Prosecuting corruption to the full extent of the law

Friday, December 08, 2006   

          By Francis W. Nyepon

The erstwhile National Transitional Government of Liberia, (NTGL) was the most corrupt (per capita) in our country’s history. The level of mismanagement, unprofessional conduct, inefficiencies, sleaze and corruption, which was exhibited was unprecedented. 

Observers throughout Africa and the donor community viewed the Bryant-led transitional period as a cesspool of unparalleled corruption. The leadership was so saddled with corruption that their deceitful and immoral actions caught the attention of the United States and the international community to the point wherein the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), were forced into ordering an audit of that worthless, hollow bunch of bandits.

Henceforth, the prosecution of a conniving bunch of selfish, self-centered, heartless misfits has absolutely nothing to do with reconciliation or a new direction for our country. Like Charles Taylor, the NTGL leadership demonstrated absolutely no national character. They failed the Liberian people miserably by depriving innocent children of adequate healthcare, education, sanitation, and the removal of rotten garbage from the streets nation-wide. 

In actuality, many ordinary Liberians have come to the conclusion that the NTGL failed to root fundamental social change anywhere in the country, except for lining their pockets with ill-gotten public funds. Were it not for the presence of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the safety of rooting democracy in Liberia would have been illusive.

The ECOWAS Audit Report overwhelmingly documented massive theft, fraud and misappropriation of state funds by numerous NTGL officials who used the national treasury as their personal bank account. For example, the NTGL spent over US$200 million on public expenditure without renovating a single roadway, public building, school, hospital or market building, while its unscrupulous officials built mansions and acquire vast property holdings, which a civil servant pay check could not support.  

During the transitional period, Liberians of all walks of life pleaded with the leadership of the NTGL to tackle the high levels of corruption that were being carried out with impunity. Instead, many viewed their illegal dipping into the national coffers as a right characterized as rewards, which many gleefully broadcast with unmatched justification.

This obstructionist behavior caused enormous burden to our country. And like Charles Taylor and his criminal gang, they viewed the transitional period as seasoned for looting. 

Their performance and activities damaged the prospects of our people’s ability to effectively deal with poverty, psychosomatic impediments to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For example, the former leadership of the NTGL spent over US$11 million for official vehicles without any funds allocated for public transportation. Yet, many felt proud and overjoyed being chauffeured around in air-conditioned SUVs while civil servants went home to a hungry household of children without regular paychecks.

Therefore, the recent arrest of former NTGL officials is not against the spirit of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in Accra , Ghana in 2003, as some would have us believe. In fact, one can argue that it is within the spirit of the CPA, because nowhere in that document does it suggest that individuals should be pardon for engaging in public theft and corruption. 

Former officials of the NTGL violated several aspects of those very accords with impunity. Many of them went on unmatched spending and shopping sprees while others pretended not to see, or not to know. For example, the NTGL sold stockpiles of surplus iron ore in Buchanan worth over US$30 million, yet its leadership reported under US$9 million to the national treasury.

Therefore, those named in the ECOWAS audit report who are accused of corruption, embezzlement or fraud, should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And if found guilty, they should be severely punished to set an example to others who come to public service with a get rich quick mentality. 

Ordinary Liberians need to see that being a civil servant is not a path to get rich by way of the national treasury. The signing of the CPA was expected to begin a process of reconciliation, public trust and national integrity, not a practice to set in motion a timetable to deny the children of Liberia a vibrant future.

 Liberians came to believe that the NTGL would set the stage for the beginning of the end of corruption and the culture of impunity. The NTGL was expected to lay the foundation to revive our economy and strengthen government’s command of basic social services, instead, they betrayed our trust.

Throughout our country's history, each time unscrupulous officials are fraudulently caught with their hands in the cookie jar of our national treasury; their supporters take to the streets demanding and threatening chaos and disruption. Still others take to the press with misguided thesis and manuscripts insisting upon a fresh start. 

However, the goal post can not always be moved each time individuals betray our national trust. Too many of our fellow citizens were mindlessly slaughtered in the name of ethnicity, ideology, politics and religion, while some extravagantly decide to live high on the hog. Our country can not always keep rearranging the deck chairs each time officials are charged with corruption simply to please a small minority of benefactors who feel they are being displaced.   

The 2003 transitional process was intended to be a rebirth of hope in our country, not a carnival for a gang of unpatriotic and anti-nationalistic bandits to go masquerading, while innocent children suffer and go without adequate healthcare. So, arresting a handful of officials for corruption is not witch-hunting as some would have us believe. Rather, it is holding public servants accountable for their actions.

Hence, those who now find it expedient to embrace the Liberian Constitution for protection should have known better when they headed the government, and yet refused to demonstrate any character or integrity.

During the multiparty elections of 2005, candidate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf promised Liberian voters that if elected, her administration would follow the trail of corruption wherever it lead. She assured our people that she would wage war against corruption regardless of where it existed, or by whom it was practiced, which later became the hallmark of her inaugural address. 

Our country declared war on corruption on January 1, 2006, when Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was inducted into office as President of the republic.

Bravo to the Government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf for prosecuting corruption to the full extend of the law; however, Liberians hope it is done with respect for individual liberties and due process of law.

 

Francis Nyepon is a policy analyst and Vice-Chair of The
Center for Security & Development Studies. He is a political economist and serves on several boards of humanitarian, environmental and human rights organizations in the United States and Liberia. He can be contacted at francis.nyepon@Gmail.com