Monrovia – The partnership on Illicit Finance, a member of the United State-Africa Partnership and the government of Liberia have created a national action plan as an additional means to curbing Illicit finance from corruption, tax evasion and other financial crimes.
According to news release from the two institutions, the plan focuses on three areas including the promotion of government transparency, combating corruption and the loss of government revenues to criminal activity and combating impunity and promoting accountability, including through the involvement of civil society and the private sector.
The release stated that the Liberian government pledges to take actions under each of the stated areas. Under the promotion of transparency by government, the plan will make annual verifiable declaration of financial interests and conflict of interest regarding elected and cabinet-level officials and their families; identify foreign accounts held by such officials and their even via proxy, waive legal rights to any foreign accounts not declared.
The national action plan will also adopt legislations or requirement that compel companies bidding on license for natural resources extraction or government procurement activities to disclose their beneficial owners.
According to the release, under the combating corruption and the loss of government revenues to criminal activity, the plan will ensure the independence of those investing and prosecuting corruption, ensure that those officials are granted adequate judicial, prosecutorial and enforcement authority to fulfill their mandates, as well as timely, planned, reliable and sufficient financial resources to carry out their task.
The release further stated that the under the combating impunity and promoting accountability, including through the involvement of civil society and the private sector, the plan will decriminalize press offenses, thus allowing for enhanced investigation of corruption.
In the course of peer review, the mentioned that by multilateral bodies, including reviews related to the African Union’s good governance initiatives and the United Nations Convention against corruption, commit to allowing for input and feedback from civil society and full publication of outcomes.
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