Monrovia — The Chairman of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) Cllr. Frances Johnson Morris says the commission has launched its first corruption investigation in the country.
The former Commerce and Justice Minister told a major news conference Monday in Monrovia that the LACC was fully ready and prepared for the investigation of various corruption cases in the country, beginning with the first four.
She said the fullest of time for the Anti Corruption Commission to begin the execution of its statutory mandate to investigate and examine reports, information and allegations of acts of corruption has come.
She however noted that the commission needs a budget of US$ 3.8M for the commission to effectively carry out the work of the Liberian people.
She said with this amount, the commission would employ about 135 personnel to carry out the investigation of corrupt cases across the country. The commission has just US$300,000 as its initial budget.
Cllr. Morris noted that the Commission is aware of the fact that the issue of corruption remains high on the public agenda and their expectation for a swift and uncompromising action in dealing with the scourge by the Commission is equally high.
The LACC boss disclosed that the commission has since been making preparation including recruitment of competent staff and investigators - personnel with back grounds in the relevant disciplines required to handle the kind of work envisaged under the mandate of the Commission.
Personnel of the enforcement division have law, law enforcement, criminal justice, accounting and other related backgrounds associated with carrying out economic crimes investigations, the first female Chief Justice of Liberia stated.
Cllr. Morris pointed out that the commission has also been formulating a number of internal policy instruments in preparation to commence its work, including internal code of conduct, bylaws, Standard operational procedures, statement of confidentiality citation, and employment contract.
She further disclosed that those recruited include the Manager for Division, who having to be a lawyer, a chief investigator, a former law enforcement officer with several years of experience, a chief of Intelligence with several years of experience and six others junior investigators.
With all of these in place, she said LACC is now looking into four into reports, information or allegations of corruption among the many it has on the docket.
She noted that two of these initial cases were brought to the attention by third parties, while the other two involve arbitrary and questionable acts which the commission itself has determined to launch an investigation into.
The LACC boss did not give details of the cases because the commission's "modus operandi is to keep the investigations confidential until LACC shall have concluded information or evidence gathering to establish a case…. at the end of this, then, the Commission shall inform the public of the findings and the next steps.
Since last September when President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf officially commissioned commissioners of the LACC, the public has yet to see the anti-graft entity playing its expected role in the face of unyielding corruption reports and allegations in the public sector.
The Act creating LACC mandates it, among other activities, to investigate all acts of corruption discovered or reported to have occurred in the public, private, and civil society sectors of Liberia, and Cllr. Frances Johnson Morris says the Commission is now ready to do just that.
Comments 1 to 5 of 6 Post a comment
Why 3.8M? Do we need that number of people to work for that small bureau? Many educated Liberians are using the vacuum of lack of professional people in Liberia as a means of exploiting the nation that is already being held hostage by greedy and recircle politicians. Why did people allow Charles Taylor to be taken away by International group when we are all fighting the battle of the strong should survive? Why put blame on others for what many of us are doing? It is a shame that beggers will continue to ask international body for money and that same amount is leaking at the back. This is a big shame!!! Please let the people in the country survive... It should not be the upper people alone to use what is being provided to keep the country going.
Isn't this ironic? The body that was set up to stop the hemorrhage of cash gushing out of the national coffers through corruption and mismanagement needs more cash (US$3.8m)to do its job. Let's see, with gemap, headed by the international community; the good governance commission (ggc) headed by sawyer; anti-corruption commission, headed by francis johnson morris; the general auditory commission, headed by John Morlu; special commission headed by Dr. Dunn (US$400,000) to investigate the email scandal from Knuckles debacle and let's not forget the congress of liberia whose constitutional duty it is in the first place to investigate this cancer; and yet still it persists. Apparently, these commissions are not working, but still they are taking the much needed money for reconstruction away. I have a solution, dissolve all these commissions and add the money that is used to fund them to the national budget to compensate for corruption and theft.
This is all part of the new technique of "eating" money in the present day Liberia, Sirleaf and co's style.
Go ahead Cllr johnson morris and chop your own.
It is your time to eat your own.!!!
Use any technique that works...
LIBERIANS are the most insane people I have ever met. We are struggling to develop our infrastructure, put lights in the country, build schools yet we want to use $8 odd millions to create a forum to fight CORRUPTION and we expect the international community to feel pity for us and help us look for money to run our country? Do you know what 8 million is capable of doing to further our development?
Lets us be realistic, 3.8 million is not too much money for the work at hand for the commission. Considering the fact that curruption needs to be fought in all 15 counties. The commission will need personnel for all counties. Monrovia is not Liberia. It is about time that major activities of government be decentralized. Our people in the interland also need to benefit form this. Curruption in the local areas also need to be addressed. The commission will need vehicles, professional consultations and logistics. We should start thinking big and global, and give professionalism a chance for goodness sake. Professional human resoource is expensive, and we have to pay for it....
See All Comments