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Throw
the rascals out
Wednesday,
October 18, 2006
By Tewroh-Wehtoe Sungbeh
Their job is
to reform the Liberian government. But first, they
must reform themselves before talking about reforming
a government they almost bled to death and helped to
destroy when they held other government positions in
the past.
The Governance Reform Commission (GRC) has been
in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Its
members are suffering from self-flagellation, and an
embarrassment to themselves and the nation.
Amos C.
Sawyer
David Kortie
The commission is bleeding profusely, and
tourniquet will not even stop the bleeding because the
feuding fellows need all the positive public relations
in the world to change their image and save the
commission from shame and destruction.
From the little I’ve heard or read so far the
commission is seeing red. Amos C. Sawyer and David
Kortie, who are in the center of this public slugfest
don’t even have any ounce of credibility left to
continue with their official duties because of the bad
publicity of corruption, deceit and fraud they brought
on themselves. Now, how can the public trust them?
Instead of reporting the progress of the
commission by boldly assuring the Liberian people of a
government that works, the chairman of the commission,
Amos Sawyer went before the House committee on good
governance and pointed incriminating fingers at Mr.
Kortie for misapplying $14,000 belonging to the
Governance Reform Commission for his own use.
It is not that Mr. Sawyer cannot report
corruption. He ought to report problems in his group
with grace, and must also report other corrupt
practices by letting us all know what progress his
group is making in terms of doing the job they were
appointed to do.
Kortie issued a threat of a lawsuit for
defamation of character if Sawyer did not apologize
for the verbal assault.
When Mr. Sawyer failed to apologize, Kortie
carried out his threat and filed a lawsuit against Mr.
Sawyer in a magisterial court in Monrovia.
The feud did not stop there. Mr. Sawyer further
accused a former financial officer, Commissioner
Alphonso Nimene of being part of the scheme to dupe
the commission of funds needed to perform their
official duties.
Surprisingly enough, President Sirleaf, who is
known for her tough anti-corruption stance, and
supposedly a champion of openness in government put
friendship over her own integrity by intervening
quickly to halt the lawsuit, which put to rest the
infighting, at least for now to save her
administration anymore embarrassment in what seems to
be an obvious presidential overreach and interference
in an already battered judicial system.
It has been quite a month of distraction for
this group, whose responsibilities are to sustain and
ensure good governance in post-war Liberia.
After many years of self-destruction, our
handlers told us how we need “big brother” to
micro-manage the Liberian people, its government and
the humongous bureaucracy this president carried over,
and the nation inherited from successive Liberian
dictatorial presidents who turned the other way when
they oppressed us.
Since we Liberians are corrupt and don’t know
how to behave when we are in positions of authority,
the fellows, (Mr. Sawyer and his friends) were chosen
to teach us how to be patriotic for a change, and
supposed to also teach us how to behave wisely by treating our
government and the resources within the institution
with care. But they failed us.
And the only explanation the Liberian people
ever got from the alleged allegations of corruption
within this major body and from President Sirleaf is the
“in your face” interference with the judicial
process from the Executive Mansion.
Halting a litigation of this kind like the
president did is intolerable, and only throws the
proceedings under the rug temporarily, because it
reminds us of the powerful Liberian presidency that
can be unaccountable, intrusive and evasive at the
detriment of the republic to protect their own selfish
interests.
President Sirleaf seemed to be no different
from her predecessors, and appears to be dwelling on
her enormous local and worldwide appeal by taking the
Liberian people for granted, since the Liberian people
have been too patient with her on issues regarding the
direction of the nation she loves and we love, and
wants to work with her in changing the direction of
the country, which is a far cry from reality.
From the shooting months ago between members of
her protective forces, which killed a Liberian, to
nepotism in her government, the rice issue, the hiring
of shady figures from past administrations without any
background check, to her Unity Party sending its
partisans to China for training when Liberians are
unemployed, to this very sensitive issue. We have not
heard a credible explanation from our president as to
what’s going on, what transpired, and why?
It is about time the Liberian people are fully
told about this very elitist group, and what they are
really up to from the time they were appointed, to the
day a member was exposed for alleged official
corruption and malfeasance.
This controversy has taken away a lot from a
body that’s being paid quite well (Liberian pay
standard) for doing very little, and are being paid an
estimated monthly salary of $1,000 – $2,000 for a
commissioner and about $4,000 for its chairman, more
than what ministers, assistant ministers, deputy
ministers, police officers and other law enforcement
officers make monthly, and far more than what school
teachers, university instructors and professors and
other civil servants take home monthly in Liberia.
The Public Agenda web site (www.publicagenda.info),
reports that Elwood Dunn and Yarsuah Weh Dorlia are
‘absentee commissioners’ of the Governance Reform
Commission who resides in the United States but are
being paid a monthly salary of $1,000 each for doing
nothing. Now, what’s the explanation for this abuse?
This feud is bizarre and is troubling because
these are individuals who supposed to educate us about
corruption and waste in government, and supposed to
teach us how to cut back and make government work and
be responsive to the needs of the people.
Mr. Sawyer, whom I don’t doubt honestly
believes his public allegations against Mr. Kortie, has
been in politics and this world too long to know what will embarrass a person, and what will also make
the same individual angry.
Had Sawyer not believed what he said, or had he
not played Harry Greaves and Dusty Wolokollie, both of
whom recently and publicly accused anonymous figures
of corruption they cannot prove, we would not be where
we are in this controversy today in the first place.
And had Mr. Sawyer channeled his grievance,
suspicion or evidence of corruption the right way –
to law enforcement or the president, we would not have
seen such combustible reaction from Mr. Kortie as we
have seen today, even though there are reports that
President Sirleaf encouraged Amos Sawyer to do what he
did to David Kortie.
Corruption within the commission is too much to
bear. The infighting is also too much, which is not in
the interest of the nation.
It is time to cut the current members
loose, Madame president, and inject new blood into the
Governance Reform Commission.
Do it now for the sake of credibility and the
nation, Madame president, because the Liberian people
deserves better than what you have now.
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