Country needs independent anti-corruption commission, donors say

Liberia needs to set up an independent anti-corruption commission because poor financial management and endemic graft are still plaguing the country's transitional government, according to a report by international donors. The Economic Governance Action Plan, a copy of which was seen by IRIN on Wednesday, said the power-sharing government, made up of representatives from the former warring factions and civilian groups, was doing little to tackle corruption. "An independent anti-corruption commission supported by donors, international partners and the government of Liberia is required," the report said. The report 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. It was handed to Liberian officials on Tuesday. "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," the report said. It said that this was undermining the implementation of an August 2003 peace deal. 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 funding might be at risk. "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 said. International donor representatives met Liberian government officials in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, last month to review donor pledges of US$ 520 million intended for the country's recovery program. UN officials say only US $359 million has been handed over. The acting spokesman for the Liberian government, Bernard Waritay, told IRIN on Wednesday that the government would call a cabinet meeting to discuss the latest report from the donors. "The government attaches grave concern to this report and we will do everything possible to work along with our international partners who have been greatly supporting Liberia's peace process," Waritay said. Liberia's police chief, the president of the national assembly and three other parliamentarians have been suspended for corruption, but the transitional government denies corruption within its own ranks. "Media reports alleging widespread corruption in the (transitional government) are merely sensational and not based on proven facts and cases," it said in a statement issued last weekend.