MONROVIA – The Liberian Senate last week essentially commenced the review all tenure posts in the country. A special Senate Committee headed by River Gee’s Commany Wesseh requested institutions to explain Why they need tenure for their institutions and for the leadership of these institutions.
This appears to have sent concerns mainly in the integrity community with institutions such as the General Auditing Commission, the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Liberia Anti-corruption Commission (LACC), Public Procurement and Concession commission skeptical about the actual intent of the Communication.
In a letter to one of the tenure institutions, Senator Wesseh said his committee wants to “review on a case by cases basis, whether to maintain, reduce, extend, or terminate the tenure of such official by amending the law setting up such an institution.
He also requested institutions “to write and submit not more than 2-pages of a formal statement on your institutional views on this mandate to the committee on or before Monday, June 6, 2022, at noon”.
While there is a broad consensus that tenure posts in the past have been grossly prostituted, Integrity institutions should not be in the line of questioning as this may lead to additional concerns about the commitment of the government to strengthen these institutions already struggling to assert themselves.
An insider in one of the Integrity institutions hinted FPA that even with tenure, integrity institutions are finding it difficult to perform their responsibilities with new questioning by the Senate on whether to maintain their tenure or not, this could be a final blow leading to the death of these institutions that really need security in the performance of their duties.
Integrity institutions throughout Africa institutions such as Anti-corruption, Auditing, and Financial Intelligence Units have tenures. Analysts say this is particularly important to give these institutions free hands at all times to check excesses in the administration of government.