October 30, 2014 PRESS STATEMENT Ladies and gentlemen of the Press; our magnanimous international and local partners; fellow Liberians. On the behalf of the thousands of ordinary, less fortunate, deprived, and downtrodden Liberians across this land, the Movement for the Defense of the Downtrodden (MODD) herewith extols the team at the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) for rising to the occasion and taking the bold and perhaps difficult step towards investigating lingering cases of corruption, and recommending punitive measures aimed at safeguarding public resources and other material assets. Our commendation of the LACC is predicated upon the fact that since its enactment in August of 2008, until now, it had fallen short of being robust in dealing with cases of corruption which left many Liberians with the conclusion that the commission had been compromised in the fight against corruption. While we do not intend to pre-judge the resolve of the government in these matters, we must unequivocally emphasize our invariable call for the strict adherence to the recommendations as contained in the LACC’s investigations. Over the period, several corruption cases were investigated, but were not accorded the relevant executive’s support for prosecution which led to many alleged corrupt public officials going away with impunity. You will agree with us that this ‘culture of impunity’ has got to stop in order to defeat this menace called corruption. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, the single-most reason why corruption has persistently increased in Liberia is the lack of political will to prosecute, whether speedily or slowly, cases of corruption that would serve as deterrent for would-be perpetrators. This single-most relapse on the part of government has entreated many into indulging in the same acts of corruption. However, the failure of this government to uphold the LACC’s recommendations for prosecution of alleged corrupt public officials and other private citizens will ruin the reported legacy of the regime, and will undermine the resilience and commitment of all anti-graft institutions towards the fight against corruption. Meanwhile, we also believe that the outbreak and subsequent spread of the deadly Ebola virus shamefully exposed the lapses in the entire governance structure of the state, particularly the health sector, which Liberians were made to believe that it was well on course in terms of adequate service delivery and general reform. It has appeared to us that resources allotment for these different reforms were squandered by people in authority but were never made to account for those funds, which is why the health system remains a total mess after eight (8) years of so-called reform. This is appalling! Therefore, we encourage the government of Liberia through the Incident Management System (IMS) to exhibit the highest level of accountability, transparency and honesty in the disbursement of financial and material resources so as to achieve the needed results, as this is about life and death. More so, we challenge the LACC to remain engaged in its follow-up drive on Ebola resources, as we will stop at nothing in ensuring that every fund made available for the fight against Ebola is accounted for, and whosoever attempts to corrupt the system will be prosecuted. In continuation of the fight against corruption, we hereby call for the immediate prosecution of the Chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC) for the procurement of vehicle rental services without following the required Public Procurement and Concession procedures as necessitated by the PPC Act. It can be recalled that the Chairperson of the National Elections Commission (NEC), Cllr. Jerome Kokorya admitted to procuring vehicle rental services from the Efficient Logistics Services for the purpose of conducting Voter’s Roll Update across the country, without utilizing the required bidding process or obtaining a ‘no objection’ from the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC) which is a flagrant violation of the PPC Act. It is expect that there must have been a motive and intent of such illegal action on the part of the NEC’s Chairperson who is a lawyer, therefore, the LACC must unearth such motive. Signed: ___________________________ Alfred G. Togbah, Sr. Executive Director
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 11:27:39 +0000
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