The Civil Society Network of Liberia (CSNL) has expressed shock over the Senate’s Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries allegation made against Agriculture Minister Jeannie Cooper and her deputies for corruption and other financial malpractices.
The civil society group said the action of the Senate’s Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries was an overreach of legislative powers, as it lacks the statutory powers to conduct investigations and draw up allegations of corruption against an official or agency of government in the absence of a full scale audit.
The Civil Society Network of Liberia termed the committee’s report as a misapplication of legislative powers; a misrepresentations of the facts and one intended to bring the reputation of the minister and her deputies to public disrepute.
“It is illogical and mindboggling for the Senate’s Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to have also alleged in its reports that the ministry awarded contracts to individuals with annual salaries being above the values of the contracts,” the group expressed.
“Our investigation reveals that Mr. Thomas Gbokie, Sylvester Taylor and Zubin Cooper are experts who were contracted, as required by the project, and are not being paid above the value of the projects. These three individuals are among experts contracted to implement the Small Holder Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project (STAR-P) by the World Bank with a value of US$25million,” the civil society network defended.
“And they were vetted via World Bank procedures and guidelines by project staff and the World Bank provided no 0bjectios to their hiring. This brings into question the committee’s own procedures and due diligence,” it averred.
CSNL said it was wrong for the Liberian Senate to have endorsed such purported report from the Senate’s Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, containing allegations of corruption against officials of the Agriculture Ministry with no reference to audits from the General Auditing Commission (GAC) because as it is done, reports of these audits are forwarded to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission for investigation to establish criminality.
The Civil Society Network of Liberia said all hearings of the Legislature on establishing acts of corruption or malpractices by public officials should be based on audits from the General Auditing Commission, which is mandated by law.