Editorial: Lack of political will is killing Liberian integrity institutions

United States Ambassador to Liberia, Michael McCarthy, recently urged Liberia’s leaders to be bold in supporting integrity institutions in the country, warning that their fate will strongly influence the fate of the nation.

Ambassador McCarthy also underscored that Liberia’s integrity institutions urgently need political will to fulfill their mandates and disclosed that leaders of integrity institutions in the country have informed him that the U.S. Global Magnitsky sanctions of corrupt officials have given them more breathing room to fulfill their mandates.

However, the Ambassador noted that more than just breathing room, integrity institutions need full backing of Liberia’s political leaders, and that it is one thing for leaders to say they support the work of public auditors, but it is another to allow full and complete audits, and to respond to the deficiencies they uncover just as it is one thing to claim to support corruption investigations and yet another to allow investigations to be undertaken without political interference.

We could not have agreed with Amb. McCarthy any better. Leaders or government’s professed commitment to supporting integrity institutions should move from lip-service to practical actions if these institutions must execute the functions that they were established for.

But as the U.S. Ambassador sadly observed, these institutions such as the Internal Audit Agency, General Auditing Commission, Financial Intelligence Agency, the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission, and the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative merely exist by names.

If many of these integrity institutions are now being allotted much smaller budgets than they enjoyed in previous years, leaving them with less purchasing power, as Mr. McCarthy pointed out, how can they do their work effectively? It is difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to believe that would perform miracles.

Clearly, lack of political will from the Weah administration is gradually starving integrity institutions to death unless something is done urgently to reverse this ugly trend.

The Ambassador added that to make matters worse, most of them never receive the full amount appropriated to them by the legislature, and starved of funds and unsure whether, or when, they will receive their next allotment, they are nowhere near as effective as they should be.

Amb. McCarthy: “It is one thing to say you want transparency in Liberia’s extractive industries, but it is another to publicly disclose all government extractive industry concession and exploration agreements and revenue, publicly calling out illegal actors. It is one thing to support the Code of Conduct, but it is another to enforce compliance with asset declaration requirements. By now, I think you get my point.”

As we close the year 2022, we can but only hope that leaders would give heed to the concerns raised by the U.S. Envoy by prioritizing support to integrity institutions, because their works send an important signal to the international community about the country’s commitment to providing accountable leadership that would endear public confidence. These are benchmarks thru which democratic institutions gauge our sincerity to public service.