By Bill W. Cooper
With barely six months into the Unity Party (UP) government, Liberians are now measuring President Joseph Boakai’s commitment in the fight against corruption by this government’s alleged refusal to audit former President George Weah’s government; which was a fulfillment of one of UP’s 2023 campaign promises.
The Weah administration was hard hit with seven U.S. sanctions in different category and for different crimes under the Magnitsky Act affecting three of his key officials as well as four senators who are also currently working in the Boakai-led administration.
These and many other reasons, Liberians then chose to elect President Boakai, who took office seven months ago, after promising to conduct a thorough audit of the past administration to uncover any corruption or mismanagement of public resources that may have been stolen or misappropriated during that tenure.
Boakai, during his campaign tour, assured that his administration would have audited and prosecute to the fullest anyone in the CDC-led government who were found guilty of malfeasance or mismanagement of public funds.
He vowed that the audit would begin within the first 100-day of his administration which would have helped his government in knowing where Liberia stands economically, adding, “We, as party, believe that some corrupt sources within the CDC administration remain unknown.”
“As such, corruption will have no place in my government. My administration will have zero tolerance for corrupt officials whether past or current because unpunished acts of corruption are draining our economy as well as resources being stolen and this is one things that I will stop.”
With that yet to begin, Boakia also vowed to ensure a quarterly auditing of his UP-led government; a move he said would ensure that all public funds received be accounted for as a means of ensuring transparency and assuring accountability in government.
However, as time passes, it appears that the Liberian leader is reneging on this promise, much to the disappointment of the Liberian people and apparently partners in the fight against corruption and undeserved impunity.
Even though there has been some frantic steps taken after he mandated the holistic auditing of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), National Security Agency (NSA) and Executive Protection Service (EPS) as part of efforts to tackle corruption, to date, there has been no adequate reports from the General Auditing Commission (GAC) about the audit process while the President halted the auditing of the NSA due to what he termed, its security nature.
However, his administration now been marred by allegations of corruption and mismanagement, leading to widespread calls for an audit to be conducted to hold those responsible accountable as promised.
Some critics have begun accusing the President of protecting some of his political allies that may have supported him during the 2023 election and that might be causing him to turn a blind eye on corruption that may have occurred under Weah’s administration.
They are also calling on him to prioritize the audits and hold those responsible for any wrongdoing accountable and to as well earn some dignity in his government so that Liberia is no longer referenced as a breeding ground for corruption in the future.
Already, the delay in auditing Weah’s government, as they claimed has also had a negative impact on Liberia’s economy, as foreign investors are hesitant to invest in a country that is perceived as corrupt and lacking transparency.
They asserted that his continuous neglect to hold those accountable for syphoning taxpayers’ monies has further exacerbated the high unemployment rates and continue to depict a struggling healthcare system, among others.
As Liberians themselves eagerly await action from this president, past government officials without remorse continue to exhibit expensive vehicles at public functions and make lousy show-off of their stolen wealth while those now denouncing them are finding their way into the UP-led government to package their own loots and together roar with the slogan; ‘Liberia is elephant meat-this too is Liberia.”
Meanwhile, as the pressure mounts on Boakai’s inability to audit a Weah-led government, same is the situation as his predecessor who could not audit Ellen Johnsons Sirleaf, it is gradually becoming true that Liberia is a small country where everybody knows everybody and that the relationship bond be it political, social, religious or traditional is a deep rooted preventive block to ending corruption and impunity.
