Monrovia — The Office of the Ombudsman lost a legal battle against the West African Examination Council (WAEC) at the Monrovia city court.
The Ombudsman's head, Cllr Finley Kangar, filed a petition before the court on October 22 to subpoena Duces Tecum against the Head of WAEC Liberia.
The request came from a case involving alleged leakages of the 2024 12 graders mathematics exam.
In his subpoena, Cllr Kangar prays the court to have WAEC Liberia bring forth all and any documents relating to the reported leakage of the mathematics exam, including the names of staff involved.
He also requested that the court have the institution bring before it a document showing the amount paid for rerunning the 2024 mathematics exam.
Following the Ombudsman's request, WAEC Liberia, through its lawyers, filed a four-count return, calling on the petitioner to contact the council's registrar at the international office.
WAEC Liberia also notes that the entire subpoena from Cllr. Finley Kanger is self-serving. Its Head of Office, Dale Gbotoe, will not produce any evidence against himself because the Office of the Ombudsman is seeking to investigate.
However, the Monrovia city court, Stipendiary Magistrate, in his ruling on Wednesday, said that the head of WAEC Liberia Gbotoe is not an employee of the Government of Liberia, as per the code of conduct.
The Magistrate quotes Section 12.2 of the code of conduct, which states, "The office of the ombudsman shall receive and investigate all complaints, in respect to the adherence to the code of conduct. In this case, where there is a determination of guilt and violation of the code of conduct by private and public and government employees, such violation shall be submitted by the Ombudsman to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission or other relevant government agencies. The Ombudsman office shall be responsible for collaborating with the three branches of government and civil society organizations to develop regulations for the code of conduct."
Judge Barco adds that the respondent is an international staff, employed by the registrar of the West African Examination Council, as he enjoys diplomatic immunity from the local laws of the member country insofar as it relates to the code of conduct for which the authority of the office of the ombudsman does not extend.
The judge then denied and set aside the petitioner's request for subpoena Duces Tecum issued against the respondent WAEC. The petitioner appealed and promised to use the status control before the reviewing court.
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In an interview with the WAEC boss Gbotoe, he vowed to ensure that law and order is the center of the country's testing body, stating that his office will not resist in fighting any act of corruption that might occur in the entity.
He explained that during the 2024 exam, the Liberia national police investigated, charged, and sent to court a staff member and his accomplices who were involved in the alleged cheating.
Following this decision, the office of the ombudsman wrote requesting that it be the appropriate authority to conduct such an investigation instead of WAEC Liberia or the LNP.
Mr. Gbotoe continued that they informed Cllr. Karnga that WAEC is an international organization and incase of any complaint from the Government of Liberia, the authorities here should contact the WAEC international registry.
He added that they informed the head of the ombudsman that whatever document he requested had already been sent to the court for prosecution of those involved.
But the head of the ombudsman office, Cllr. Finley Karnga said the judge ruled based on his lack of understanding of the code of conduct.
He argued that the authorities of WAEC Liberia have some inner motive for preventing him from having access to the requested documents.
According to him, there was no investigation conducted in the matter, contrary to what the WAEC authority informed the court of, stating that he would never stop in ensuring that the right things are done for the betterment of the rule of law in the country.
