Ngafuan wants Legislature, Judiciary audited

A Liberian presidential hopeful and ex-member of President Sirleaf’s cabinet Augustine KpeheNgafuan is promising here that if given the Presidency in 2017, he ensure the Liberian Legislature and Judiciary are audited.

Since the country’s declaration of independence, the two branches of government have not been audited by any Liberian anti-graft institution. Ngafuan also guarantees that his administration would also ensure that the General Auditing Commission, Liberia Anti-Corruption Commossion and Public Procurement Concession Commission, as well as all other government agencies protected from audit are audited.

Speaking Thursday, 10 November at an intellectual center on Carey Street in Monrovia, the former Foreign Minister asserted that the fight against corruption has to be holistic and collective or else, the intent and goals of combating the deadly anti-development virus will not leave the country.

He indicated that his experience as also former head of the Budget Bureau, Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs, respectively, has put him in a better position to understand that there were huge leakages in the fight against corruption, and that the battle could only make significant impact when holes are closed.

He intimated that there should be balance in the fight, which according to him, include: ensuring that all presidential appointees and those to public offices of trust declare their assets before entering public service and after service.

According to him, Liberians deserve better than what is unfolding now, adding that the past administrations have done something, but there were enough rooms for improvement and change, saying such change is what Liberians are yarning for.

He noted that his presence in government brought some level of light that created an environment of economic changes in the lives of government employees, citing the introduction of a transport system for civil servants, increment of teachers’ salaries, securing funding for the pavement of Monrovia- Gbarnga-Ganta highway and the Monrovia-Roberts International Airport-Grand Bassa County Highway.

Ngafuan recounted his fight for the cancellation of Liberia’s debt by international partners in the tone of US$5.5 billion. Though when his successor Amara Konneh took over the Finance Ministry, every fiscal year of Konneh’s stay at the money house occasioned budget shortfall.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor-Edited by George Barpeen