The international community has drafted a hard-hitting anti-corruption plan for Liberia that would limit the governments powers to grant contracts, ring-fence key sources of revenue, place international supervisors in key ministries and bring in judges from abroad.
The Liberia Economic Governance and Action Plan (LEGAP), a copy of which was obtained by IRIN, was drawn up by donors to address the “systemic and endemic corruption” which they believe is handicapping the West African nations economic resuscitation after 14 years of civil war (1989-2003).
“Economic and fiscal governance has been insufficient to put Liberias economy firmly on a path of recovery, poverty relief and reduction of external debt,” the draft document says.
It is due to be put to Liberias transitional government and the UN Security Council for endorsement in the coming weeks.
Liberians can often be heard complaining about rampant corruption in the transitional government that was set up under an August 2003 peace deal to shepherd the country to elections due on 11 October.
Residents in the capital Monrovia constantly bemoan the fact that senior government officials drive around in flash four-wheel drive vehicles and find the money to undertake extensive renovations to their homes, while ordinary Liberians are forced to eke out a living in a city where there is still no running water or electricity two years after the war ended.
Much of Liberias basic infrastructure was destroyed during the conflict, but donors have repeatedly warned that funding for reconstruction will be withheld if politicians continue to squander or pocket resources designed to help the countrys estimated three million population.
Now the international community is showing its teeth.
It wants to set up an Economic Governance Steering Committee to supervise revenue collection and public expenditure in Liberia for the next three years. Three years of tight controls
This body would have the power to veto government economic policies and contract awards and would exercise strict control over all government money.
The LEGAP document calls for the steering committee to include representatives of the United Nations, the European Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United States, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Domestic representation would come from the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Liberia, the heads of the Contracts and Monopolies Commission and the Governance Reform Commission, as well as a representative from civil society.
The proposals were drafted in response to strong concerns expressed by the international bodies at a donor meeting with Liberian government representatives in Copenhagen last month.
Diplomats in Monrovia stressed, however, that the action plan to fight corruption would be a negotiated deal, not an imposed one.
Timber and diamonds
Liberias prime assets are timber and diamonds, but the UN Security Council banned their export after concluding that former president Charles Taylor was using the foreign exchange earned from these commodities to buy guns and fuel conflict.
Taylor backed insurrections in neighbouring Sierra Leone and Guinea and by the time he was forced out of power in 2003, he was fighting desperately to prevent two Liberian rebel movements from overrunning his last stronghold in the capital Monrovia.
The LEGAP draft hints that the UN ban on diamond sales, imposed in 2001, and the embargo on timber exports, which came into force two years later, could be lifted in return for Liberia accepting tight international oversight of its economy.
“Successful implementation of this LEGAP will contribute to the discussions on the lifting of the existing… sanctions regarding diamonds and timber,” the document says.
In his latest report on Liberia to the Security Council, dated 7 June, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, suggested that the government should “invite an internationally recognised forestry management team to temporarily oversee operations in the forestry sector.”
The LEGAP proposals go even further in ring-fencing revenue streams flowing into government coffers.
They suggest that key state enterprises, such as the port of Monrovia, the international airport and the fuel distribution company should be farmed out to international management through competitive tender.
LEGAP also proposes that monies paid to the government should be credited into special escrow accounts to prevent greedy officials from laying their hands on the cash and diverting it into their own pockets.
The draft document recommends placing international representatives in key economic institutions and state-owned enterprises with the power to sign off and veto deals.
It calls for a review of contracts already signed by the present government and a bar on new concessions being granted until the Economic Governance Steering Committee is satisfied that all the proper conditions for competitive tendering of such awards have been put in place.
This seems to be a response to the discovery of a secret agreement between the interim government and WAMCO, a firm with no mining experience, that gave the London-based company the right to buy and market most of Liberia’s diamond production.
The deal was exposed in March and has since been cancelled. A UN panel of experts said the proposed accord would have created “a de facto monopoly over much of Liberias diamond-producing regions.”
While reinforcing financial controls, LEGAP also seeks to reform Liberias justice system so that laws are enforced and offenders are properly punished.
It wants to set up an independent anti-corruption commission and proposes to staff the criminal courts with foreign judges recruited from abroad.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews
