Executive Mansion reacts

Office of the Press Secretary to the President has strongly rejected media reports that the President is “shielding corruption” when she asked leaders of the Liberian media to analyze the recent audit Report of the Ebola Trust Fund by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) in the context of the extreme emergency with which the nation was confronted.

According to an Executive Mansion release quoting Presidential Press Secretary Jerolinmek Piah, the media reports are wrong and misleading, and particularly in the case of the FrontPage which cited the concerns of “political observers”, are actually intended to dent ongoing efforts by the Government to deepen programs of transparency and accountability under which continuous audits are being conducted, reports made public, and actions taken in keeping with the findings and recommendations of the audits.

The Presidential spokesman drew attention to the fact that the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Administration has done more to fight corruption, and will continue to do so through strengthened integrity institutions, continuous audits, institutionalization of best practices and procedures as well as prosecution. 

Mr. Piah observed that to remind the country of the recent difficulties in the fight against the dreadful Ebola Virus Disease, and the success of the entire nation in overcoming these difficulties, as the President has done, in no way suggests that the President is condoning the “misuse and abuse” of the public trust. 

“It is actually in furtherance of her commitment to uphold the public trust that the President continues to call for increased accountability including continuous audits and prosecution as may be required,” Press Secretary Piah added.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Press Secretary has described as mean-spirited and unpatriotic the attitude of attacking the President, while she is on a foreign mission to represent the collective best interests of the nation. 

“To advocate against Liberia’s much-needed international support for its Post-Ebola Recovery, as the FrontPage attempts to do, is mean-spirited and unpatriotic” and may have the effect of hurting the well been of the very people in country for whom the paper claims it was advocating, Piah concluded.