Liberia has suspended all petrol import licenses and will conduct performance reviews following a crippling fuel shortage in which importers were accused of inflating their reserves. The government said it had sacked a deputy managing director of the state-owned company charged with ensuring consistent oil supplies on Friday, as well as suspending import licenses. The West African country's weeks-long petrol shortage ended last month, after having caused considerable disruption as commuters queued for hours at petrol pumps and businesses struggled to transport goods. Fuel distributors and importers were accused of overstating their reserves to the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC) -- in charge of fuel supply -- leading to shortages. The problem was also compounded by an undredged port which prevented large tankers from docking and alleviating the crisis, government officials said at the time. Liberian President George Weah said on Friday that the government was creating a special task force to investigate what went wrong. Bobby Brown, the LPRC deputy managing director for operations, has been dismissed for "gross negligence and fraudulent activities," the statement said. Likewise, all petrol import licenses have been suspended pending case-by-case reviews, according to the statement. The fuel shortage represented another blow for Weah, who has faced protests over poor living conditions in the impoverished country of some 4.8 million people. The footballer-turned-president inherited an economy already devastated by back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to 2003, and by the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak. zd/eml/har