International Bodies Urge Liberia To Tackle Financial Corruption

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

03 June 2005

An international report has called upon the authorities of Liberia to set up an independent anti-corruption commission to tackle financial mismanagement and help country's transitional government to restore order.

According to the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the report known as the Economic Governance Action Plan, a copy of which has been seen by IRIN, notes that the power-sharing government, made up of representatives from the former warring factions and civilian groups, is doing little to tackle corruption.

"An independent anti-corruption commission supported by donors, international partners and the government of Liberia is required," the report stated.

The report, which was written by the United Nations, the European Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United States, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund went on to add that:

"After more than eighteen months of intensive technical and policy advice and financial support, there is still broad-based weak financial management which has perpetrated systemic and endemic corruption."

A senior government source told IRIN that the international donors had warned Liberia, which is struggling to recover after 14 years of civil war, that it could lose vital sources of international funding unless steps are made to tackle corruption.

"They have made it very clear to us in government. that corruption and financial mismanagement would jeopardise further international assistance for Liberia's reconstruction programme if concrete actions are not taken to stamp it out," the source revealed.

Meanwhile, acting spokesman for the Liberian government, Bernard Waritay, told IRIN that the government attaches "grave concern" to the implications of the report.

However, a contradictory government statement issued last weekend countered that reports of widespread corruption were "sensational" and "not based on proven fact."

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