HARPER, Maryland – A senior staff of the William V. S. Tubman University in Harper, Maryland County, Roland T. Barnes, has been revealed to be involved in a scheme to receive kickbacks from a construction company in exchange for contracts to be awarded by the university.

Barnes currently occupies the position of associate vice president for administration and campus operations.

GBECCO, the company in question, has been contracted by the institution on several occasions for construction projects.

An employee of the company, who spoke only on the basis of anonymity, said officials of GBECCO felt compelled to give in to the demands of Barnes and other senior staff because if they refused, they feared that the company would no longer be awarded contracts by the university.

The employee said the huge kickbacks demanded by Barnes and others within Tubman University forced the company management to borrow funds to complete awarded projects, resulting in no profits from these contracts.

Further investigation revealed that as recently as around the July 26 holiday season, Abigail Barnes, the wife of Roland Barnes, collected US$20,000 from officials of the company to be turned over to her husband.

While Abigail Barnes is not an employee of the university, according to a May 2016 payroll, she appears to have been sent by her husband to collect the bribe.

The discoveries of bribery were initiated by an anonymous complaint, along with leaked supporting documents, by members of Tubman University’s faculty senate. The group had addressed their documents to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission’s Department of Enforcement and Investigation.

In an email response to inquiries, Barnes initially said he had no connection to GBECCO, nor did he have shares in the company.

But further investigation revealed that the university had recently awarded the contract to renovate the engineering building to GBECCO and made a payment of US$151,000, of which Barnes and others demanded US$60,000 as a kickback, but officials of the company only provided US$20,000.

Contacted again, Barnes acknowledged receipt of the money but said the payment from GBECCO was meant to purchase 7.5 acres or 30 lots of land located in Philadelphia, Maryland County.

He struggled to provide proof of his claims. When quizzed further to produce any university documents involving GBECCO in the land purchase, Barnes then said the transaction was personal.

“The Bush Chicken is not a court of law to request documents on the deal,” he said. “But for your information, the paperwork is being processed by the county authorities.”

Moving forward, Barnes said his lawyer would respond to all other inquiries.

Barnes’ assertion that the funds received by him were for the purchase of land authorized by county authorities was unsubstantiated, based on comments made by Representative Bhofal Chambers of Maryland’s second district and Maryland County Superintendent Besty T. Kuoh Toe. Both Chambers and Toe denied knowledge of any transactions involving land with Barnes.

At one point on August 10, when Toe phoned Barnes to inquire about his claims, Barnes began to hurl invectives at the reporter, saying the inquiries were all “nonsense.”

Tubman University’s newly appointed president, Edward Lama Wonkeryor, was contacted about the investigation and has yet to respond.

According to an employee of the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, Barnes’ case of receiving kickbacks for a contract he may have facilitated was “serious.” He compared it to the ongoing bribery case involving senior members of the government including House Speaker Alex Tyler.

Featured photo from Tubman University website