Speaker Tyler warns integrity institutions

House Speaker Alex Tyler, has strongly warned integrity and anti-graft institutions in the country to stop politicking and focus on their work.

Speaking at the close of the 53rd session of the 53rdLiberian Legislature Thursday, October 15, Tyler said integrity and anti-graft institutions must remain within the framework of the law.  “They are encouraged to preserve probity and not deviate from their statutory mandates. They must avoid politics, seeking the court of public opinions, soliciting ‘street jurors’ and atyee shop pundits, in discharge of their duties”, he stressed.

Tayler: “The integrity institutions were established to accomplish certain objectives for the country and citizens, void of political coloring, social mechanism or ethnic power play. In other words, that job is to be done for the Liberian people must be void of prejudice.”

He did not name a specific institution that is involved in such practices, but Speaker Tyler and Montserrado County Representative Adolph Lawrence have maintained an uneasy posture since the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission or LACC announced the launch of an investigation into a US$25,000 scandal linking both officials.

The two lawmakers are under probe for their alleged role in a consultancy contract awarded to a Liberian consultant, Cllr Michael Allison, who reportedly drowned on the beach early this year on 4th Street behind Air Morroc.

According to Rep. Lawrence, the contract was pre-financed with US$12,500 by Speaker Tyler with the expectation of being reimbursed after the job was fully completed. However, Speaker Tyler said during the House’s sitting, 38 bills were sent to committee room, while prehearings and dialogues are ongoing.

He said 33 bills were passed into law during the same period, while a number of bills are still outstanding, pending the resumption of the legislature. Meanwhile, both the House of Representatives and the Liberian Senate have officially closed at the Capitol Building to enable Lawmakers go for annual break. They are expected to return in January, 2016.

By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor– Edited by Jonathan Browne