Monrovia – In the thirteen years of FrontPageAfrica’s assessment of the Liberian government’s governance, transparency and accountability performance, 2019 may go down as one of the most complicated and demanding any administration has faced in recent memory, at least since the end of the civil war. A wave of protests, dissent and uncertainty continue to dog the George Manneh Weah-led government, now limping toward its third year in office. From civil servants unhappy and impatient over unpaid salary arrears, to ordinary Liberians growing increasingly wary about governance lapses and rising frustration over President Weah’s long silence in the wake of the rapidly declining state of affairs of the state.

We kick off our 2019 assessment review of the government with the Executive Branch.

THE PRESIDENCY

George Manneh Weah, President of the Republic of Liberia

THE LOWDOWN: After one year in office, President Weah, in his 2019 Annual Message trumpeted his administration as being better off than its predecessor, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s. “During the course of our first year in office , I can confidently state that Liberia is far better today under our leadership than it was twelve months ago,” the President said in January.

Two years on, the realities are sinking in and the signs of the time have proven otherwise. Elizabeth Donnelly, Deputy Head, Africa Programme at the Chatham House in London summed up President Weah’s woes in January. “Despite early signs that he would take on bureaucratic excess and corruption, rebuild infrastructure and drive economic development, Weah’s first year in office has been haunted by the old guard of Liberian politics, hampered by limited resources and dogged by controversies over missing money. Continuity seems to be winning out over change.”

While acknowledging that the economy is still broken and that ordinary Liberians were enduring the harshness of the situation, the President outlined his achievements and recited age-old challenges as his administration’s stumbling blocks, expressing similar refrains from his predecessor.

The excuses have formulated a theme the President and his supporters have capitalized on as reasons for some of the struggles now contributing to the many challenges confronting the administration. Said the President: “It is important to mention that the broken economy inherited by our administration, caused by the risk associated with the democratic transition in 2017, collapse of the country’s major export commodities prices on the global market, the UNMIL withdrawal, and the effect of the Ebola Virus Disease in 2014, means that we are is still in a struggling state.”

Despite the President’s excuses, critics have taken him to task for failing to exercise economic discipline and curb his own personal expenses including exorbitant travels and use of private jet as well as construction of multiple properties since assuming office last January.

2019 HIGHS: During the course of the year under review, the President won praise for proposing the reduction in term lengths for members of the executive and legislative branches of government. Under the plan, the president and representatives would serve five years instead of six, while senators would sit for seven years rather than nine.

The President also signed into law an Act amending the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority Law to the Fisheries and Aquaculture Management and Development. The amendment of the Act provides effective managerial and operational leverages to the national entity to appropriately execute its functions.

Love him or hate him, President Weah’s emphasis on roads has been the high point of his presidency to date although, some of his critics say, he is sacrificing too much in other areas like education and the economy.

During the course of the year, the President dedicated repair works on the Gbarnga-Voinjama-Foya financed by USAID and inspected the Gbarnga-Salayea road project as well as the 1.9km chip seal pavement works in Ganta and inspected the 67km Ganta-Yekepa Road Project, which is being done by Arcelor Mittal.

Emphasis on community roads in the Chugbor, Bishop Francis road and many others around Monrovia, have made travel a lot less stressful for community residents and among the rare major accomplishments of the administration’s “Pro-Poor Agenda”.

Perhaps the biggest score of the year came in the fourth quarter when the IMF approved a four-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Liberia in an amount equivalent to SDR 155 million (60 percent of quota or about US$ 213.6 million) to help the country restore macroeconomic stability, provide a foundation for sustainable growth, and addressing weaknesses in governance.

The program will focus on restoring macroeconomic stability, which is a key precondition for a sustainable transition out of fragility, while protecting the poorest segment of the population from the burden of adjustment; Putting Liberia on a fiscally sustainable growth path, which is the main objective of the PAPD; and addressing weaknesses in governance and institutions of the public sector , which will help safeguard scarce resources and facilitate achievement of the first two objectives.



2019 LOWS: The lowest point of the year for the President was the June 7 protest organized by the Council of Patriots. Allowing the situation to escalate to the point where thousands of Liberians were drawn to the street, highlighted the effect the dismal economy was having on the administration’s ability to deliver. The protests also showed that Liberians were angry over alleged top-level corruption and violations of human rights, with many concerned that the President is enriching himself at their expense and slowly pulling the country back to its ugly past.

During the course of the year under review, the President took some hits over his proposition forwarded to the legislature regarding the holding of by-elections. The President’s plan suggests that any vacancy created by death, resignation, expulsions or otherwise of a senator or representative, should be filled by appointment by the “duly elected County Councils” within 90 days from the time the notice of vacancy is announced to the County Council by the presiding officer of the Senate or the House of Representatives.

The President also took a hit during the course of the year as his administration lost out on a US$15 million for road maintenance.

The money was part of a US$257 million negotiated by former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as part of the Millennium Challenge Compact agreement meant to fix Liberia’s power quagmire and ease the bad roads condition. As part of the MCC agreement, the Americans were to provide US$15 million for road maintenance. But that would have happened only if the Liberian government made available the same amount as a matching fund.

As a result, the MCC canceled the road fund agreement, dealing a major blow to President Weah’s pro-poor agenda. Ironically, the MCC in April 2019, warned the government, in a communication, about lackadaisically approaching its part of the bargain but the government apparently played deaf. In another letter written on June 19, 2019 and signed by Kyeh Kim, Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Principal Deputy Vice President, the Liberian government through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning was reminded about its failure to meet up with the agreement. The MCC was concerned that the government was diverting road funds and not conforming to the Compact agreement.

Notifying the administration of the loss, the MCC, in a letter to the government said: “Although the MCC is pleased to see funds transferred to the NRF, this amount does not represent full amount required pursuant to the April 2019 Roads Implementation Letters nor the National Road Fund Act. In addition, MCC notes that those transferred amounts also do not meet the milestones described in the payment schedule proposed by the government in its letter dated May 7. In light of this, MCC is unable to consider disbursement going forward for the Compact’s matching Road Maintenance Fund Sub-Activity.”

2020 OUTLOOK: The President has used much of his numerous travels to urge investors to explore and take advantage of Liberia’s vast natural resources. The coming year could prove to be his most pivotal yet. Would the President listen the cries of his critics to make the necessary tweaks and changes to his administration? An influential member of the clergy, Rev. Dr. Samuel Reeves, thinks the entire Cabinet should get the boot and be replace with a ‘new team’ that will work in the interest of the nation and its people. The President’s loyalty to his closest aides could be put to the test although many remain skeptical. It will also be interesting to keep an eye on how President Weah deals with emerging dissent within his own party with the likes of party chairman Mulbah Morlu, Rep. Acarous Gray and others who were instrumental in helping him win the presidency, now feeling disenchanted and sidestepped by new darlings Emmanuel Shaw, Charles Bright, Archie Bernard and others.



GRADE

FOREIGN POLICY: C

DOMESTIC: C+

THE VICE PRESIDENCY

Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor

THE LOWDOWN: Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor once boasted that as Vice President, she would never be an old car parked in the garage, an apparent reference to her predecessor, former VP Joseph Boakai, who during the 2017 presidential election debate suggested that his lukewarm performance as VP was due to the fact that he was not given a lot of opportunities to shine.

Two years in, the former First Lady-turned influential Senator from vote-rich Bong County and now Vice President appears to be having a nightmare. Despite the influential role she and her National Patriotic Party played in bringing the Coalition for Democratic Change government to power, the VP has been dealt a set of cards she never anticipated.

Dogged by allegations and accusations from forces within the presidency that she was behind the June 7 protest, the VP quietly told aides and intervening members of the diplomatic corps that she was contemplating throwing in the towel.

FPA reported in June, that a team of Senators headed by Senator Varney Sherman(UP, Grand Cape Mount County) met with the Vice President to plead with her to rescind her decision. The VP had quietly expressed disappointment over the manner in which she has been disrespected by people close to the presidency, particularly in the wake of the June 7, Save-the-State protest.

2019 HIGHS: The VP’s support of the Domestic Violence Bill was a high point for her office during the course of the year under review as she expressed optimism that it would go a long way to curtailing acts of violence against women and children in Liberia while lamenting that the issue of the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is being treated as a separate law. The Act seeks to prevent and eradicate Sexual Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) against women, men and children.

Addressing the high-level panel at the World Health Summit in October, the VP made the case for women empowerment as a key component to achieving Universal Health Coverage, proffering that finance, expertise and constituency are the three fundamental pillars for achieving universal health coverage, which considers access to affordable healthcare for people across the world.

2019 LOWS: During the course of the year under review, the VP’s office was mired in a major scandal regarding a leaked audio recording involving Bong County Superintendent Esther Walker and some senior officials of the government. Superintendent Walker, is heard on the audio saying that the vice president was accused by ministers Nathaniel McGill and Samuel Tweah of receiving a high traditional honor from traditional leaders in Bong County and which was intended for President George Weah.

In her only response on the matter, the VP said she was not interested in gossips but remains focused in helping to revamp Liberia’s economy.

Determined to show her loyalty and commitment to the presidency, the VP said she is more focused on helping President Weah improve the country’s economy, and indicated that the governance of the state is of more priority than to focus on issues that undermine the forward march of Liberia. “The issue for me is that there are so many important things on our desk: the issue of the governance of our state; the issue of jobs for our people; the issues of how we can improve the economy to fulfill the Pro-poor Agenda — I think those are the important issues and not rumors and gossips. I would like to ask the media to let’s look at the issues concerning our country and make that a priority,” VP Howard-Taylor said.

GRADE: C

2020 OUTLOOK: Throughout her ordeal of the past two years, the former First Lady has proven she has the mental toughness to fight. Murmurs about her ambitions have not gone unnoticed by those close to the presidency, fueling suggestions that the party may drop her from the ticket should President Weah seek a second term in 2023. Unless a sudden change of attitude from the presidency, the coming year could either improve or continue the downward spiral of a VP struggling to fit in.

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE

THE LOWDOWN: The sector with probably the best potential to turn around the economic woes of the Weah-led government has been widely ignored.

The ministry has been without a minister since the controversial dismissal of Dr. Mogana Flomo during the course of the year under review.

Although President Weah, in a prerecorded nationwide address on May 19, 2019, described agriculture as critical to the transformation of the Liberian economy and promised to increase in the 2019/2020 national budget as his administration moves toward transforming the sector, the pledge has not been backed with the numbers reflected in the 2019/2020 National Budget where an amount of U.S$6,208,754 has been allotted, representing just 1.16 percent of the total budget.

The sector remains the primary livelihood for more than 60 percent of Liberia’s population and provides sustenance for many households engaging in cassava, rubber, rice, oil palm, cocoa, or sugarcane production. Nevertheless, incentives for farmers and Liberians engaged in massive farming of rice, palm oil and other local food consumption items has been lacking. Additionally, overall agricultural productivity is low, resulting in Liberia importing more than 80 percent of its rice, making the country vulnerable to global food price volatility.

2019 HIGHS: During the course of the year under review, the government attracted development finance in an amount of USD 32 million from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) to support the Tree Crop Extension Project (TCEP) and Smallholder Transformation and Agribusiness Revitalization Project (STAR-P) implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture. 23-Million of the amount is to increase agricultural productivity and commercialization on the part of smallholder farmers in the vegetable, rice and oil palm value chains in Bomi, Gbarpolu, Grand Cape Mount, Grand Gedeh, Lofa, Margibi, Maryland, Nimba and Sinoe counties under the STAR-P. This amount is in addition to a $25 Million United States Dollars loan agreement previously signed between the Liberian government and the World Bank. With the IFAD funding, direct beneficiaries are approximately Thirty-Eight Thousand (38,000) smallholder farmers of whom at least 30 percent will be women and young farmers. Intermediate beneficiaries will include agribusinesses and business development services enterprises that have business links to smallholder farmers in the targeted value chains.

The remaining 9 Million United States Dollars which is in addition to 17.5-Million received originally from IFAD, will support the rehabilitation of rural roads in the Tree Crop Extension Project (TCEP) area in Nimba County.

An Executive Order No. 97 was put in place during the course of the year, suspending import tariffs on all types of agriculture products and equipment classified under the Tariff numbers of the Liberia Revenue Code and directly related to Agriculture development in Liberia, aimed at stimulating economic growth in the country.

2019 LOWS: The controversial and unexplained dismissal of Dr. Flomo remains a mystery. President Weah, in June, relieved the minister of his post and designated Deputy Agriculture Minister for Administration Precious Tetteh to act pending the appointment of a new minister. Six months on, the void remains, raising question marks about the administration’s seriousness about reforming the sector.

Dr. Flomo’s dismissal came just days after lobbying for support to reduce the high food insecurity situation in Liberia. The minister had told the China-Africa Agriculture Policy Dialogue in Changsha, Hunan Provence, on the eve of his dismissal that the lack of investment in agriculture has put Liberia’s Economy in a very bad state and made the country to heavily rely on the importation of food, expressing the belief that investment in food crops mainly the production of the country’s staple, rice will help solve long years of food insecurity in Liberia.

Lingering questions regarding the whys of his exit drew speculations with Bong County Electoral District #3 Rep. J. Marvin Cole criticizing Dr. Flomo of being incompetent for the job. Rep. Cole told a team of journalists recently that former Agriculture Minister Dr. Flomo allegedly lacked the academic credentials to merit the post of Agriculture Minister.

The Ministry was also forced to address concerns that some stakeholders had placed embargo on any Agriculture Donor Funded Project. The Ministry dismissed reports that some $US48 Million Donor Funding is being withheld, declaring that the joint IFAD, World Bank and GOL Project is still being implemented. The Ministry says it is enjoying the confidence and credibility of its Donor Partners including the World Bank and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) which is evidenced by the $48 Million United States Dollars Financing Agreement signed recently between the Government of Liberia and IFAD on November 21, 2019 at the Ministry of Finance, and Development Planning.

GRADE: F

2020 OUTLOOK: Will President Weah finally get his man – or woman – to restore faith in the sector and turn its fortunes around? More importantly, when will Liberia stop relying on rice donations from Japan and other countries and give farmers the boost, they need to make Africa’s oldest republic self-sufficient in food production and consumption.

LIBERIA ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION

THE LOWDOWN

Established in 2008 as an independent organization to investigate, prosecute and prevent acts of corruption of public officials, the LACC, like the CAA has lost its way in recent years, succumbing to the wills of the Presidency and lacking the teeth to bite and tackle serious cases and reports of corruption.

The LACC, like most integrity institutions have been denied moral and financial support which has in some instances, limited their ability to go after the corrupt.

The issue of tenure dominated much of the commission’s work during the year. Cllr. James Verdier took his bow following the end of his tenure, so did a couple of his commissioners. His replacement, the Nigerian national, Cllr. Ndubusi Nwabudike is yet to take over and has been embroiled in an integrity issue of his own. During the course of the year under review, four stranded crewmen of a Nigerian ship that sank 14-years ago at Popo Beach blamed the nominee for their protracted misfortunes.

Nwabudike has repeatedly denied the accusations. “I was never representing any party in that case – I was never a counsel of record in that case, so I had no interest whatsoever. I don’t see how a none existing interest will conflict with any other interest. Please investigate the records in our entire judicial system and produce any document that associates me with that matter.”

On his Nigerian heritage, Nwabudike told FrontPageAfrica toward the end of the year that his Nigerian lineage should be seen as an asset and not obfuscated with his qualification and commitment to serve his country, adding that he brings to bear his wealth of knowledge and expertise in the interest of the country. “There is no public figure in this our country that has not been accused of having dual nationality, in particular, of not being American Citizen and a Liberian at one and the same time. “It is the law that qualifies you as a citizen not public opinion,” said Cllr. Nwabudike.

The commission’s integrity was called into question after Verdier, in a parting shot with the Executive Branch blamed the LACC’s poor performance on funding. “We don’t have funding, we have struggled to actually have this administration put itself behind the fight against corruption and make some bold statements regarding transparency, accountability and ensuring that we can fight corruption.”

Information Minister Lenn Eugene Nagbe told the Voice of America that Verdier was accused by his fellow commissioners of not being above board in his financial dealings, relating to allegations of corruption against the former chair. Verdier retorted, saying that the allegations against him had already been investigated and were found to be “frivolous”. He said he had requested a “multi-year system audit” for the LACC.

2019 HIGHS: The LACC’s “Assets Verification and Validation” exercise received some commendation, including one from the president, whose assets were never made public. But despite the president’s call on all his officials of government to join him in cooperating and complying with the campaign, the one good deed from the LACC has never really caught on.

The process, which is in harmony with Section 10.2 of the National Code of Conduct, requires the assets of all public officials and employees of the Government shall be verified and validated for investigation purposes.

2019 LOWS: The LACC found itself at loggerheads with its own comptroller toward the tail-end of the year under review. Mr. J. Bernard Nagbe stepped down over unpaid salaries and benefits. “I am not receiving my remuneration on time and my service to the Government and people of Liberia is not for free”, he wrote. “That’s just in simple term; I owe my life, career and service to my country but ultimately, my family comes first. I have never had this experience in my professional life, and never am I [prepared] to endure this nonsense”.

When the LACC fired back and demanded that he does not leave the country, pending completion of an ongoing audit at the integrity institution, Nagbe fired back, saying that the LACC is not a court to restrict his movement.

Also, during the course of the year under review, the LACC faced accusations that it indirectly ignored a court’s order, mandating it to payback ex-employees’ remittances of an over taxed rate. The payback order was done back in December of 2018 by Commercial Court Judge Eva Mappy Morgan. According to court documents, the ex-employees tax rate from salary by then amounted to 10% but was on the contrary applied as 26+%; something which caused them a huge reduction of their income over the years. Court documents show that the ex-employees’ employment at the time of the incident range from a year to six years. The amount in question is US$57,105.64.

The fallout of the Verdier departure cast a bad light on the commission, resulting in a war-of-words between the former LACC chair and Minister of State Nathaniel McGill. The minister instructed Commissioner Charles Gibson to serve as Officer-in-Chief.

GRADE: F

2020 OUTLOOK: In the wake of all the noise surrounding dual citizenship, if the Nigerian, Cllr. Ndubusi Nwabudike is confirmed, new questions could arise regarding naturalized citizens and high-profile government jobs.

CIVIL SERVICES AGENCY

THE LOWDOWN

Under the act establishing the Civil Service Agency, the CSA should be independent from all other Ministries and Agencies of Government and should serve as the central government agency responsible for managing the Civil Service, responsible for improving the human resources, service delivery, effectiveness and efficiency of the Service, which entails planning human capacity needs, recruitment and selection, training and development, performance management, and career development of civil servants.

To the contrary, during the year under review, the CSA lost its independence, falling prey to partisan politics and control, climaxing at year’s end with the firing of Director General Laurine Wede Johnson.

Johnson’s dismissal came just a day after FrontPageAfrica reported that Johnson was in a fight for control of key departments and being undermined by her peers.

At the crux of the saga is a reform organogram of the CSA Johnson was engineering. The reformed chart is separate from the original organogram done by the Governance Commission. In a memo dated November 12, 2019, DG Johnson informed and shared with all departmental heads the new CSA organogram, which according to her, distinguishes roles and reporting line in the discharge of her respective core functions.

In the memo, she said that she discovered that the Department of Finance and Budget was wrongly placed after her engagement with senior staff. “In accordance with section 3 of the Public Procurement Management Act of 2009, every government agency and every constitutional institution shall have an Accounting Officer, who shall be the head of agency or head of spending units.”

In defense of her action, she further quoted a sub-regulation of the PFM Act, “The line minister shall be the head of the agency or the spending unit in the Ministry and the head of the agency shall be the head of the spending unit in the government agency.”

It is still unclear what led to Johnson’s ouster but President Weah has named James Thompson as Acting DG.

The CSA, during the course of the year under review found itself in one big mess. Even after President Weah pledged his government’s commitment to ensuring that all recruitment, employment and payroll management exercises will revert to the CSA and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning as required by law, the damage had already been done. The practice which started at the onset of the administration last January often ran into criticisms that the ruling party was overstepping the function of the CSA and employing people based on partisanship.

2019 HIGHS: In an effort to building a strong work environment, the Civil Service Agency of Liberia has opened a two-day orientation workshop for all Deputy and Assistant Ministers for Administration on the Performance Management System which facilitates the attainment of individual and corporate goals.

Performance Management systems enable you to track and monitor the performance of individual employees and departments.

Management Services Directorate of the Civil Service Agency has put enough time in setting up a strong and effective Performance Management System which is remarkably being rolled-out across the Ministries, Agencies and Commissions (MACs).

Performance Management is part of the Civil Service Agency’s mandate to improve human resource capacity, service delivery and enhance the effectiveness of Civil Service, and PMS remains a key strategic tool for an effective, efficient and professional service delivery within the Government.

2019 LOWS: Six Public sector groupings including; National Teachers Association of Liberia, National Health Workers Union of Liberia, Monrovia Consolidated Schools System Teachers’ Association, Supplementary Teachers’ Association of Liberia, Civil Servants Union of Liberia and the Liberia Labor Congress have given the George Manneh Weah-led government a two-weeks ultimatum to address a laundry list of recommendations, which if not adhered to would lead to a go-slow action across the country.

The group under the banner, “CONSORTIUM OF PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS ORGANIZATIONS OF LIBERIA”, at a news conference Wednesday, called for amongst other things, an immediate halt to all unapproved and unauthorized percentage deductions on the salaries of Public Sector Workers by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP).

GRADE: F

2020 OUTLOOK: Will the CSA return to its independence in the New Year? Partisan play is likely to continue.

MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

THE LOWDOWN: The Ministry responsible for maintaining the quality of goods and services in Liberia continues to struggle with its enforcement responsibilities. Prices of basic goods and services are at an all-time high as consumers struggle with fluctuating prices at the gasoline pump and basic commodities.

2019 HIGHS: At the start of the year under review, the ministry, after an extensive investigation discovered an active and illegal practice in existence involving the illicit issuance and/or manipulation of Import Permit Declaration(IPDs) by local Importers, which is seriously reducing GOL Revenues, and undermining the viability of local manufacturing companies. These illegal IPDs, the ministry noted, resulted in the flooding of the local market with low quality, illegally imported Flour, Nails, Eggs, Biscuits and other essential commodities and goods with under-declared value, as well as smuggled flour, all of which are depriving government of legal Revenues. Many of the imported flour are also being illegally brought in with “Expired” IPDs.

A month, later, in February, the MoC in a joint news conference with the Ministry of Health revealed that it had quarantined a consignment of suspected contaminated pig meat on the local market brought in the country by the Cheaitou Brothers, located at Red Light.

Sample of the suspected pig feet was taken to the National Standards Laboratory and test confirmed that the meat contained salmonella poison. Upon the issuance of the worldwide alert by the European Union, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry immediately informed its Inspectorate Unit of the Alert. The Inspectorate Unit then moved in to conduct what is known as ‘Regulatory Sampling.’ The purpose of today’s Press Conference is to give you the outcome of the testing that was conducted by our technical team at the National Standard Laboratory. The test results showed that majority of the samples of the pig meat submitted for testing were contaminated with Salmonella.

The hosting of the 43rd Administrative and 17th Ministerial Council Meetings of the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) in Monrovia during the latter stages of the year offered Liberia a chance to get in the driver’s seat, relative to providing leadership guidance to ARIPO member countries when it was elected as chair for the next two years.

Minister Tarpeh, during the year, sign an Administrative Regulation for the birth of Liberia’s first-ever Collective Management Society, intended to enable the Country’s Intellectual Property Office (LIPO) adequately improve on its mandate, mainly the war against piracy and other forms of IP-related theft.

2019 LOWS: The ministry found itself engulfed in yet another saga involving its deputy minister Jemima Wolokollie. The ministry in the latter part of the year, distanced itself from utterances attributed to one of its Deputy Ministers, relative to the Loan program.

The Commerce Ministry said its Small Business Loan Program is managed by licensed financial institutions, with the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI) serving as the lead manager. All loan processing, from application to disbursement are done by these financial institutions based an agreement and standard operating procedures reached by the parties. A Commerce Ministry release says the Deputy Minister’s action to use MOCI premises for activities outside the Ministry’s official protocol without top management’s knowledge and approval is most unfortunate and improper. In the release, the Commerce Ministry called on the public not to draw it into anything said or attributed to the Deputy Minister outside the established rules and regulations governing the Commerce Ministry.

GRADE: C

2020 OUTLOOK: Liberians are still waiting for stability in prices as the economic woes intensifies.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

Minister of Education, Prof. Ansu Sonii

THE LOWDOWN: A recent findings by the Africa Report, comparing Liberia with Ethiopia concluded that while Ethiopia is bucking the trends and devoting the third-largest percentage of its budget to education among all countries in the world. Liberia is faltering at the bottom, and, despite significant progress in the 2000s, the country allocates low budgetary expenditures to education.

Africa’s oldest republic still rates out-of-school children among the highest in the world, with 15-20% of children aged 6 to 14 not in school. In 2013, out of 25,000 secondary school students, none of them managed to achieve the minimum pass mark for admission to the University of Liberia. A recent study found that among adult women who had finished primary school, only one in four could read a sentence. The state of education in Liberia is further exacerbated by the lack of classrooms, schools and teachers.

The year was not without controversy for the ministry, especially after declared tuition-free education for all undergraduates at all Public Universities and Colleges, and the payment of West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) fees for all 9th and 12th graders.

2019 HIGHS: Despite its shortcomings, the MoE,in its Joint Education Sector Review for the year under review, unveiled a five-year Getting to Best Education Sector Plan. Minister Boima Sonii made some gains in prioritizing accountability, strengthening the integrity of the education sector, and improving learning outcomes.

Through this initiative and support from partners, the Ministry says it has developed the capacity of Task Team members to assist the Center of Excellence for Curriculum Development through the reform process. Additional Educational Diagnostics study was also conducted as part of the plan to upgrade and make functional the Center of Excellence for Curriculum Development. As a result of the diagnostics study, the following activities were implemented and policies also designed, including, the National School Health-Based Health Survey which informed the development of the National Curriculum Policy, the National Curriculum Framework, the National School Health Policy, and the Teacher’s Handbook for Sexuality Education.

The Ministry of Education, for the first time in the history of the Republic of Liberia, will conduct school assessment and grading using a consolidated digitized tool that is expected to classify all schools, public and private, into categories “A” to ‘F”, with the latter showing the least score. The exercise will ensure that the Ministry can timely and orderly report or share school related data and enrollment statistics.

2019 LOWS: The year under review saw the ministry under fire from both students and teachers. In October, several students were hospitalized due to injuries after police fired teargas in the latest of unprecedented protests to dog the administration.

Hundreds of students from 24 schools within the jurisdiction of the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS) had gathered on Tuesday, October 15, 2019, requesting the administration to pay their teachers, who the students claimed were not attending classes because government reportedly owes them for three months in salary arrears. The students’ demonstration, which began peacefully, turned violent when the President’s convoy came, and the protesters demanded that the President should get down from his convoy and address their concerns, but the security did not allow the President to adhere to students’ request. It was shortly afterward, when some of the protesting students turned violent, that officers of the Liberia National Police responded with teargas.

Another year under review also produce yet more failures for Liberian students. Some 651 students from 46 high schools, failed all the nine subjects of the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) administered by the Monrovia National office of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) for 2018/2019 academic year. Out of the 46 schools, Montserrado County led with 11 schools, followed by Grand Gedeh and Nimba counties with seven and six government-owned and privately-run schools. The WASSCE, which comprises nine subjects, was administered to 39,887 senior students between April and May 2019 at 237 centers nation-wide.

Although students from seven high schools, in Grand Gedeh County, challenged the results claiming that they performed well, Minister Sonii described the failures as “unacceptable and frustrating.”

In a bid to address massive failures of Liberian schoolkids in the Secondary Certification Examinations (WASSCE) results, the Ministry said during the latter stages of the year that it had initiated necessary actions to ensure that students were accorded appropriate assistance that guaranteed improve performance in subsequent examinations.

The Ministry of Education launched the WASSCE Intervention Project for both private and public schools with support from the Government of Liberia (GoL). Extra tutorial classes were held across the country in an attempt to boost students’ performances by adequately preparing them for the examinations. Evidently, based on the intervention and compared to the previous year, 12th graders recorded better scores in all subjects, including distinctions in Mathematics and English. About 2,300 students obtained credits in English Language in 2019 verses 508 students in 2018, and about 2,549 students obtained credits in Mathematics in 2019 compared to 197 in 2018, with other subjects registering similar trends. Through support from partners, the Ministry has rehabilitated several Early Childhood Education level schools in various counties across the country with emphasis on providing better Wash facilities for the Liberian children. Through these interventions supported by partners, the county school systems have also benefited from new hand pumps and latrine facilities.

GRADE: D

2020 OUTLOOK: Will the coming year see an end to strikes by both teachers and students?

EXECUTIVE PROTECTION SERVICES

Executive Director, Executive Protection Service (EPS), Trokon Roberts

THE LOWDOWN

The EPS replaced the Special Security Service (SSS), which was created and established under the Executive Law, Chapter 49 Section 12.56 in 1966.

The restructuring of the security sector has identified meaningful institutional structural frameworks within the EPS. It has removed the numerous deputies and assistant positions to create a more decision-oriented chain of authority within the context of a twentieth century security infrastructure rather than a bureaucratic approach in decision making. It empowers the management structure from a political approach to a more comprehensive system structure.

2019 HIGHS: Director Nathaniel Roberts did a lot of talking during the course of the year under review, promising to change the image of the president’s security details and building the capacity of officers of the EPS as a means of enhancing their work.

Part of that effort was some lobbying for international training. While boasting that the EPS under his watch has been successful in sending more officials of the EPS to trained in Ghana, China, Gambia Nigeria, and America and several countries around the world, Roberts failed to mention that a lot of those officers sent to places like South Korea have not returned to Liberia.

2019 LOWS: Trigger-happy EPS officers were involved in a lot of shootings during the year under review, the most high-profile took place in November when an officer on the service’s counter assault team (E – Cat), was disrobed and held for investigation after firing a live bullet that inflicted wound on Deputy Defense Minister for Administration Mr. Olandrus Dixon.

The shooting incident occurred in a crowd Thursday, 31 October outside the Monrovia City Hall while presidential guards were responding to an incident when a vehicle ran into a packed motorcade of President George Manneh Weah’s convoy. EPS Director Trokon Roberts told local broadcaster OK FM Monday that the EPS officer discharged his weapon on the ground and fragments from the bullet affected Deputy Minister Dixon’s left leg.

The incident happened nearly one year after another incident that led to six agents of the EPS being disarmed and placed under investigation following a scuffle between some EPS agents and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Liberia who were assigned at the Samuel Kanyon Doe’s sports complex. The incident resulted into an AFL soldier being shot and five others sustaining injuries. An EPS agent was also injured, according to MICAT.

GRADE: F

2020 OUTLOOK: Will the Leopard ever change its skin? Doe, Taylor-Era Can Relate.

MINISTRY OF FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

Finance & Development Planning Minister Samuel D. Tweah

THE LOWDOWN: At the start of the years under review, the World Bank projected that the Liberian economy would contract by 1.4% in 2019, following the modest growth of 1.2% in 2018. Inflation reached 31.3% by August 2019, up from 26.1% the previous year. The non-mining sector is expected to contract by 3.4 per-cent in 2019, on the back of contraction in services and manufacturing and weak performance in agriculture, while mining sector is expected to grow by 7.8% due to increased production of gold and ore, according to World Bank numbers.

The overall fiscal deficit of the central government widened from 4.1% of GDP in FY2017 to 4.8% of GDP in FY2018 and further to an estimated 6.2% in FY2019. This was partly caused by a decline in external assistance which had been major part of Liberia’s core revenue structure, though domestic revenue held up strong relative to previous years, although revenue targets for the 2018/19 fiscal year were not met. Tax revenues accounted for 12.1% of GDP in FY2019, which is low by regional standards.

The wage bill was recorded at 10.1% of GDP, or over two-thirds of total expenditures in FY2019, crowding out other recurrent expenditures, particularly the provision of goods and services in the social sectors and infrastructure spending. The Government successfully implemented a wage harmonization program that brought the wage bill down by 1 percentage point of GDP to 9 %. The reform has now been codified under the National Remuneration and Standardization Act passed by the National legislature.

According to May 2019 IMF Article IV document, total public debt, driven largely external borrowing over last decade to finance major infrastructure projects, now stands at about $`1.2 billion or $37.5 of GDP. MFDP sources say disbursement of $258 million on all concessional loans signed as at December 2017 is responsible for the recent increase in the debt size from $878 million as at December 2017. The IMF projects that with the rationalization and inclusion of debt owed to the Central Bank of Liberia of some $487 million, the total public debt stock may rise to more than 48 percent of GDP.

Liberia’s current account deficit narrowed to 21.1% in 2019 from 23.4% of GDP in 2018. According to the World Bank, this was largely due to a decline in imports following the complete UNMIL drawdown, while exports of gold and iron ore rose. However, these improvements were offset by a fall in net income and decline in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and donor transfers, and consequently gross official reserves declined from USD 333 million (2.5 months of import coverage) at end- 2018 to an estimated $280 million (2.1 months of import coverage) at end-2019. Liberia’s medium-term growth prospects are expected to improve as macroeconomic stabilization and structural reforms get implemented. Following the expected contraction in 2019, GDP growth is projected to recover to 1.4% in 2020 and further to 3.4% in 2021, driven by the recovery in the non-mining sector and a moderate expansion in the mining sector.

Faced with a serious debt challenge, declines in external assistance and challenges to revenue performance, the Ministry and the Government began a series of effort to reform fiscal policy and increase domestic revenue mobilization.

Addressing the launch of Public Financial Management Reforms for Institutional Strengthening (PFMRIS), recently, Minster Samuel D. Tweah asserted that efficient public financial management remains a priority for sustained economic growth. The PFMRIS Project is financed through the International Development Association (IDA) grant of US$19 million and is geared towards improving domestic revenue mobilization systems and strengthening financial control and accountability in public finance as a continuation of state-building in Liberia.

The Project, among other activities, will facilitate the conduct of a Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Assessment (PEFA) to gauge the existing level of PFM strengths and weaknesses that still exist and are yet to be captured in the PFM Reform strategy.

Minister Tweah said the PFM will strengthen accountability in the use of public finances. He disclosed that the government of Liberia plans to roll out the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) to fifty-seven (57) Ministries and Agencies of government over the course of the project implementation.

In a bid to address the difficulties vendors encounter while collecting payments, the ministry commenced payments via Mobile Money, requiring all suppliers and those wishing to do business with the government to open a Mobile Money account with either of the Service Providers including Lonestar and Orange.

2019 HIGHS: The decision of the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve a four-year arrangement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Liberia in an amount equivalent to SDR 155 million (60 percent of quota or about US$ 213.6 million) could not have come at a better time for the Weah-led government. It is likely to help the country restore macroeconomic stability, provide a foundation for sustainable growth, and addressing weaknesses in governance.

The Program will target key of areas fiscal, monetary, governance reforms with particular focus as well on improving the business climate for private sector-led growth. Major fiscal reforms included the wage harmonization which has reduced the wage to GDP ratio by 1 percent, deployment of a new cash management system, which will limit the accumulation of arrears and strict adherence to a policy of no central bank borrowing, as enshrined in a speech of by President George Manneh Weah.

Wage harmonization is being billed as a major achievement that could not be done in the past 10 or more years under the previous administration. Under the program, the National Legislature agreed to reduce their salary and the judiciary branch of Government, which prior to harmonization had never been taxed, also took about 16 percent reduction in its wage bill. Harmonization increased the pay of some 14,900 low-income workers and protected teachers and medical workers from pay reductions. This was made possible by reducing the pay of some 9000 workers, whose pay on the abolished General Allowance pay system, was arbitrarily higher relative to other workers.

Many analysts say bringing fairness and equity to Government pay scale is a key strength of the program, since workers have a stronger commitment to work if they feel they are paid on fair and equal terms or according to some standard.

However, critics say reducing salary during inflation is a bad policy and may hurt the Government. It may be the fear of the political consequences for reducing salary that may have led the previous administration not to reduce the wage bill, which grew from US$100 million in 2009 to $289 million by the end of 2017.

Critics and opposition have also charged that the Weah administration had to do harmonization because it was responsible for increasing the wage bill by hiring more than 14,000 persons. In a Senate hearing, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence of Grand Bassa County confronted Minister Tweah with this statistic. In response, the Minister countered that this was false and the Weah administration only hired around 4000 workers in central Government. In various responses, the Government had said it inherited an already large wage bill as shown in the data over the last 12 more years and had to undertake a wage reform to find more resources for the productive and social sectors.

The Ministry has also deployed a new cash-management system that is currently in force. The system equates budgetary allotment to cash to avoid the accumulation of arrears. A major problem at the Ministry is getting paid on time. The Government of Liberia owes vendors millions of dollars it has not paid leading to arrears piling up and the budget execution lacking credibility.

According to analysts, the Government cannot pay its bills because the government has often over-budgeted beyond its revenue potential and because budgetary allotments have not been seriously aligned to real actual revenue that will hit the Government revenue account. Under this new system, even if an entity gets a budget appropriation, allotment, which immediately gives agencies the green light to start committing the Government, will only be made upon the strong possibility that revenue will hit the Government account. This system says experts at the Ministry have started to eliminate the buildup of arrears seen in recent years.

A major high for the Ministry is the approval of a bond discount facility by Afreximbank, involving a $65 million bond the Government had issued to commercial banks to settle the debt owed by the Government over the past 10 years for infrastructure and agriculture lending. Several banks are facing liquidity challenges that can be partly traced to this large debt, which has eaten up their capital and undermined their inability to meet demand deposits. Several Bank CEOs say the injection of this liquidity will ease the liquidity situation, especially at banks with larger exposures in the $65 million loan. Said one CEO: “if banks actually get this money which should be very soon, their Governance in the ability of the Government will shoot up, making it easier for the Government to raise capital in the domestic market. This bond was a serious problem for many of our shareholders and we are very happy that the Weah administration was able to resolve it.”

2019 LOWS: Delays in the payment of salary began to happen in Since May 2019. To date, the Government says it is aiming to pay October and November salaries during the Xmas season and will owe workers for December.

The MFDP has taken a hit and several protests and strikes relating to salary payment have happened. A release issued by the Civil Service Workers Association is calling on a go-slow on Monday if the Government does not meet their salary commitment.

Many have wondered about the cause of the salary delay, which did not happen in 2018. Appearing before the Senate and House of Representatives, Minister Tweah has explained that salary delays are largely on account of shocks to both budget support and revenue performance in the last budget year. But several members of the National Legislature have frowned upon that explanation. They have noted that the Government at the end of the year collects more revenue than the total amount for compensation, so it should not end up in arrears.

In response, Minister Tweah acknowledged that while more money comes in than compensation bill, budget execution is based on expectation of receiving revenue, so spending had been done on a daily basis across all categories of the budget without necessary prioritizing salary. As such any shock to revenue flow will affect salary. He explained the Ministry has changed the pattern of payments by dedicating 80 percent of every revenue inflow to salary payment and depositing the flow in a special salary account. The rest of all expenditure category, including the critical debt service, now consumes 20 percent of revenue.

The Government says with this plan, with an aggressive push in revenue mobilization and with a large inflow of budget support in February, it is on the path to resolve salary arrears by end February and sail smoothly.

Another low centered around the use of donor funds ended last year. The Government was dealt a major blow during the course of the year under review, when in May, it acknowledged, through Minister of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism (MICAT), Mr. Lenn Eugene Nagbe, that it unilaterally used development partners’ funds, held at the Central Bank of Liberia, for purposes other than ones agreed on by both the donors and the Liberian Government. The Liberian Government’s official spokesperson stating that the funds would be replaced, however, failed to state when.

Acknowledging the donors’ letter, which took the internet by storm in Liberia on Wednesday, May 8, Min. Nagbe stated, “We have just received a letter, an informal information note, signed by nine of our partners where they raise[d] issues – historical issues – where the Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, moved monies from accounts under the supervision of the government to our Consolidated Account to handle Government’s expenditures. We have been having age-old debate, and today the only thing the letter ain’t leak before but now this new government’s letters can leak, and I challenge any of the partners to say that they never raise[d] this issue before. It’s an accounting administrative issue.”

The Government has claimed this was an age-old practice that it has had to restitute monies taken by previous administration. The monies have long since been refunded and the Government has officially ended this practice.

GRADE: C+

2020 OUTLOOK: The critical test for Minister Tweah is how to leverage the IMF-supported program to stabilize the macroeconomic situation to stabilize salary and to transition to big ticket items of private sector transformation and employment that will drive growth.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gbezhongar M. Findley

THE LOWDOWN: The government Ministry responsible for directing Liberia’s external relations and the management of its international diplomatic missions endured more problems during the course of the year under review as diplomats serving in key missions abroad continue to work without pay and many struggle to pay rents to landlords, much less hold their head above water.

During the year under review, the ministry struggled to solve a nagging controversy regarding the availability of passports. In October, the Bureau of Passports and Visas at the ministry suspended the issuance of Liberian passports because of the “unusual influx” of applicants since the beginning of October 2019. It would later be revealed that the problem was beyond the explanation the ministry was giving.

The passport issue was a central issue for Findley when he took on the job, pledging at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee that he would reduce the cost of the Liberian passport for ordinary Liberians to afford. The passport which cost US$50 at Findley’s confirmation remains the same although he had pledged the reduction in line with the President’s “pro-poor governance agenda.”

The year under review also saw the departure of Mr. B. Elias Shoniyin, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs who tendered in his resignation in May without providing a specific reason, only citing personal and professional consideration. Like the few who stepped down from the government, he too was sent to the LACC for investigation.

2019 HIGHS: Minister Gbehzongar Findley, during the course of the year under review emphasized a push more toward economy diplomacy, in a move some diplomats serving abroad had hoped would improve their conditions, especially with plans to appoint an Economy Counselor at all of Liberia’s embassies around the world.

During the course of the year, the minister trumpeted infrastructure and agriculture advancement as key to Liberia’s engagement with the People’s Republic of China under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

This after Liberia signed onto the BRI, the Chinese Government’s International Development Assistance and Bilateral Cooperation Program.

For the minister, the CDC government was embarking upon major infrastructure development programs, thus the initiative would require deeper collaboration and mutual partnership with countries such as China.

The year also saw a breakthrough for the Gabriel L. Dennis Foreign Service Institute which has, over the years provided professional certifications for men and women either aspiring to be diplomats-or wanting to benefit from diplomatic training.

The institute has now been given a stimulus to transform its Diploma courses in Diplomacy and Foreign Relations into Full Degree.

2019 LOWS: The ministry endured a rugged spell during the course of the year under review when Passport Director Andrew D. Wonplo was disgracefully dragged before Monrovia City Court following investigation into his alleged involvement into a major passport scandal here that government says has resulted to the loss of US$25,000 in revenue. Investigators’ probe into the scandal resulted to charges being brought against Mr. Wonplo and a Nigerian national defendant Adedoyin Emmanuel Atiro who has also allegedly been purporting as authority at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in awarding travel opportunities and receiving money from his victims. The police here revealed that co-defendant Atiro’s action caused the Liberian government to loss revenues in the tune of US$100,000.00.



According to police charge sheet, defendants Wonplo and Atiro were arrested on 13 August for questioning. Police say during the month of July 2019 and before defendant Wonplo’s arrest in August, 4250 pieces of blank Liberian Passports were entrusted to the Passport and Visas Bureau which is under the accused supervision as Passport Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Out of the 4250 pieces of blank passports, investigators indicate that 4180 pieces recorded issued to applicants (accounted for) while 70 pieces were reported damaged. Additionally, police say out of the 70 pieces of passports reported to be damaged, 66 pieces could be traced while four pieces could not be traced or accounted for. Another blip at the ministry occurred during the celebrations marking Liberia’s 172nd Independence anniversary when Minister Gbehzohngar M. Findley was left disappointed in junior government’s officials for refusal to vacate their seats to allow foreign dignitaries to be seated.

GRADE: D

2020 OUTLOOK: Now might be a good time to shut down some embassies overseas to save cost and increase salaries of diplomats serving at key missions.



MINISTRY OF GENDER, CHILDREN & SOCIAL PROTECTION & DEVELOPMENT

Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs. Piso Saydee Tarr

THE LOWDOWN

The ministry mandated to advise government on all matters affecting the development and welfare of women and children encountered numerous challenges during the course of the year under review. At her confirmation hearing in 2018, Minister Piso Saydee Tarr made the protection of women against sexual gender-based violence a top priority.

Despite having one of the harshest rape laws in the world, which making rape a non-bailable offense, the last few years have seen scores of cases where young girls are being raped with very little being done to protect the stray and vulnerable.

On paper, the Ministry says it is strengthening coordination and collaboration with partners to ensure that children participate in advocacy and play leadership role in engaging decision-makers for their rights and wellbeing. But with a rapidly increasing number of cases daily, critics aren’t so sure.

This was evident during the course of the year when Minister backed the removal of the aspect on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) from the Domestic Violence Bill. The controversial bill, which, according to the Gender Minister, was recently signed into law on August 13, 2019 by President George Manneh Weah, sparked argument in the country when the FGM component was removed from the Bill before it was passed into law by the legislature. “I should not always be the one speaking on this issue as to why FGM was removed from the Domestic Violence Bill because we have been living with culture and tradition for many years in Liberia and something that has been done for centuries cannot be changed overnight,” said Minister Tarr.

2019 HIGHS: During the course of the year under review, the Government of Liberia, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank, allocated 16.5 Million United States Dollars for the strengthening of Liberia’s National Social Safety Net System. The System will include the establishment of a Social Registry Database, Cash Transfer to extremely poor and food insecure households, and Project Management and Capacity Building.

The Cash Transfer component, is aimed at benefitting Ten Thousand (10,000) poorest households in Liberia, consisting mainly of women. “Cash transfer is a pathway to women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. Cash transfer in Liberia has empowered women headed-households to make independent decisions and improved the status of women within their households and communities and increased their autonomy,” the minister said recently.

2019 LOWS: Liberia was in the news for all the wrong reason during the course of the year in review. Katie Meyler, an American woman who established a charity to help vulnerable girls in Liberia was forced to step down in the wake of a scandal, six months after taking a leave of absence in the wake of allegations that one of her staffers raped several girls in the charity’s car.

Meyer, founder of More Than Me rejected claims she failed to protect students but said she recognized her public role as chief executive “has become a distraction from the critical mission and incredible and proven work of our team”.

Meyler said on Facebook she learned about the alleged rapes in June 2014 and “immediately ensured the perpetrator was reported to the Liberian authorities”.

GRADE: D

2020 OUTLOOK: Two mysterious death of young girls under 14 points to a challenging year ahead for the ministry, especially with the by-elections just around the corner. Linda Sherman, 9, a third-grade student of St. Teresa Convent was found dead on December 4, in her parent room while Omaru Kamara, 14, died on December 7. It is alleged that both children committed suicide but there are concerns about the reason for these kids taking their own lives – if they even did at all.



GENERAL AUDITING COMMISSION

Yusador Saadatu Gaye, Auditor General, General Auditing Commission – Liberia

THE LOWDOWN:

The supreme audit Institution of Liberia is responsible for promoting trust, accountability, transparency and value for money in the utilization of public resources. That however, has been a tall order for a commission lacking resources to carry out its functions.

During the course of the year under review, Auditor General Yusador Saadatu Gaye’s repeated warnings regarding the ‘politicization’ of Commissioned GAC Audit Reports fell on deaf ears.

In several stakeholders’ engagements regarding the work of the Commission, the AG cautioned public officials, pro-democracy and civil society organizations and the public against ‘politicizing’ audit reports, especially audit reports that are in their concluding stages.

According to Auditor General Gaye, ‘politicizing’ Audit Reports greatly undermines the work of the GAC, which was established in 2011 with a vision to create a world-class Supreme Audit Institution(SAI) that holds people and institutions accountable for their stewardship of public resources and programs. Liberia has a history of high-level of corruption in the public sector. Cited as a contributing factor to the protracted civil war, this has had a devastating impact on the economy and resulted in failed governing systems where accountability and transparency are non-existent.

When President Weah ordered the General Auditing Commission to conduct an audit of the US$25 million intended for the mopping-up of excess liquidity of the Liberian dollars, skeptics were unsure, especially in the midst of the elapse of the five-year tenure of Gaye and her deputy, Winsley Nanka.

Critics and the opposition grew wary about the GAC’s exclusively investigating the US$25M since audit reports would not set the basis for criminal prosecution but could eclipse by political maneuvering.

Some observers say requesting the GAC to exclusively conduct the forensic investigation, while other bodies like Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission and the Financial Intelligence Unit are excluded, could create the basis for unnecessary delays thereby undermining the possibility of bringing individuals like Finance Minister Samuel Tweah and CBL Governor Nathaniel Patray to justice.

2019 HIGHS:

Despite its challenges, the GAC, during the course of the year released several audit reports. One of those reports, involved the consolidated funds financial statements which showed millions of United States dollars of transfer to entities for fiscal year 2016/2017 were not confirmed by purported recipients.

The GAC said there were several misstatements in the financial statements gathered and the audit uncovered that the trial balance generated from the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), which is the Government of Liberia accounting system used as the basis for the financial statements is out of balance.

During the course of the year under review, the GAC stressed the need for stakeholders’ engagement. The consultations, according to Gaye are key to focusing on communicating and educating stakeholders about the GAC challenges and successes. “For example, certain institutional goals cannot be met, deliverable cannot be achieved successfully, and status cannot be attained without actively and persistently working with the actors that contribute to the growth and national development process of our country,” Gaye said during a news conference.

The GAC also launched, during the year, an inter-high school culture of Integrity Outreach Program to inform students about the workings of the General Auditing Commission (GAC) and how their work is important to the strengthening of integrity.

2019 LOWS: Like the previous year, the GAC still appears to be making adjustments to the change in government and funding challenges.

The salary cuts to GAC auditors and staffers have slowed the activities of the Commission with many complaining that the US$3,000.00 moratorium limited the ability of the commission to timely meet its expenditure for goods and services above the threshold.

The Auditor General salary was cut by 53 percent and the deputies and staff salaries were cut from 1 percent to 38 percent.

Line ministries, agencies and commissions are not implementing audit report recommendations in a satisfactory manner. There are reoccurrences of system and controls weaknesses identified in the audit of ministries, agencies and commissions every audit cycle.

In addition, individuals and entities held accountable by the GAC and the Public Accounts Committee of the National Legislature in reports submitted to the President for implementation are not being held accountable.

GRADE: C

2020 OUTLOOK: Moral and financial support would be key here. But more importantly, uncertainty over the tenure of the AG and her deputies will be closely watched in the new year.

GOVERNANCE COMMISSION

Cllr. A. Ndubusi Nwabudike, Chairman of the Governance Commission

THE LOWDOWN

A creation of the 2003 Accra Peace Accord, the GC is responsible for promoting good governance by advising, designing and formulating appropriate policies and institutional arrangements and frameworks required for achieving good governance, and promoting integrity at all levels of society and within every public and private institution.

During the year under review, however, the GC struggled to monitor and evaluate the performance of governance institutions because its own chairman, Cllr. A. Ndubusi Nwabudike, a Nigerian national, was himself breaching every imaginable governance code.

For starters, Cllr. Nwabudike was never confirmed by the Senate, a clear violation of the 90-day time limit for acting. Despite exceeding the time, Nwabudike continue in the position wreaking havoc on employees and raining intimidation.

Despite pledging to work hard to step up the gains of his predecessors in providing quality leadership on the important role play by the commission in championing the social, economic and political development of Liberia, Nwabudike also hired the daughter of a friend although the woman had failed the interview three times. Nwabudike, according to sources, insisted that she was placed on the payroll of the cash-strapped commission immediately. The new appointee started job on September 13.



Nwabudike also piled pressure on the Human Resource Department, demanding that employees take tests to keep their jobs eventhough his new hire failed the test thrice.



Some staffers also complain that Nwabudike spends very little time at the GC and more time at his law firm. Nwabudike was also one of the lawyers involved behind the scenes in the Justice Kabineh Ja’neh impeachment saga.

Nwabudike’s actions was reminiscent of what Elizabeth Dorkin, a GC commissioner did a year ago when she threatened to dismiss non-partisans of the Coalition of Democratic Change (CDC), in a clear violation of the Civil Service guidelines.

The Public Sector Reform focuses on developing a framework of comprehensive governance reform and addresses the “challenges of the unwholesome political culture of patronage, corruption, impunity, exclusiveness, and a highly centralized governance structure”.

Since taking over at the Governance Commission, Dorkin continues to threaten staff and recently told them that with the appointment of the new commissioner General, the administration will now “clean up” the commission by dismissing employees with dissenting views and reassign others who are non-partisans of the ruling party.

Dorkin was reportedly allowed to have her way at the commission because of her connections with the Minister of State and Presidential Affairs Mr. Nathaniel McGill, who continues to be influential in the appointment of public officials.

Dorkin has also told staff of the department that she would change half of them or transfer them to other departments.

2019 HIGHS: During the course of the year under review, the GC Chair trumpeted the proposed Revenue Sharing Formula as a landmark accomplishment by the Weah-led government in implementing the national decentralization program and bringing power closer to the people.

Cllr. Nwabudike explained that the fiscal decentralization is a major component of Liberia’s democratic governance reform in which the authority to collect local revenues and make financial management decisions are vested in people under this arrangement in order to empower local communities in Liberia.

The Local Government Act of 2018 calls for revenue sharing between central and local governments to ensure that the allocations of transfers are based on a formula that adheres to internationally accepted good governance standards and practices such as equity, transparency and accountability.

2019 LOWS: The year under review proved to be a meaningless one for Nwabudike and the GC. As one staffer said during the year, the government entity responsible for formulating governance policies is headed by a lawyer who spends more time at his law firm and has not proffered any policy since taking over of the institution. “The second in command is a commissioner who speaks and write at a 5th grade level. President Weah will continue to have problems if he does not appoint the right people, particularly at a sensitive area like the governance commission,” a staffer said on condition of anonymity recently.

GRADE: F

2020 OUTLOOK: Unconfirmed at Governance Commission, Fighting confirmation battle for LACC job. What will it be for Nwabudike in the new year?

MINISTRY OF HEALTH & SOCIAL WELFARE

Minister of Health Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah

THE LOWDOWN

Healthcare in Liberia remains a daunting challenge with only 51 medical doctors catering to a population of 4.5 million people and 5,000 full-time or part-time health workers. It hasn’t helped that the country’s health sector is also highly dependent on donor assistance.

In a post-war, post-ebola nation, disturbing number of serious illnesses point to mounting challenges ahead. According to Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah, Minister of Health, the number of HIV AIDs cases is at 146,041 infections while 6,554 persons are living with all forms of Tuberculosis B, with 5,941 cases completing treatment and 2,222 cases cured of TB. A total of 223,446 surgeries were performed over the period, including all forms of emergencies during the year under review.

The assessment, according to Dr. Jallah showed that majority of health facilities in Liberia were clinic constituting 87.7%, health Centers 7.5% and Hospital 4.9%; and a little over half (56.7%) of the facilities are located in the rural areas. Even with those numbers, gaining access to treatment remains a challenge for many.

Nevertheless, Dr. Jallah expressed that the health sector is determined to accelerate access and effective coverage as the sector moves toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC) where everyone has access to quality health services. “Our progress toward achieving UHC is being hampered by the prevailing decline in domestic resources mobilization, reduction in personal income as well as shrinking international support. The result is limited resources to provide financial protection and reduce out of pocket spending,” she told the 11th Annual National Health Conference observed under the theme: “Improving Access to quality PHC Services in Liberia; A Call to Action”.

Deciphering facts from fiction is proving complicated for the minister especially in the wake of serious issues dogging the Phebe Hospital in Bong County. Despite several meetings between the Board of Trustees, authorities of the Ministry of Health senior staff and administration, the hospital is seriously challenged, ranging from electricity outages, provision of drugs and remittances of the government financial contribution.

Minister Jallah acknowledged in her own assessment report that the provision of health services at no cost to the user has adversely affected the quality of care and it’s only now that the Ministry has begun addressing this issue to measure and improve quality of health services, saying “This so-called ‘Free services’ has continued over the past 12 years and we believe that it is time to introduce some minimum fees to support the Revolving Drug Fund (RDF) as an intermediary measure towards the implementation of the Liberian Health Equity Fund (LHEF).”

Minister Jallah however says bold steps are needed to move away from what she describes as disjointed, uncontrollable free health care regime to a more organized targeted services for the poor and vulnerable Liberians.”

2019 HIGHS: According Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah, between January and October 2019, the health sector recorded over 94,268 normal deliveries conducted by skilled birth attendants, with 7,061 through caesarian section amidst 117,575 infants were reported to be fully immunized.

Dr. Jallah explained that in 2018 the MOH and partners conducted a service availability and readiness assessment which covered 765 health facilities, with highest number of facilities (268 Or 35% in Montserrado County while Grand Kru and Gbarpolu Counties having least number each of them had 17 health facilities (both counties constituted 4.8% of the total health facilities).

Also, during the course of the year under review, the type of deadly Ebola virus responsible for recent epidemics was found in a bat in Liberia. Bats carrying the disease had already been found in Central Africa, and scientists have long suspected that bats were a natural host of Ebola and a source of some human infections in other areas as well. But until now they had not found any bats in West Africa that harbored the epidemic species, known as Zaire ebolavirus. The finding is preliminary and not yet ready for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, the usual venue for presenting scientific discoveries. Only 20 percent of the bat’s genome has been studied, and research on it is continuing.

2019 LOWS: During the course of the year under review, medical workers staged a strike which paralyzed the country’s faltering health care system, leaving its biggest hospitals in disarray and thousands of patients without care. Government doctors, nurses and other staff are protesting against low wages, delayed payments and poor working conditions that include shortages of crucial equipment and regular electricity blackouts. Dr. Jallah also came under fire when Bong County District #3 Representative Marvin Cole has called for her resignation, accusing her of gross financial mismanagement at Phebe Hospital. According to Rep. Cole, Dr. Jallah has refused to honor his communication to state whether Phebe Hospital in Bong County is a private hospital or public health facility. Rep. Cole has blamed the management of Phebe for grossly misappropriating Government funding over the years under the watchful eyes of the Ministry of Health. Citing an internal audit report conducted in May, Rep Cole revealed that the management of Phebe has failed to account for L$129 million and US$1,222,000 from 2016 up to present. The report led to the indefinite suspension of the hospital’s management.

GRADE: D

2020 OUTLOOK: Lack of access to electricity and clean water remains a serious impediment to healthcare. How the ministry moves beyond the theory versus the reality could prove pivotal moving forward.

MINISTRY OF INFORMATION, CULTURAL AFFAIRS & TOURISM

Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Lenn Eugene Nagbe

THE LOWDOWN: The government ministry responsible for the development and dissemination of factual information about Liberia at home and abroad, has taken a new dimension under the Coalition for Democratic Change-led government with many voices talking to the social medium Facebook to defend the government. Caught between a rock and a hard place, President Weah was forced to suspend Mr. Eugene Fahngon, Deputy Minister for Press at the Ministry of Information, Culture Affairs and Tourism over insensitive remarks regarding the country-congau divide.

Fahngon, one of the government’s fiercest defenders, was quietly brought back after a few weeks off the job.

In suspending Fahngon and looking to curb the multiple avenues of information dissemination which was causing the government’s message to be lost in translation, the President also issued an Executive Order, directing all Ministers, Deputies and Assistant Ministers, and Heads of Agencies and Commissions, and their deputies to refrain from making public comments on policy issues of national concern on both conventional and social media without first seeking authorization from the appropriate authorities.

The decision shifted control of the government’s information dissemination back to MICAT.

The order was however short-lived as MICAT continues to play second fiddle to some close presidential aides with sticky fingers for selfies and Facebook, often running with sometimes half-baked and unreleased information about the government, short on details or accuracy.

2019 HIGHS: Despite its lapses, MICAT continues to be heavily engaged in the push to decriminalize speech and other media reforms. Speaking on the panel of policy makers, practitioners and governments from Africa in London in July, Minister Lenn Eugene Nagbe, informed the London forum about efforts to ensure claims against media houses for ethical transgressions- do not become so excessive to the extent they limit media freedom and speech. Minister Nagbe argued that such claims ought not to overwhelm the financial base of media houses and ultimately erode the gains from decriminalizing speech and other media reforms. Toward this end, Minister Nagbe informed the panel and delegates that Government is working with the Press Union of Liberia- to seek a review of Liberia’s civil libel regime- with efforts aimed at strengthening the state of media freedom in the country. “A fundamental requirement for a free society is that we must recognize that media freedom is not a gift to journalists – but a requirement – for society to grow, to thrive and be democratic.” Minister Nagbe asserted. Minister Nagbe advanced the need for conscious efforts in Liberia around the legal framework, along with practices and systems that inhibit free speech and press.

2019 LOWS: MICAT’s handling of the June 7 Save-the-State protest came under fire during the course of the year under review. Hours before thousands of Liberians gathered in the capital Monrovia to protest “corruption and creeping dictatorship”, social media sites were blocked by the government in a bid to quell the protests. FPA first broke the story which was later picked up by the internet monitoring platform NetBlocks. WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Google’s Gmail service and the website of The Associated Press were among the sites affected, NetBlocks said.

Minister Lenn Eugene Nagbe confirmed that social media platforms were shutdown temporarily because of “security concerns.” “We have restored some of them,” he said. “We are not saying that the protesters were carrying out things detrimental to the nation, but the national security apparatus said there were threats to the country and the services were temporarily disrupted and have been restored.”

MICAT was also sidetracked in August when the stipendiary Magistrate Ernest Bana of the Monrovia City Court squashed the ministry’s request to hold Miss Liberia Wokie Dolo in contempt for failure to adhere to the court’s mandate. Ms. Dolo was charge for failing to abide by a stay order requested by MICAT, prohibiting her from organizing the Miss University Africa Liberia.

GRADE: C+

2020 OUTLOOK: Wrestling control of government’s information dissemination from MICAT should not enter the new year – with many Facebook Information ministers trying to do MICAT and the Liberian News Agency’s job.

MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Varney Sirleaf of Minister of Internal Affairs



THE LOWDOWN:

The government ministry responsible for administering local governance has undergone numerous changes over the years. In the early 1970’s when the two new Departments of Rural Development and Urban Affairs were created, the Ministry’s mandate took on a new dimension making it development oriented as it undertook development of rural communities, and urban centers throughout the country. In all 15 Counties, selection, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects have been a perennial process. Some of the projects are undertaken directly on government funding, while others are funded by development partners, such as: roads and bridges; local administrative buildings; commissioners’ residences; schools; clinics markets; peace huts; latrines; wells; etc.

Over the course of the year under review, the MIA, in October, held a meeting with stakeholders of Bong and Gbarpolu Counties in Kakata City, Margibi County for the purpose of finding an amicable resolution to a long-running boundary dispute between the two counties. The meeting was convened to settle the boundary harmonization dialogue with support from the United Nations Development Program, UNDP.

The year in review also saw the MIA being called into action as Golden Veroleum was been hit with indefinite strike action by workers, thus paralyzing operations and destroying palm fruits which are harvested on a daily basis. GVL Management says the obstructions have cost them thousands of dollars in loss. Over one thousand two hundred workers will resume normal operations this Monday September 2nd following days of intensive intervention between them and their top management.

In Harper, Maryland County, in September, citizens of Gbeken, a community near the operation area of MOPP violently shut down the company’s operations on allegation that the company had encroached on their customary land. MOPP is the Maryland Oil Palm Plantation.

2019 HIGHS: A high point for the MIA during the year was the endorsement of a resolution by traditional leaders including the MIA and the National Council of Chiefs, calling for a one-year suspension of all traditional schools, especially the Sande groves in Liberia. At the end of a consultative meeting among traditional leaders held in Gompa, Nimba County, June 24th – 25th, 2019, the participants resolved a temporary suspension of all Sande society practices and activities in order to address some aspects of the SANDE society (Traditional Women Bush School), often considered by Human Rights Organizations and some of international partners as ‘’harmful tradition’’ in Liberia.

Also, during the year, the MIA, through the Liberia Peacebuilding Office, during the year under review, completed the first round of series of leadership dialogues for county administrations in three cities namely; Sanniquellie in Nimba, Buchanan in Grand Bassa and Robertsport in Grand Cape Mount Counties, respectively. The use of continuous dialogue forms part of a list of recommendations identified by a nationwide survey called Social Cohesion & Reconciliation Index (SCORE) Liberia which was conducted in 2016 and 2018. The dialogues are sponsored by the United Nations Development Program, UNDP. The dialogues brought together a total of over 100 participants.

In an effort to broaden the understanding of local government officers on the new Local Government Law of Liberia, the MIA in July, began the conduct of the first in series of nationwide training in Kakata, Margibi County under the theme: “Understanding the Local Government Act of 2018” which brought together more than 100 local government officers from Rivercess, Grand Bassa, Bomi, Bong and Margibi Counties.

the Government after several study tours in other countries, in 2012 launched the national policy on decentralization and local government.

“In that policy, it was stated that Liberia should transition from a centralized form of government to a decentralized form of government. In other words, we should at the county level established sub government frameworks to be responsible for administrative, fiscal and social affairs in every county of Liberia,” he said. He disclosed that the Governance Commission and the MIA have been collaboratively working to advance the decentralization policy.

2019 LOWS: During the course of the year under review, Minister Sirleaf, one of the holdovers from the former Sirleaf administration was dogged by allegations of nepotism hovering his stewardship at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Some staffers accused Mr. Sirleaf of shielding some of his relatives and friends in important positions as a means of solidifying his influence. The minister would later deny influencing the appointments of any of the four deputy ministers and eight assistant ministers in order to micromanage the ministry. “If I had an assistant minister in that department headed by a deputy minister, how do I micromanage that department because that deputy minister is the head and the assistant minister reports to that deputy,” he said in response to an FPA inquiry during an interview in Monrovia.

GRADE: C

2020 OUTLOOK: Recurring tensions in hot-button concession areas like Harper and Grand Kru could keep the MIA busy in the new year.

MINISTRY OF JUSTICE

Minister of Justice Frank Musah Dean

THE LOWDOWN



The government ministry responsible for providing effective, efficient and excellent public safety and legal services to promote the rule of law, ensure the safety and security of the public and uphold the interest of the government and people of the Republic of Liberia, was kept quite busy during the course of the year under review. Plagued by protests – or threats thereof, the chief legal advisor to President George Manneh Weah had his hands full, not just from protests organizers from within ruling party where many partisans and supporters of the President have taken to social media to disparage his work or failure to contain protests against the government.

Dean, regarded as one of Liberia’s best legal minds, prior to accepting to serve in the Weah administration has come under fire over his interpretations of the law regarding the right to protest and his defense of the government in the wake of the missing LD16 billion saga.

In May, Minister Dean categorically defended the Minister of Finance and Development Planning and the Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia that under their watches not a single penny of the US$25 million, which was intended to mop up excess Liberian dollar on the market ever went missing. “There is, therefore, no issue as to the L$2.6 billion, representing the value of US$17M, being brought to the vault of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL). It can safely be concluded that no money is missing in the US$25 million mop-up exercise,” the Justice Minister said in count six of his “Response to the Auditor General’s Report on Factual Findings on the US$25 Mop-up Exercise Conducted by the Central Bank of Liberia.”

2019 HIGH: During the course of the year, the MoJ worked to ensure that the constitutional right to peacefully assemble was protected as was seen in the “bring back our money” and the June 7 protests. This was reflected in the Millennium Score Card where Liberia scored 50 percent on rule of law although the ministry is being criticized over its interpretation of the law regarding the planned December 30 protest.

The MoJ acknowledges that the noise around the December 30 protest does presents a challenge but is hoping to work around a clear message. Despite some reservations, the MoJ has clarified that ordinarily, government is under obligation to provide protection to any citizen or group of citizens who enter the street at all times. What they seek is special protection, which if granted, will conceptually amount to approval of the objective of the protest.

The ministry continues to struggle to ease the issue of overpopulation of the prisons as it seeks assistance from development partners to build a new and bigger prison facility in Cheesemanburg. In a bid to ease the problem, the MoJ completed new draft legislation to ensure that magistrates do not unilaterally issue writs of arrest, except pursuant to police investigation and charges. The new legislation will also extend the number of days the criminal courts will sit around the country. At the moment, magistrates have four terms of 42 days each. The new law will allow magistrates to sit for two terms of six months each. This, the MoJ believes will pave the way for more cases to be disposed of and access to justice enhanced. The MoJ is currently in the validation stage of this process.

2019 LOW: Minister Dean was forced to respond after his own solicitor general, Cyrennius Cephus, included his name on a list to restitute money to government coffers.

Cllr. Arthur T. Johnson, under Cephus’ direction as head of the Special Independent Prosecutor and Chairman, Assets Investigation, Restitution and Recovery Team (AIRRET), requested the minister to account for payment he might have received under domestic arrears payment scheme during the first term of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Minister Dean termed the letter coming from Cllr. Arthur T. Johnson, Special Independent Prosecutor and Chairman of the Assets Investigation, Restitution and Recovery Team (AIRRET), as “speculative.”

In an August 20th 2019 communication from Cllr. Johnson to the Justice Minister, the AIRRET Chairman requests Justice Minister Dean, Sr. to account for payment he might have received during the first term of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. The AIRRET Special Independent Prosecutor and Chairman further informed the Attorney General that the payment of domestic arrears authorized by former President Sirleaf during her first term is one of the major cases being handled by his AIRRET and so his prompt response will contribute immense to the success of his exercise.

In response, Cllr. Dean told FrontPageAfrica, ‘“…If you received any payment…’ is speculative, to say the least. Under the law, one must be fully apprised of accusations or allegations against him/her, with sufficient details, to enable him/her proffer an informed response. There are no supporting documents attached to the letter.”

According to the Justice Minister, Cllr. Johnson’s letter “is vague and imprecise;” adding: “It does not meet the legal requirements of due notice.”

“If it is a mere public relations stunt, then the author is content that he may have achieved his goal; but he will need far more than that to destroy my hard-won reputation, built over the years. He will need facts, not speculations.”

GRADE: C+

2020 OUTLOOK: Will the man perceived to be the most hated minister amongst CDC partisans still have a job in the new year?

MINISTRY OF LABOR

Minister of Labor Moses Kollie

THE LOWDOWN: The Ministry responsible for the promotion, administration, development, regulation and control of labor law and practices in Liberia has seen some highs and lows.

Since 2016, when the country made some moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.

2019 HIGHS: Officials of the Ministry of Labor, and other dignitaries at the launch of the Ministry’s new website.

In order to keep the public informed about labor matters across the country, authorities at the ministry, with support from the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) on Thursday, August 22, 2019, launched a website, (http://www.labour.gov.lr/), and an online application for “effective and efficient service delivery,” a release has said.

According to the release, the launch of MoL’s website brought together scores of top government officials.

Deputy Finance Minister for Economic Management, Augustus J. Flomo, who launched the website, said that the setting up of the exercise is part of government’s plans to re-engine processes that support “efficiency and productivity in all its activities.”

2019 LOWS: Liberia continues to score low in the US State Department annual Trafficking in Persons Report.

The report released during the course of the year under review, documented that Liberia had not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking but is making significant efforts to do so.

Said the report: “The government demonstrated significant efforts during the reporting period by supporting victims during trial by providing transportation, security, and shelter; organizing public awareness events with high-level officials; and training more law enforcement officials on identifying and investigating trafficking. However, the government did not demonstrate overall increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period.”

The report states that complicity and corruption inhibited anti-trafficking law enforcement action, and law enforcement officials continued to lack adequate resources and understanding of trafficking to effectively investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes. Shelter and services for victims remained limited, and the government did not allocate an operating budget to the anti-trafficking task force or its working-level body, the TIP Secretariat. Because the government has devoted sufficient resources to a written plan that, if implemented, would constitute significant efforts to meet the minimum standards, Liberia was granted a waiver per the Trafficking Victims Protection Act from an otherwise required downgrade to Tier 3. Therefore, Liberia remained on Tier 2 Watch List for the third consecutive year.

On the upside, Labor Minister Moses Kollie has acknowledged that in order for the country to improve on the US Trafficking in Persons report expected to be released by March 21, 2020, several required actions need to be undertaken by the government. Aware of the task at hand, Minister Kollie stressed that improving legal and policy frameworks, instituting administrative action by ensuring budget for the purpose of enhancing the work of taskforce, improving prevention and awareness, protecting and caring of victims by training social workers are important steps that must be taken to salvage the country’s status in the next report.

GRADE: F

2020 OUTLOOK: Minister Kollie has talked the talk, walking the walk is another story. Let’s see what the next TIP report conclude on Liberia.

LIBERIA LAND AUTHORITY

THE LOWDOWN

The LLA is a product of the policy, legal and institutional reform of the land sector of Liberia led by the Erstwhile Land Commission. Established by an Act of the National Legislature on October 6, 2016, the LLA is an autonomous agency of the government with operational independence, subsumes land functions that were performed by several agencies of the Government, including the key land administration agencies – Department of Lands, Survey and Cartography of the former Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy (MLME), now the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Deeds and Titles Registry of the Center for National Documents Records Agency (CNDRA), and functions of County Land Commissioners from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The LLA is tasked with control and management, in the interest of equitable development, access to and use of Public and Government Land except for Reserves, Protected Areas, Proposed Protected Areas, and Diplomatic Missions.

Since the end of the civil war, activists and the international community have cautioned that land disputes on oil palm concessions and were becoming a time bomb for conflict in the country, as legislators were pressed to give indigenous communities full rights to land the government had handed out as its own.

Although President Weah in September 2018, signed the Land Rights Act into law, the problems continued to linger in 2019 with critics hammering the law for being overly ambitious asserting that the right to what is known as “customary land,” territory that can be claimed through oral testimony and community agreement.

Critics say the legislation is flawed for those living on the quarter of the country’s land set aside for concessions and does not apply to those already living close to oil palm concessions.

2019 HIGHS: A high point for the year for the LAA was the launch of a five-year Capacity Building Project dubbed “Inclusive Land Administration and Management Project’ (ILAMP), supported by the Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The project has four components, which are: LLA 