According to information, former Chief of Protocol Finda Bondo has expressed strong belief in winning the Unity Party Government at the Supreme Court for issuing Executive Order #126 that created the Assets Recovery Team, which affected her business, Gracious Ride.
But legal minds believe that the overturning of Executive Order #126 by the Supreme Court will cause the public to always question the President’s executive powers at every given point.
The Taskforce accused Madam Bundoo of purchasing over dozens of vehicles through fraudulent means while serving in the Weah-led government thereby leaving them in the care of a surrogate management.
However, the Supreme Court, after listening to legal arguments on Thursday, July 4, 2024, reserved ruling on the matter.
Moreover, the issue of parallel agencies raised on July 4 against the Taskforce has existed between government agencies like the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and the Ministry of Justice that both investigate theft, money laundering, corruption, and economic sabotage, among others, and prosecute, plus the General Auditing Commission and the International Audit Agency doing similar tasks, all to enhance transparency and accountability.
A similar taskforce, known as the Assets Investigation, Restitution, and Recovery Team, was formed in 2019 by Boakai’s predecessor, George Weah, but no assets were found.
While serving as President, Weah’s head of protocol, Bundoo, owner of the gracious ride, is now opposing the taskforce operations on the grounds of unconstitutionality.
Legal minds consider the Assets Recovery and Property Retrieval Taskforce a significant national endeavor to combat wrongdoing and/or public sector corruption, which has long hampered the nation’s progress and development.
Since 2018, Liberia has continued to retrogress on the Corruption Perception Index score, coming from 32 in 2018 to 25 points over 100 on the 2023 CPI, according to Transparency International.
The country also ranks 145 out of 180 countries and territories around the globe by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.
Meanwhile, legal minds believe that the President is in no error and has acted in line with Article 5c of the 1986 Constitution, and attempting to interfere with the constitutional powers of the Executive will contravene Article 3 of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia.
