Soon after his inauguration President Joseph Boakai became the latest Liberian leader to announce new initiatives designed to root out corruption. After decades of endemic corruption, with few attempts to hold accused officials accountable, most Liberians decided to wait and see whether President Boakai would deliver.
So, the apparent implosion of his boldest anti-corruption initiative - an Assets Recovery Task Force - just two months after it was set up, has dealt a blow to public confidence in his efforts according to transparency advocates.
In early May, Emmanuel Gonquoi, Boakai's appointment as chair of Physical Asset Recovery of the Task Force, resigned. A few days later a letter from Martin K.N. Kollie, one of the 15 members of the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval committee that oversaw the Task Force, also resigned. A leaked letter from Kollie then appeared on Facebook accusing Cllr Edwin Kla Martin, the committee chair, of potential corruption.
Among the accusations were that, from an initial $750,000 budget, Martin had signed an office lease agreed for $321,200 and a billboard rental of $9000 a month with no discussion with other committee members.
Transparency advocates say this is not what the public needed to see at the start of this administration.
"The first thing is that it has demotivated a lot of people who had trust in the committee," said Eddie Jarwolo, Executive Director for Naymote Partners for Democratic Development, a Liberian transparency watchdog. "They have to make sure that they build public trust."
Andersen Miamen, head of the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia, said he wanted to see the government make a strong statement now before it is too late.
"Dissolution of the committee will be one," said Miamen, "but going back to say, 'We made some errors on those we have on the committee' and make the necessary changes so that you bring the level of independence - that is if you decide to maintain the Task Force."
Gonquoi refused a Front Page Africa/New Narratives request for a comment on his resignation, but in an earlier interview, he gave a hint to Front Page Africa/New Narratives of his frustration in the role. "We might not be able to prosecute anybody at any given point in time," Gonquoi said. "Part of the reason why people have lived in this country with impunity is the way our laws are created."
But Gonquoi said he was committed to the job which he believed would have major consequences for Liberia.
"We are investigating very serious cases, and when we finally announce the impact on Liberia will not just be getting millions of dollars and getting properties back into the country," said Gonquoi, "We're going to have a psychological environment where people in government believe that I am not to steal from government. I have to live within my income."
The committee and its Task Force hit opposition from the start. Intended to "initiate criminal prosecution and civil litigation on behalf of the Government, return confiscated assets to Liberia upon adjudication, and place travel and other restrictions on all individuals identified as suspects while undergoing investigation for stolen and suspicious assets," according to the order, the Task Force's Physical Assets Recovery Division made front-page headlines for seizing the assets of numerous outgoing public officials, including 20 vehicles, before its actions were put on hold by the Supreme Court. Many former officials claimed the vehicles were privately owned.
Before this month's public meltdown, many leaders and experts had criticized the Task Force. House Speaker Cllr. Fonati Koffa, and other political leaders, particularly from the Weah administration, had accused the Task Force of conducting witch hunts and eliminating the statutory authority of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), the country's independent anti-corruption watchdog.
Massaquoi argued the Anti-Corruption Commission, along with the Financial Intelligence Agency and the Ministry of Justice, already had responsibility for seizing stolen assets.
"What is the essence of setting up a committee that will take away the function of the LACC and the Financial Intelligence Agency along with the Ministry of Justice?" he asked. "Why don't you use the statutory provision or law to go after those stolen assets if you believe there are stolen assets?"
Others were critical of the makeup of the committee.
"I don't think we are short of counselors with integrity in this country, but I thought it was important that the president shouldn't have used Cllr. Martin simply because it could create a problem and look where we are," said Lawrence Yealue of Accountability Lab. Martin had been the chair of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission before it was overhauled by the Legislature. His efforts to prosecute Weah government officials accused of corruption had led opponents of the Task Force to say he was biased against the former president's political allies.
But Yealue did not think the problems at the Task Force would derail President Boakai's efforts to stamp out corruption.
"I don't see this as damage," Yealue said. "I think this is a wakeup call that the president should now understand that what we are faced with in this country is a deeply rooted issue and need to engage the LACC. Strengthen the asset recovery arm of the LACC to be able to do the work and do it on a long-term basis."
Yealue agreed with Miamen of CENTAL that the president could remedy the situation with a genuine apology. "I think one of the attributes of any serious leader is to admit when you go wrong. When you can admit and correct and don't go back to it - that is the strength of any good leader. I think the president is faced with the point where he needs to have asset recovery in a different format."
Boakai's Assets Recovery Team was not the first effort to try to claw back assets from outgoing government officials. President Weah established the Assets Investigation, Restitution, and Recovery Team in 2019 to recover embezzled property and bring charges against suspected corrupt officials. Nothing came of it. No publicly available information exists that shows what was recovered and whether any officials faced charges. Indeed, the Team and Weah's commitment to stamping out corruption became something of a joke when Cllr. Syrma Syenius Cephus, solicitor general and chair of the team was forced to resign after the United States government-imposed sanctions on him for corruption.
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Cephus's co-chair, Cllr. Arthur Johnson had already raised a flag by resigning a year into office, citing the Weah administration's "lack of political will" and official institutions' resistance to cooperating in the evidence-gathering process. Johnson declined to speak with reporters in April, saying, "I don't want to get involved with anything" before hanging up.
The Weah administration was a low point for corruption in Liberia. The country dropped from 32 points out of 100 in 2018, on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, a widely recognized measure of corruption, to 25 in 2023. Liberia ranked 145th out of 180 nations and territories in the world, according to perceptions of public sector corruption.
One key reason for the fall on the Index was the inclusion of seven Weah administration officials and legislators on US sanctions lists. Some were forced to resign while others persisted in office. There has been no effort to investigate them. Nathan McGill and Bill Twehway, key officials in the Weah administration who were forced to resign after being listed, went on to win election to the Senate.
This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the "Investigating Liberia" project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy. The funder had no say in the story's content.
