Police Renew Bribery Crackdown Following the release of Transparency International’s 2013 Global Corruption Barometer report earlier this month ranking Liberia second to Sierra Leone worldwide in bribe giving and taking, the police authorities here have begun a new crack down on officers demanding and accepting bribes. The Transparency International report found 77 percent of people surveyed in Liberia paid a bribe to police in the past year. The report has sparked outrage amongst members of the Liberian national police, but motorists insist that policemen routinely demand small bribes otherwise known in local parlance as give “a small thing before you go.” In the crackdown, police spokesman Sam Collins warned that any officer taking a bribe would be fired and risks facing criminal charges. “Any attempt on the part of any officer to get involved in acts unbecoming of the police officer, that officer will be dealt with. There will be no turning back,” he stressed. Drivers of commercial vehicles said police looking for bribes particularly targeted them. Driver Bull Davies said an officer can stop you for a violation, real or imagined, and demand payment of as much as $15 or 500 to 1,000 Liberian dollars. “They will threaten to give you a ticket or will not give you a ticket. Then they will tell someone give me 1,000 or give me 500. They will receive that 500 and they will not give a receipt. They will not give you anything. They receive it and they leave. They gone,” he complained. A commercial driver typically earns about 1,000 Liberian dollars per day. But ex-policeman Morris Tamba said officers were also sometimes just trying to make ends meet. “If you are paid on time, [they] give you good salary on time, everything on time; bribe will not be received as much as it is now. The corruption will be eliminated. Take for example: Last month, they have not gotten pay. What do you expect somebody to do? The man searches outside. No food at the house. He will go in the street. He will arrest somebody falsely,” ex-patrolman Morris Tamba complained.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:12:45 +0000