By Alex Yomah
President George Manneh Weah says, his government absolutely has nothing to hide and therefore urged the Legislature to give the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) prosecutorial powers to prosecute corruption cases.
The President’s call is triggered by reports that there are mountains of corruption cases on court docket pending prosecution, something that is said to have undermined transparency, accountability as well as the rapid fight against corruption in Liberia.
The Liberian leader called on the Ministry of Justice which is the chief prosecutor of the nation to also look into the law- where possible LACC to prosecute without overlapping the function of the Ministry.
President Weah, in his closing remarks re-emphasized yesterday, “We have nothing to hide, give LACC the prosecutorial power to prosecute all corruption cases.”
President Weah made the statement when he chaired the PAPD National Steering Committee (NSC) held at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex in Congo Town yesterday.
The PAPD National Steering Committee includes leaders of the other two branches of the Government – the Legislature and the Judiciary and Development Partners; implementation framework of the PAPD requires a NSC, which is the highest level of the PAPD governance and coordination structure, chaired by the President and it is where government comes together to take stock of what have been achieved collectively over the years of the PAPD and face the challenges of the future together.
The President recounted that on October 27, 2018, his leadership launched the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD); national development plan for the years 2018 to 2023 in Ganta, Nimba County respectively.
Accordingly, the PAPD is a framework for inclusion, more equitable distribution of our national wealth, and a rights-based approach to national development.
“It aligns our national plans with the African Union Agenda 2063 and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the vision of ECOWAS”
“The development of the PAPD was a broad based consultative process that included all stakeholders including agencies of the government, our development partners, the UN systems, Civil Society organizations and the private sector,” Weah outlined the importance of PAPD.
Addressing the high level gathering which brought together representatives of all development partners; the Liberian chief Executive asserted that the aim of the PAPD is to place Liberia on a higher trajectory of inclusive economic growth, secure peace and democracy, reduce poverty, solve infrastructure constraints in roads, electricity, ports and telecommunications; improve agriculture, transform governance, improve the business climate and provide the means for private sector led growth.
“The PAPD remains the best expression of our collective ambition to achieve peace, prosperity, and national development and address the critical constraints to growth, such as regional disparity, low human capacity, and the poor distribution of our national wealth,” he stated.
“Over the last three years, tremendous efforts have been made to meet the expectations of the Liberian people through massive investment in road infrastructure, the expansion of the electricity network in both rural and urban areas, investment in health and education. In health we have moved to provide new health facilities and to address challenges to the quality of care,” he added.
“In education, we are building nearly 100 new schools and have taken steps to bring more Liberians into higher education by abolishing payment of tuition fees at public colleges and universities and have reduced the burden on parents by having Government pay the West African examination fees for 12th graders,” President Weah boasted.
“In 2019, while on the path of our development, macroeconomic shocks that began in 2018 gravely affected the PAPD. This shock was followed by the COVID pandemic, which the world is now living with. Considering these challenges, the Government had to revise and recalibrate the ambitions of the PAPD,” Weah highlighted PAPD feat.
President Weah said despite these revisions, the PAPD remains on course and has been able to achieve a lot, while still dealing with numerous challenges. Adding, “In the course of these recent difficulties, we moved swiftly as a Government to prioritize public expenditure and aggressively grew domestic revenue.”
Meanwhile, speaking on behalf of the partners at the meeting Sweden’s new Ambassador, Mr. Urban Sjostrom, said that corruption in Liberia is at its highest peak, stating that, there is need for the Weah led government to battle corruption-though he failed to show empirical data of any corruption allegation.
The Ambassador also alleged that the poverty rate is increasing under the President George Weah leadership, “Poverty is increasing in Liberia” he urged government to address the issue of poverty.
In closing, he expressed how pleased he is with the level of work put in place by this government and when implemented, intended to reducing poverty and improves better living standards.
