Monrovia – Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) has expressed concerned about Liberia’s continuous decline in the corruption perception index report.
“CENTAL is deeply concerned about Liberia’s continuous decline, which speaks to our inability to address entrenched culture of impunity and enforce existing laws and policies,” CENTAL Acting Executive Director Anderson Miamen said.
He added that Liberia is ranked 90 out of 176 countries adding that Liberia is experiencing a decline.
“Globally, Liberia ranked 90 out of 176 on the Corruption Perception Index score of thirty seven (37).
“In fact, Liberia’s CPI score has declined from forty-one in 2012 to thirty-seven in 2015 and 2016,” Miamen said.
The CENTAL Bos said regardless that Liberia has outperformed it some of its neighbors, the country remains among the poor performers globally.
“While we outperformed our immediate neighbors (Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Guinea) who scored 34, 30 and 27 respectively, we still remain among poor performers globally,” Miamen said.
The Corruption Perception Index 2016 report comes a day after Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf openly admitted of failing to tackle corruption.
“We have not fully met the anti-corruption pledge that we made in 2006. It is not because of the lack of political will to do so, but because of the intractability of dependency and dishonesty cultivated from years of deprivation and poor governance.”
“We could not reap – you cannot reap – in government what has not been instilled in families, schools, churches, mosques and society in general,” Sirleaf said.
CENTAL blames the Lack of action(s) and delayed investigation and prosecution of alleged corrupt officials is seriously affecting the fight against corruption.
“Due to lack of political will and appointment of relatives and cronies in key positions of trust, is seriously hurting the country and its anti-corruption efforts.”
“In the last few months, we have read and heard about scandals involving top officials of government that have not been satisfactorily dealt with,” he watch dog group added.
Miamen continues: “These increasing numbers of scandals and corruption cases, which leave the public wondering about the safety of Public resources and whether government will ever improve their living conditions, is troubling.”
The CENTAL Acting Executive Director pointed to the recent reports of payment of salaries and benefits and benefits to public officials, months after resigning or being dismissed and alerts from the ministry of Finance and Development Planning about financial improprieties as example of abuse of public resources. “
“Handful of individuals cannot continuously abuse public resources without being prosecuted,” he said.
The institution’s executive director admonished the government, especially the presidency that the fight against corruption cannot succeed through lip service and continuous shielding of officials when implicated in scandals and misdeeds.
“For example, the bankruptcy of NOCAL was treated as business as usual, while investigation into mismanagement of the Japanese grant to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for capacity building has not ended after almost two years,” he said.
Miamen noted that a government firmly committed to addressing impunity and promoting a culture of transparency and accountability cannot afford to proceed in these manners with its anti-corruption.
The Acting CENTAL Executive Director said If the current trend continues, success will be farfetched; citizens’ hopes dashed and public perception and confidence in their government eroded.
“We must remember that putting citizens’ interest first and operating in a people centered manner is critical to success.”