By Bill W. Cooper
Accountability Lab Liberia has reported a citizens’ perception report that the Education Sector is the most corrupt sector followed by Health and the Justice System.
The corruption perception survey rated that corrupt sectors Education,74%; Health,73% and the justice system,72%
Accountability Lab Liberia’s citizens’ corruption perception survey was conducted in five counties namely Bong, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Montserrado, and Nimba County.
A total of 123 persons were randomly interviewed from different works of life across 10 key government sectors which include Agriculture, Education, Fisheries, Forestry, Health, Internal Affairs, Information, Justice, Lands & Mines, and Public Works.
According to the Accountability Lab report, the number of females interviewed during the survey constituted 42%, while the males constituted 58%.
However, the survey was conducted as part of the Anti-Corruption Project implemented by Accountability Lab Liberia, in collaboration with the LACC, CENTAL, and Integrity Watch, with support from UNDP Liberia.
According to the report, the top three perceived corrupt sectors per counties targeted Internal Affairs, Justice, Education and Health respectively.
For Citizens Scale of Government’s Fight Against Corruption, the report maintained, “On a scale of 1 – 10, where 1 is the least value and 10 is the highest, the average score of the government of Liberia’s fight against corruption for each County: Bong, two; Grand Bassa, six; Margibi, four; and Montserrado, three.”
Citizens’ recommendations to the government’s fight against corruption include, “Conduct periodic performance evaluation of public officials, and motivate them to work satisfactorily; empower the judicial and anti-corruption institutions to bring corrupt officials to justice; employ people with integrity, and some form of livelihood, and not based on partisanship.”
Others are “Setup the war and economic crimes court to persecute the corrupt officials; dismiss and punish the corrupt government employees according to the law; setup an independent and specialized court to prosecute corruption; ensure transparency and accountability in government dealings; government employees should be paid fair wages and on time; properly vet government officials and employ them based on merit, and enforce the anti-corruption laws.”
Meanwhile, on corruption cases, Accountability Lab Liberia also checked on active corruption cases in the five project counties: Bong, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Montserrado and Nimba, and came out with a summary of the 15 active corruption cases currently in the Ganta Magisterial Court, the 7th Judicial Circuit Court, and the Criminal Court ‘C’.
There are 15 active corruption cases found in three of the five counties mentioned above, namely; Bong (5), Montserrado (7), and Nimba (5), and those accused comprised 13 males and two females. 73% are government employees, and 27% are private-sector citizens and residents, as these cases have been in the courts between 1-6 years.
The crimes associated with the 15 cases are: Criminal Conspiracy, Criminal Solicitation, Declaratory Judgment, Economic Sabotage, Extortion, Forgery and Counterfeiting, Misapplication of Entrusted Property, Money Laundering, Tax Evasion, Theft of property, Unlawful Compensation, and Wire Fraud.
