All Nepotism, No Merit: Joekai’s Cover-Ups Reveal More Lies
- Michael T
- Sep 6, 2025
- 3 min read
MONROVIA, Liberia (Sept. 6, 2025) — Our institution has read and acknowledged CSA Director-General Joekai’s attempts to arm-twist the truth with a rebuttal that barely addresses the substance of the issues we raised; this, therefore, compels us to provide additional facts and let the public be the judge.
About Employing His Wife
Chapter 3, Section 3.4.3 (Filling Vacancies) of the Standing Orders of the Civil Service states:
"When filling vacancies for existing positions above the entry level, the Director-General will, whenever possible, ensure that appointing agencies do so by promoting appropriately qualified officers from within the agency concerned. When intending to fill a new position, appointing agencies shall refer to the Director-General, who will provide details of personnel eligible for the appointment.”
The Director-General claimed that his wife was appointed at JFK “based on merit.” A key principle of merit-based appointment is “competitive hiring.” We challenge the Director-General to show what that merit-based process was. In fact, the Standing Orders of the Civil Service encourage agencies to seek, as much as possible, to promote from within— “appropriately qualified officers” to fill vacancies.
So, the questions are:
Did the vacancy his wife occupies exist when Joekai and his family returned to Liberia following his appointment?
Did the management of JFK refer the vacancy to the CSA?
Was there no “appropriately qualified officer” available for promotion?
Was this vacancy ever announced or published?
How was the recruitment of his wife merit-based? Was there a recruitment process, or were there candidates over whom his wife prevailed?
Assuming that a competitive process of recruitment was followed, wouldn’t it be obvious that the Director-General of the CSA, who facilitates recruitment in the Civil Service, could favor his wife over other candidates? If there was such a process, where are the records? Did he recuse himself from decision-making?
Additionally, it is a fact that Joekai not only influenced his wife's employment at JFK but also went further by assigning her a CSA vehicle—the official vehicle used by the former Director-General, bearing the official GoL license plate O-30.
Meanwhile, he claims to use a vehicle given to him by the President in appreciation of his hard work. That vehicle has not been part of the CSA fleet for perhaps over a year, is never at the CSA, is not used by anyone at the CSA, and can always be found at JFK. What is even more alarming is that he took away this vehicle from the CSA at a time when one of his two deputies did not have an official vehicle. He clearly prioritized his wife's interests over those of the CSA.
On all the other appointments
While the question of nepotism is valid, there's an equally important issue: How were those individuals recruited? This is especially significant for someone who made a lot of noise about such concerns when he joined the CSA. Even if these people were not his relatives, they were connected to him and are from Lofa. He brought them into the CSA without regard for the recruitment process established by the Civil Service. They were appointed to these positions solely by him.
We have also learned that while he was restricting other government agencies from employing new staff, he was actively employing new staff at the CSA. It has even been said that not even his deputies have had the opportunity to recommend new employees (except their Special/Technical Assistants); he has been the sole provider. Reports suggest he even forced out the Head of Procurement he met at the CSA and installed his own procurement head.
Another case, not stressed in the initial publication, concerns David Kolubah Woi—Joekai’s younger brother. Josiah transferred Woi from the Ministry of Finance, where he had been a junior analyst since 2018, and offered him a more senior position at the CSA. There was no advertisement, no standard performance appraisal—just a direct transfer, again outside the law’s competitive norms.
While we are quite aware that family ties in Lofa go beyond bloodlines, we stand by every word in our story. Josiah’s appointment, elevation, and transfer of all those mentioned were based on patronage and not merit.
________________________________________
Get Involved
Do you have additional facts to add to this insight or an opinion you would like to express?
Email Us
Comments