New president to inspect spending of transitional govt

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia has promised a financial audit of the outgoing transitional government, which was marred by repeated corruption charges during its two years in power. In her State of the Nation address on Monday, the newly sworn-in Sirleaf said fighting corruption would be the “bedrock” of her economic policy for the country. She said that according to the transitional government’s financial reports, the country had US $80.4 million in revenues in 2005 while expenditures stood at $78.5 million. “We do not stand behind these numbers and we will certainly do our audits…to make sure that those figures are reconfirmed and any discrepancies duly reported to you,” Sirleaf said in her address, winning a round of applause from parliamentarians. “The transitional government proved unable to exercise the political will to implement stringent economic policies measures and economic programs,” she said. The speech however came a week after exiting lawmakers passed a bill authorising the new president to inspect the interim government, which was put in place under a 2003 peace deal after 14 years of war. And Wesley Johnson, vice chairman of the interim government, told reporters on Tuesday that former leaders welcomed the president’s audit. “I do not think we are afraid of audits,” the former second in command said. “She should go ahead and conduct audits, because the Liberian people have the right to know.” Before quitting power the transitional parliament passed legislation mandating Sirleaf "to use state resources to hire national and international auditing firms to audit all revenues and expenditures” of the former government. The law bars the more than 300 members of government and parliament from travelling outside of Liberia during the auditing period. The government of transitional leader Charles Gyude Bryant came under heavy public and international criticism for rampant corruption. Concerns about corruption in government prompted Liberia's international partners and donors in September to draw up an anti-graft plan titled, Governance Economic Management Assistance Program (GEMAP). GEMAP is intended to ring-fence key sources of revenue, place international supervisors in major ministries and lucrative sites such as the port, airport, customs office and forestry commission, and monitor all expenditures for a three-year period.