{"id":386214,"date":"2011-04-21T17:04:24","date_gmt":"2011-04-21T17:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/21\/corruption-remains-systemic-us-report\/"},"modified":"2011-04-21T17:04:24","modified_gmt":"2011-04-21T17:04:24","slug":"corruption-remains-systemic-us-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/21\/corruption-remains-systemic-us-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Corruption Remains Systemic – US Report"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Informer<\/a> (Monrovia)<\/p>\n

20 April 2011<\/p>\n

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The US Government 2010 human right report on Liberia stated that corruption remained “systemic” in the country despite efforts by the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s administration to deal with the deep-seated social problem.<\/p>\n

“The law does not provide criminal penalties for corruption, which remained systemic throughout the government, although criminal penalties do exist for economic sabotage, mismanagement of funds and other corruption-related acts,” Section Four of the report titled ‘Official Corruption and Government Transparency’, stated.<\/p>\n

The US Government report released this month was last week corroborated by the Liberian Government when the Ministry of Justice, in its report on corruption, declared that corruption was prevalent at all levels of society including the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who promised to make corruption public enemy number one in her administration in her 6th State of the Nation Address January said despite the many progress pout into place to combat the maniac, corruption remains a formidable force to battle-but progress have been made during the last five years..<\/p>\n

The US Government’s report particularly pointed at widespread corruption including bribery and extortion in the country’s justice system with jurors and police officers at center stage.<\/p>\n

Solicitor General Wilkins Wrights in his report to the cabinet admitted to the claim by stating that one of the obstacles in fighting corruption is the jury system.<\/p>\n

Cllr. Wright noted that corruption related acts are committed by citizens…and can b e classified as high or low ranging from economic sabotage to bribery. The Solicitor General called for a total reform of the Jury System.<\/p>\n

The US report claimed that “Official corruption and the sense of a culture of impunity were exacerbated by low pay levels for the civil service, lack of job training, and a lack of court convictions.”<\/p>\n

“The government dismissed officials for alleged corruption and recommended others for prosecution,” stated the report.<\/p>\n

The Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and the Ministry of Justice are responsible for exposing and combating official corruption. The LACC is empowered to prosecute any case that the Ministry of Justice declines to prosecute; however, the Ministry had not declined to prosecute any such cases during the year.<\/p>\n

The LACC, the report noted, which had a minimal budget and insufficient staff, investigated eight cases and recommended four for prosecution. Included in the recommendations were former Inspector General of Police Beatrice Munah Sieh (now a representative aspirant in the pending elections) for irregularities in the appropriation of uniforms and two Ministry of Finance officials for their alleged roles in misappropriating civil service salary checks. The LACC reported 21 additional corruption cases were pending investigation by year’s end.<\/p>\n

The report: “Judges were susceptible to bribes from damages that they awarded in civil cases. Judges sometimes requested bribes to try cases, release detainees from prison, or find defendants not guilty in criminal cases. Defense attorneys and prosecutors sometimes suggested that defendants pay a gratuity to appease judges, prosecutors, jurors, and police officers or to secure favorable rulings from them. Jurors were also susceptible to bribes, and the Ministry of Justice increased its calls to reform the jury system.”<\/p>\n

It said despite her strong emphasis on decentralization, President Sirleaf froze County Development Funds pending ongoing audits due to evidence of frequent misuse. The Funds were intended to support local development projects to reduce poverty.<\/p>\n

The move to recentralize administration of local development projects was widely seen as a result of inadequate local management, which often funneled development funds to support political interests of legislators rather than to reduce poverty.<\/p>\n

Following is an excerpt of the report: “The government dismissed or suspended a number of officials for corruption stated the report. For example, in April the comptroller for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a senior financial officer were dismissed for allegedly stealing $4,500 intended for the country’s embassy in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

In May the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization recommended six officers for prosecution for collusion in the escape of six Bangladeshi detainees. The case was pending investigation at year’s end.<\/p>\n

In June the National Security Agency arrested three Ministry of Finance officials for soliciting bribes of $10,000 each from the Cocopa Rubber Plantation Company. The case was pending investigation at year’s end.<\/p>\n

On September 24, the government dropped the 2007 economic sabotage case against former National Transitional Government of Liberia chair Charles Gyude Bryant due to a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

On October 12, President Sirleaf recommended senior officials for dismissal and referred others for further investigation for their involvement in the Carbon Harvesting Corporation deal, a carbon-credit agreement containing irregularities that would have resulted in significant loss of government revenue.<\/p>\n

The investigation of the former assistant superintendent for development in Grand Cape Mount County was pending at year’s end following his October 2009 dismissal for involvement in the disappearance of approximately $90,000 from the Grand Cape Mount County Development Fund.<\/p>\n

The March 2009 case against the former minister of information Lawrence Bropleh was dismissed with prejudice on December 7. The dismissal cited the prosecution’s alleged failure to appear in court; however, the Ministry of Justice contested the judge’s claim. A writ of prohibition to undo the judge’s decision was before the Supreme Court at year’s end.<\/p>\n

Police corruption was a problem. During the year the LNP investigated reports of police misconduct or corruption, and authorities suspended or dismissed several LNP officers. For example, in August an LNP officer was charged with property theft and was awaiting trial at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

In June a senior LNP official was accused of assaulting an individual over a personal misunderstanding. The official was suspended and ordered to pay restitution; however, no restitution was made and he remained suspended by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

On October 9, the LNP director announced the implementation of complaint forms to be submitted by the public to report incidents of bribery or unethical practices.<\/p>\n

In November an LNP officer was arrested for allegedly permitting his acquaintances to use his police uniform to commit acts of armed robbery. He was released and returned to duty due to a lack of evidence.<\/p>\n

There were no developments in the September 2009 case of the former Monrovia chief of patrol indicted for looting the house of a private prosecutor.<\/p>\n

During the year the government continued to take steps to improve transparency.<\/p>\n

The General Audit Commission continued its ministerial audits and referred findings to the legislature. However, the legislature did not recommend any cases to the Ministry of Justice for prosecution.”<\/p>\n

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\nCorruption Remains Systemic – US Report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Informer (Monrovia) 20 April 2011 The US Government 2010 human right report on Liberia stated that corruption remained “systemic” in the country despite efforts by the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s administration to deal with the deep-seated social problem. “The law does not provide criminal penalties for corruption, which remained systemic throughout the government, although criminal penalties do exist for economic sabotage, mismanagement of funds and other corruption-related acts,” Section Four of the report titled ‘Official Corruption and Government Transparency’, stated. The US Government report released this month was last week corroborated by the Liberian Government when the Ministry of Justice, in its report on corruption, declared that corruption was prevalent at all levels of society including the public and private sectors. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-386214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\nCorruption Remains Systemic - US Report - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/21\/corruption-remains-systemic-us-report\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Corruption Remains Systemic - US Report - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Informer (Monrovia) 20 April 2011 The US Government 2010 human right report on Liberia stated that corruption remained "systemic" in the country despite efforts by the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's administration to deal with the deep-seated social problem. 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