Nobody disagrees that corruption has deeply pervaded the Liberian society. But no five Liberians agree on exactly who or what to blame exclusively.

The Sirleaf administration has pledged to fight corruption to its injury and perhaps to its death, notwithstanding. And it must do exactly that, rain or shine.

The administration, during the week, commissioned the Anti-Corruption Commission – an economic legal watchdog that will hopefully stop corruption and corrupt officials, corporate executives, and investors in their tracks.

But many say in order to be effective, the commission must take responsibility for officially defining corruption, tracing its root causes, and advancing solutions for its eradication.

Now, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has jumped the gun, noting that corruption and poverty are intertwined, without saying which leads to which.

Observers say by her position on the issue, the President has sparked a crucial national debate that will lead to healthy decisions for salvaging the Liberian economy. The Analyst Staff Writer, reports.

Corruption, poverty and their effect on society

"Corruption and poverty are deeply intertwined. Corruption is a major obstacle to sustained economic growth, poverty reduction, and social development. It distorts the rule of law, weakens the social fabric of society, and undermines the institutional foundation on which economic growth depends".

“Underdevelopment itself makes fighting corruption all the more difficult. Poverty makes corruption more of a temptation for underpaid officials, and weakens a society’s ability to build the institutions, the checks, and balances necessary to combat corruption".

Pres.  Sirleaf made these comments, Wednesday this week, when she addressed the commissioning ceremony of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

She said when her administration, having described corruption as “a serious malaise”, vowed at its onset in January 2006 to make corruption Enemy No. 1, little did it realize that it would be tenacious to eradicate.

According to her, the tenacity in eradicating corruption has nothing to do with the lack of the political will to fight corruption than it has to do with the extent of its roots, “systematically, and culturally” – 20 years of “dependency, deprivation, and lawlessness” having taken their tolls on the Liberian people and government.

She said while corruption may not be an exclusive malaise in developing and underdeveloped countries, its effective has become devastating because it has a relationship of mutualism with poverty and that both feed off of each other.

She did not say how; but she contended: “But there is no doubt that poverty and corruption feed off of each other, and this negative reinforcing cycle makes the fight against poverty both more difficult and all the more important at the same time.”

Besides the popular notion amongst ordinary Liberians that corruption is about illegally taking public funds for oneself, President Sirleaf said corruption is also about misuse of scarce resources at the expense of “less spectacular but more necessary schools, hospitals, water, and roads”.

“It hinders the development of fair markets and distorts competition, thereby deterring investment. It is particularly harmful to the poor, who are hardest hit by economic decline, are most reliant on public services, and are least capable of paying the costs of bribery, fraud, and the misappropriation of public resources,” the Liberian leader said of corruption.

Politically, she said, corruption robs public offices and institutions of their legitimacy when they are misused for private advantage.

Noting especially that corruption undermines people's trust in the political system, its institutions and its leadership, President Sirleaf said socially corruption generates frustration and general apathy, leads to disillusion among the general public, and weakens civil society.

She said where corruption is endemic, demanding and paying bribes become the norm, forcing everyday people into compromising and degrading situations.

“At its core, corruption is the misuse of power for private gain,” she emphasized, quoting Transparency International pointing out that “corruption thrives where temptation coexists with permissiveness, where institutional checks on power are missing, where decision making remains obscure, where civil society is thin on the ground, where great inequalities in the distribution of wealth condemn people to live in poverty that is where corrupt practices flourish.”

Resolve to fight corruption and achievements

Given this observation by Transparency International and the prevailing situation in the country, she said, her administration was dedicated to fighting corruption by starting with political accountability, through strong democratic systems, open political dialogue and debate, and appropriate checks and balances on the three branches of government.

“Strong institutions are central to restrain the power of the state, provide oversight, and diminish opportunities for the abuse of power and penalize abuses if they occur. Civil servants that are well paid must be professionals, and appointments and promotions must be based on merit, not on personal connections or favors,” she said.

She said the governments alone cannot fight corruption even though it has plan to combat corruption by putting into place a strong economic policy that aims at reducing monopoly power, removing unnecessary regulations that create opportunities for bribes, and encouraging competition and productivity gains as a way to make profit, not bribery.

The administration, she said, will therefore use the cooperation of a strong civil society to ensure accountability and transparency.

“Citizen groups, NGOs, trade unions, business associations, think tanks, academia, religious organizations and last but not least the media, all have an important role to play in constraining corruption,” President Sirleaf said.

But, according to her, these groups will only play this vital role when they cultivate honesty, competence, responsibility, and accountability in their reaction to national issues.

“When they are honest and competent, they can play a central role in encouraging transparency, shedding light on abuses, holding officials accountable for their actions, and ensuring that public resources are used for public, rather than private gain,” she said.

She said as the fight against corruption intensifies, the government intends to expand on its present achievements that include the endorsement of GEMAP, the declaration of assets order that was abandoned for its deficiency in the law, budgetary streamlining to ensure transparency and accountability, prosecution of former public officials for the violation of public trust, a draft act prescribing the code of conduct for public officials, the dismissal of officials found guilty of corruption, and now the commissioning of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

“We expect you, the Anti-Corruption Commission, to restart the process requiring all government officials, starting with me, to submit to this process under oath,” the President told the commission that is headed by former Commerce Minister Frances Johnson-Morris.

She then reminded the commissioning ceremony of Liberia’s membership to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and the issuance of a presidential proclamation regarding EITI that reads at the 5th of 9 counts:

“Every extractive company, especially oil, mining and logging companies, operating in Liberia shall, as of the effective date of this Proclamation, be obliged and required to disclose, fully, timely and in the manner required by the EITI Criteria and Principles, all payments made to every agency and level of the Government of Liberia.”

Also at count 4, the proclamation reads: “The Ministry of Finance; the Ministry of Lands, Mines & Energy; the National Oil Company; the Forestry Development Authority; and other relevant agencies of government are hereby required to disclose, fully, timely, and in the manner required by the EITI Criteria and Principles, all revenues received from every extractive company in Liberia.”

More than that, she emphasized, the General Auditing Commission was now at work conducting eighteen audits of which six has been finalized, eight in final stages and four just started.
“The recommendations of the Audit report will undoubtedly lead to action against officials and others in the society,” the President vowed.

She then used the occasion to deny any link with Knucklesgate II, noting that she could not erode the Liberian people’s confidence in her by engaging in any act of betrayal against their hopes and aspirations for the building of a viable economy and a democratic nation.

Concluding, the President said: We have a terrible situation, a lack of ethics on our hands not just in Government but throughout the society.

They have their roots in poverty; in the accepted attitude of “pay yourself” and “goat eats where it is tied”, in the long years of neglect of civil society in terms of compensation and work environment; in recent departure from the old fashion values of the dignity of hard work and earnings; in the long standing practices of patronage and dependency.”

National debate

Observers praised the President for what they called her informed stance on corruption, noting that even though she intended nothing beyond informing the Liberian people of how she intends to fight corruption and therefore poverty, she has inadvertently opened a national debate on corruption.

According to them, the President’s reference to the mutualistic relationship between corruption and poverty was especially interesting because in their view, the successful combat of corruption depended on its dynamics rather than on the identity of perpetrators.

The question that is relevant in this regard, that will help establish the priority of solutions, they say, is “Which leads to which – corruption or poverty?”

“If you can say definitively whether it is corruption that leads to poverty or it is poverty that leads to corruption, then you are halfway in finding a solution. But if you just say they are intertwined and feed off of each other, then it will be difficult to place the priority in finding a solution,” said one observer.

He said if corruption leads to poverty, then the government will fight corruption in order to eradicate poverty.

“If on the other hand poverty leads to corruption, then the government will have as a priority strengthen the economy, create jobs and raise the per capita income for all Liberian worker according to skill levels, revive the private sector as a matter of public policy and not as a wishful agenda, review the salary structure, and lift the nation’s human resource profile as a way of eradicating corruption,” he said.

Moses Dugbeh of ELWA, who disagree with the President’s description of the relationship between poverty and corruption as mutualism, said he thought it was commensal relationship, noting that viewing the relation from this perspective would go a long way in finding national solutions.

“I think it is a commensal relationship because it is only corrupt people that are living off the resources of the nation, off of the poor; the poor remain unaffected in their economic standing. If anything, they get poorer.”

Moses said while he respected the President’s view in the matter, he thought it was healthy to see the issue from the perspective of victim and perpetrator so that corruption will be disentangled from poverty and punished.

“Saying that poverty leads to corruption, is an indirect endorsement of corruption, the provision of an alibi. In that case, prosecution would be a fight against the victim, in this case the corrupt official or corporate executive who is not necessarily poor.

“We need to see corruption as a vice and treat it as such,” said Theresa Segbo, a graduating secretarial science student in Monrovia”. She said while definition may be academic, it impacts heavily on the formation of perception and that therefore, the government needed to be careful in expressing its view on corruption.

Biology instructor James J. Weh agreed: “We need a national debate on the exact relationship between corruption and poverty. If we do, we will be able to help the government fight corruption.

“We will prosecute perpetrators of corruption without subconsciously seeing them as victims of circumstance and surreptitiously influencing court decisions based on sympathy advised by that subconscious view. This has been the undoing of past government administrations.”

He said the outcome of such a debate would help the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to set priorities and help the government fine-tune its priorities in poverty reduction.

“It will hasten judicial reforms, strengthen the criminal justice system, and enhance policy and internal security operations – to establish facts instead of making arrests based on rumors,” he said.

Moreover, he said, it will strengthen the resolve of the government to adhere to the EITI principals and goals.

“It will give a clear choice of priority development between the private and public sectors. It will provide the government the opportunity to skillfully create a delicate balance between the rightsizing of the government against the revival of the private sector – point by point,” he said.

Analysts say while the call for a national debate is necessary and in place, it was incumbent upon proponents to state the form it will take.

“Then after that, the question of how fast it will impact the fight against corruption and poverty will be assessed,” they said.