LEITI gets new board

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has re-constituted the Board of the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative or LEITI. The LEITI Board, in accordance with the EITI Standards and Act of July 2009, has a multi-stakeholders nature, comprising representations from diverse stakeholder groups, including the Government of Liberia, civil society and private sector.

A LEITI release, quoting the Executive mansion in Monrovia, Tuesday named those appointed to the new Multi-stakeholders Steering Group or MSG as the Minister of Lands, Mines and Energy as Chairman; Minister of Finance and Development Planning; Mrs. Cecelia T. Danuweli of the Publish What You Pay Coalition; as well as Mr. Ezekiel Johnson of the National Labor Congress and the Commissioner General of the Liberia Revenue Authority.

The release also named other statutory members as the Minister of Agriculture; Minister of Internal Affairs; Managing Director of the Forestry Development Authority; President of the National Oil Company of Liberia; Ms. Marpue M. Speare of the Women NGO Secretariat of Liberia; Mr. James Yarsiah of the Right and Rice Foundation, as well as a member each from the Senate and House of Representatives to be named.

Non-statutory members to the new LEITI Board include representatives from Western Cluster, Aureus Gold, Gold and Diamond Brokers and Dealers Association of Liberia, ExxonMobil, Liberia Timber Association, as well as Golden Veroleum and  Chief Zanzan Kawor, Chairman of the National Traditional Council of Liberia.

The new Board will serve for three years, providing strategic and policy direction and overseeing the EITI process in Liberia, the LEITI release said. Responding to the announcement of the new board recently, LEITI Acting Head of Secretariat Konah D. Karmo thanked the President for what he termed “her commitment to promote transparent resource management in Liberia”.

Mr. Karmo described the re-constitution of the LEITI Board as cardinal for the Liberian EITI, especially given that the country was expected to face validation very shortly.

It can be recalled that a few weeks ago, Mr. Karmo, during a brief meeting with the President, highlighted current developments at the LEITI Secretariat and called on the Government and other stakeholders to urgently address such prevailing challenges- one of which was the constitution of a new Multi-stakeholders Steering Group (MSG) of the LEITI.