From all indications, the Anti-Corruption Act at the National Legislature is experiencing hiccups and Representative Saywah Dunah of Nimba County squarely puts the blame at the feet of the ruling party and President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

In a statement issued recently in the wake of a Motion of Reconsideration filed against the passage of the Act, he said the difficulty being experienced to passage the Anti-Corruption Act is due to the UP-led administration's lack of political will to pursue corrupt officials.

He also said it is the result of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's reluctance and indecisiveness in dealing with cases of corruption in the government. For about six months, members of the House debated and examined the Anti-Corruption Act, and passed it by a large majority of votes on May 7, 2008.

However, not sooner than later, the Chairman of the UP Legislature, Bhofal Chambers filed a "motion of reconsideration" to halt the passage of the Act and return it for another debate.

The Motion, in keeping with the Houses' rules as considered and the Act sent into Committee room. In his reaction to what he sees as an attempt to delay the Act from being passed, Representative Dunah said, "we have provided much defense and hard work to ensure the passage of the Act."

Referring to the passage of the Act as a positive move, he however noted, "We are alarmed that after such hard labor that such calculative legislative action by the ruling party is dooming it to failure."

In the wake of the action of the UP lawmaker and considering what he called "president's non-proactive executive action" in pursuing corruption as 'public enemy number one', it is glaring signal that the avowed war against corruption is nothing but an empty exercise in political rhetoric, adding that such needed to be exposed to the Liberian people.

He reminded the president of her inaugural commitment to weed the government of corruption and called upon her to explain why she is keeping corruption at the very core of her administration.

Referring to the Free Port of Monrovia, which the president consistently said, is saddled with corruption, he wondered why corrupt people would continue to serve in capacities they are occupying.

"As a true believer in social democracy, we believe good governance to be cardinal to the revival of Liberia. We have seen how much this country suffered as the direct result of corrupt government," he said.

He also added, "It has been scientifically established that Liberia is backward and underdeveloped because of corruption and bad governance which began in the 1960s and reached its heights when an army sergeant and a jailbreak, who became president, left office as billionaire while many of their close aides and families are millionaires through the loot of state coffers."

Dunah, an official of the opposition New Deal Movement, one of the many political parties said it was important for Liberians to know that to fight corruption is not only to talk about it, but to take concrete actions.

According to him, the president's rather indecisive deportment and the action of Representative Chambers clearly signify that they are not up to the task of fighting corruption.

However, the issue of the Free Port of Monrovia is said to be taken care of with the dismissal of two key officials and the suspension of others linked to the disappearance of a container.