Filed in by Olando Testimony Zeongar – 0776819983/0880-361116/life2short4some@yahoo.com
MONROVIA, Liberia – In the wake of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) chair, Cllr. James Verdier pointing accusing fingers at the George Weah-led government for undermining the country’s fight against corruption, government has fired back, indicating that the Commission has ‘dented credibility’.
In a recent interview with Radio France International (RFI), Cllr. Verdier said in spite of President Weah’s promise to fight corruption, just within a year into his administration, Liberia is retrogressing into the fight against corruption.
Verdier laments that in the first half of the Weah administration, the experience the LACC has had is terrible, saying, “we’ve not had funding, we’ve struggled to have this administration put its stand behind the fight against corruption and make some bold statements regarding transparency, accountability and ensuring that we can fight corruption.”
But Information Minister Eugene Lenn Nagbe has defended President Weah’s resolve to combat corruption in the wake of accusations from Cllr. Verdier that the government is hindering the LACC.
As a way of dismissing the anti-corruption commission chief’s allegations of government stifling the agency, and taking steps to stripe the LACC of its tenured status, Nagbe told RFI that “Over the past few months there has been an internal wrangling in the corruption commission itself.”
Making reference to LACC boss Verdier, as a way of further denigrating him, Nagbe said: “Some of the commissioners have been accusing the chairman of not being above board in his financial dealings.”
However, the anti-corruption chief countered that Nagbe’s allegations are not new, stating that these same allegations were brought against him before, and had already been investigated and were found to be “frivolous.”
The anti-corruption agency boss avers that the failure of some public officials to declare their assets, as well as the lack of appropriate budgetary allotment to the LACC are few constraints impeding Liberia’s fight against corruption.
But Information Minister Nagbe dismissed Verdier’s criticism over the lack of funding and concerns over a new bill dealing with tenured positions in state agencies, according to RFI.
Nagbe, while describing the Weah-led government’s commitment to the fight against graft, told RFI, “If you look at Liberia’s current national budget this year there has been more allocation in our budget for transparency institutions including the corruption commission.”
He explained that Weah administration allocated some 21 million US dollars to the transparency and accountability sector, which includes the LACC, for the current fiscal year. This compares with almost 45 million US dollars for the previous year which the finance ministry said included a “one-off allocation” due to the country’s elections.
Howbeit, a RFI budget analysis shows that the LACC’s budget stood at more than 2.2 million US dollars for the last year, falling by almost 200,000 US dollars for the current year, representing a reduction to the anti-corruption body’s budget of almost nine per cent.
For his part, LACC chair Verdier disclosed that the Commission’s budget had been reduced by 20 per cent and funds were being disbursed every month, although no funds had been transferred for the past four months.
Minister Nagbe, in reaction to Verdier’s assertions that the Weah-led government has taken steps to strip the Commission of its tenure status, argued that “We cannot have parallel authorities in Liberia.” However, he stated that “The LACC has to have autonomy and therefore the tenure of the commissioner will be very important for that, so that wasn’t touched in the proposed bill.”
“There are some categories of agencies that are not included, which include the Central Bank of Liberia and a couple of the transparency institutions,” Nagbe told RFI.
But LACC boss Verdier insists Information Minister Nagbe’s account is farfetched, stating instead that the Commission was actually being stripped of its tenure by the Weah administration.
Punch FM/TV’s online service has verified that the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission is set to have its tenured status annulled in a bill voted by the House of Representatives on November 22 of last year – however, the bill is subject to concordance by the Liberian Senate.
LACC is one of several state organs benefitting from the right to tenured positions, aimed at resisting potential political interferences in the country’s fight against corruption.
