MONROVIA – The Institute Research and Democratic Development (
Report by Henry Karmo, [email protected]
According to Mr. Harold Aidoo, the speedy release of the investigative report of the alleged missing 16 billion Liberian dollars is monumental in restoring the credibility of government and boosting the confidence of donors and investors who have interest in investing in Liberia.
Aidoo: “We want to caution the government against the dilution of the report and we want to also urge them to muster the political to implement whatever recommendation the report may adduce. This will go a long way of improving our integrity level as far as the global community is concern and laying to rest the troubling concerns this incident has laid on the minds of Liberians.
“In the kind of society we live and the anticipation and expectation of Liberians, the prolonged delays of these kinds of report create room for speculation. It is incumbent upon this government to speedily release this report to avoid speculations.
“They need to tell the Liberian people exactly what happened to their money, especially when there were conflict information given by high ranking officials in the wake of this missing billions you cannot keep people wondering.”
Ending imperial speakership
Mr. Aidoo whose organization is directly involved with working with the legislature has also expressed concerns over delays in the call for review of the House of Representatives standing rules which, according to him, gave birth to imperial speakership.
According to him, it has been one year since Speaker Bhofal Chambers announced that the House of Representatives will set up committee to review its standing rules.
“He believes the current state of the rules create an imperial Speaker. You cannot have a Speaker that is given too much power to appoint all statutory committee members; at some point the Speaker doesn’t seem accountable to people who elected him.”
“We want to encourage them to take this review seriously and amend their rules to ensure that there is greater democracy within the way they function and there is transparency and accountability amongst themselves.”
Aidoo also expressed fear that the pattern of Separation of Power in the governance system of Liberia seem to be threatened by the Speaker’s close relationship with the “Executive claiming that it seems that the Speaker has gone to bed with the Executive”