Monrovia – The Institute for Research and Democratic Development (IREDD) has launched a project title strengthens Transparency, Accountability, oversight and Participation (STOAP).
The project was launched Wednesday, September 6, 2017 at the IREDD head office in Sinkor and is being sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The launch, according to IREDD Executive Director Harold Aidoo is triggered by the country’s 14 years of civil unrest, which according to him provided an environment for ordinary people to get involved in corruption in order to deal with the hardship of the day.
“This project comes against the backdrop that the chaos of the war time’s economy provided significant opportunity for right seeking behavior as ordinary people resulted to corruption to deal with the hardship of the day,” Aidoo noted.
Aidoo disclosed that the project is part of series of engagement that IREDD is organizing and meeting stakeholders including the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), Liberia National Bar Association (LNBA), Liberia Marketing Association (LMA), National Investment Commission (NIC) and the Liberia Business Association (LIBA).
The IREDD boss indicated that this would provide a space where these institutions can play a more active role in ensuring that the issue of transparency and accountability are addressed in the governing process of the country.
Aidoo said IREDD along with its partners, the UNDP seek to look at constrains when it comes to accountability, transparency and integrity that undermines the different development processes and the country ability to mobilize revenue to finance its developments.
Aidoo asserted that since the ushering in of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration in 2006, the government key priority was to embark on aggressive and vigorous reforms within all sectors of the country’s economy.
He indicated that what has been it drawback of these reforms has been the lack of the government’s ability to finance its own development agenda.
“One of the key challenge that has constrained our ability, as a country to finance our developments has been domestic resource mobilization.
The greatest challenge in terms of undermining our ability to mobilize resources as well as constraining governance reforms is the lack of transparency and accountability mechanism within many of our revenue generation system and institutions,” Aidoo stressed.
He stated that Liberia, as a country needs to improve on its mechanism of transparency and accountability, thus, even as the country transitions to a new government, in his mind it would help in mitigating the challenges of the past government
For his part, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project assistant, James Carlon said Liberia is at a critical point of its history as illustrated by the total draw down of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) and the transition from one democratic elected government to another.
Carlon stated that the drawdown of the UN mission in Liberia dose not in no way mean United Nations is totally leaving the country, noting that UN presence would still be in Liberia.
“The absence of the mission in Liberia does not mean the absence of the UN in Liberia, because UN was here before the war and the mission. So when the mission finally closed, UN will still remain here,” Carlon voiced.
He asserted that all of the work that the mission is currently carrying out would be left with the UN country team to execute.
He intoned that development of Liberia depends on every Liberian, adding that UNDP is committed to building the capacity of national stakeholders so as to take on the responsibility of developing the country.