganda rather than accountability.
With respect to the claim that US$6 million was “stolen” under a security operation and that Samuel Tweah and others are “being prosecuted,” the evidentiary burden is especially high. Mo Ali must identify the specific security operation by name, state its official mandate and purpose, and disclose who authorized the expenditure, including the approving authority and documented signatures. He must trace the flow of funds by identifying the originating account, the recipients, any vendors or intermediaries involved, and the relevant banking details. Most critically, the assertion that individuals are “being prosecuted” requires proof in the form of court records: the name of the court, case caption, case number, filing date, charges, and publicly available indictment information. Absent such documentation, the use of the word “stolen” is unjustified and must be replaced with “alleged.” Publicly asserting criminal conduct without proof is reckless. The allegation that US$83 million was “illegally” taken from the Central Bank of Liberia to pay civil servants for December 2023 similarly demands precision and legal grounding. “Illegal” is not an opinion—it is a legal conclusion.
Mo Ali must therefore specify the nature of the transaction, whether it was a loan, overdraft, bridge financing, advance, or liquidity support mechanism. He must cite the exact statutory provision allegedly violated, whether under the CBL Act, the Public Financial Management Act, or another governing law. He must also produce the documentary trail, including any Ministry of Finance request, CBL board action or response, payment instructions, and reconciliation records. If the funds were intended for December 2023 salaries, payroll evidence must be provided to show whether salaries were paid and whether the amount aligns with payroll totals. Finally, if the transaction was illegal, Mo Ali must show enforcement action, such as a regulatory finding or court ruling. Without a cited law, a documented breach, and an authoritative finding, the term “illegal” becomes a political insult rather than a fact.
The claim that US$5 million was “mismanaged” during a mop-up exercise suffers from vagueness. “Mismanaged” is a catch-all term that avoids specificity. Mo Ali must identify which mop-up exercise he is referring to, including its date, objectives, and design. He must name the implementing officials or team, rather than making generalized accusations. He must define what “mismanaged” means in this context—whether the funds were lost, stolen, unaccounted for, improperly procured, or simply associated with an ineffective policy outcome. Most importantly, he must produce an audit finding, whether from the General Auditing Commission, an internal audit, or an independent review. Without an audit or formal finding, labeling an expenditure as “mismanaged” is nothing more than accusation by adjective. Finally, the assertion that civil servant salaries were drastically reduced under harmonization and are now being gradually reversed is a claim that is fully measurable and therefore fully provable. Mo Ali must state how many workers were affected, by what percentage, and across which categorie; teachers, nurses, security personnel, clerks, or others, supported by a breakdown by ministry and pay grade.
He must clarify whether harmonization targeted ghost names and payroll fraud or resulted in cuts to legitimate workers, supported by payroll-cleanup evidence. If salaries are indeed being “reversed,” proof must be provided in the form of policy circulars, budget allocations, implementation timelines, and evidence of employees whose pay has already been restored. Claims of reversal without payroll data and funding sources are merely rhetorical. There is one uniform standard that must apply to all of Mo Ali’s allegations. For each claim, he must provide the source document, the relevant date, the amount involved and its account trail, the authorizing authority, the recipient, any audit or court finding, and, where prosecution is alleged; the case number. If he cannot meet this standard, the responsible course is to retract or correct the statements. Anything less falls short of serious public accountability and undermines the credibility of the claims themselves.
08/11/2024
08/09/2024
08/09/2024
06/26/2024