Pres. Biden’s Rep to Bicentennial Celebration Laments Corruption in Liberia; Urges Liberians to Tighten Screws on Corruption

MONROVIA – Ms. Dana Banks, head of U.S. President Joe Biden’s delegation to Liberia’s Bicentennial Celebration, has lamented that the Liberian government continues to underfund integrity institutions while at the same time exerting its influence on these anti-graft bodies, yet expecting the United States and the international community to provide the needs of the country while corruption remain their hallmark.

Ms. Banks who is also a Special Assistant to President Biden and the Senior Director for African Affairs at the Security Council made the statement at the official launch of the Bicentennial Celebrations to commemorate 200 years since freed men and women of color from the United States settled on the Providence Island in Liberia.

Banks: “Liberia has a host of anti-corruption institutions. But while these institutions are nominally and legally independent from the Government of Liberia, the truth is that the government fails to adequately fund them and exerts its influence upon them.

Too many of Liberia’s leaders have chosen their own personal short-term gain over the long-term benefit of their country.

“The expectation, sometimes, is that the United States and the rest of the international community will step in to solve Liberia’s long-term problems.

So let me be clear. The United States is a proud and dedicated partner and friend of Liberia.

“But ultimately, only the Liberian Government and the Liberian people can tackle corruption, fight for accountability and transparency, and move this country forward.

Still, in the meantime, we will continue our strong and unique partnership’s.”

The United States has been particular about the fight against corruption since the inception of the Biden Administration and has since 2019 instituted two sanctions on influential Liberian politicians – Cllr. Varney Sherman, Senator of Grand Cape Mount County and Senator Prince Y. Johnson of Nimba County.

Currently, the U.S. House of Representatives is deliberating a Resolution proffered by Representative Gregory Meeks that seeks to give the U.S. State Department the greenlight to impose more sanctions on individuals in Liberia who continue to acts of corruption and acts that undermine the country’s democracy.

U.S. Action against Corruption

In December 2019, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned prominent Liberian lawyer and Senator of Grand Cape Mount County, Cllr. Varney Sherman.

Cllr. Sherman was accused by the U.S. Department of Treasury of offering bribes to judges to circumvent justice.

The U.S. Treasury said the senator has had an undisclosed conflict of interest with the judge who ultimately returned a not guilty verdict in July 2019 in his economic sabotage case involving Sable Mining as exposed by Global Witness.

Sherman, according to the Treasury, routinely paid judges to decide cases in his favor, and he has allegedly facilitated payments to Liberian politicians to support impeachment of Justice Kabina Jan’neh who has ruled against him.  

In 2016, Sherman was indicted by the Liberian government, along with several other government officials, for their involvement in the US$950,000 bribery scheme while in 2019, the presiding judge acquitted all individuals accused of being involved in the bribery scheme. 

In a statement, the Treasury Department stated that Cllr. Sherman’s acts of bribery demonstrated a larger pattern of behavior to exercise influence over the Liberian judiciary and the Ministry of Justice.

He is designated for being a foreign person who is a current or former government official responsible for or complicit in, or directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.

In 2021, the influential former warlord and current Senator Prince Yormie Johnson was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of Treasury for alleged corruption.

The sanctions against Sen. Johnson was announced in Liberia in December 2021 to commemorate International Anti-Corruption Day, came under the Global Magnitsky Act, which authorises the U.S. government to sanction those it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets and ban them from entering the U.S.

Mr. Johnson was responsible for the slaying in 1990 of President Samuel Doe, who had been captured by his forces during the country’s 14-year civil war.

Mr. Johnson sipped beer as he watched his men torture and mutilate Doe who begged in vain for mercy in a widely circulated video.

Now a trusted political ally of President George Weah, Mr. Johnson is accused in a U.S. embassy statement of large-scale corruption.

“As a senator, Mr. Johnson has been involved in pay-for-play funding with government Ministries and organisations for personal enrichment,” the statement said.

“As part of the scheme, upon receiving funding from the government of Liberia, the involved government Ministries and organisations launder a portion of the funding for return to the involved participants.” The scheme involves millions of dollars, according to the embassy statement.

Mr. Johnson also receives an undeserved salary from the Liberian government as a salaried intelligence source yet he does not provide any form of intelligence reporting, alleged the U.S. statement.

He is being paid in order to maintain domestic stability, according to the statement.

Poorly Performing against Corruption

Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranked Liberia among the poor performing countries in the fight against corruption. Out of 180 countries captured, Liberia ranked 136, with score of 29, climbing just one step above the 2020 ranking of 28.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Unveiling the report on behalf of Transparency International (TI) in Liberia, the organization’s national chapter, the Center for Transparency and Accountability (CENTAL), said although Liberia’s score is 29, compared to 28 in 2019 and 2020 respectively, it remains an under performer and one of the biggest decliners worldwide, since 2012.

The country now ranks 136/180 and remains further down the table, joining the list of countries significantly declining on the CPI. With the exception of Saint Lucia that has 15 points and Syria, 13 points globally, only Liberia has fallen 12 points since 2012, the report indicated.

CENTAL said since the country attained her highest score of 41 in 2012, it has failed to perform any better; indicating that Liberia’s improved performance then was largely due to passage of key laws and establishment of public integrity institutions.

However, it pointed out that the Country has since failed to make these institutions and laws work, as the laws are not enforced and public integrity institutions are not fully supported morally and financially to satisfactorily deliver. 

“CENTAL is deeply worried over Liberia’s continuous poor performance, especially her place among the Worst Decliners worldwide. In part, this speaks to the Liberian Government’s inability to address entrenched culture of impunity and fully enforce existing anti-corruption laws and policies,” the group said in a statement through its Executive Director, Anderson Miamen.

It continued: “Liberians have heard more words and promises from the President and other public officials than concerted genuine efforts/actions in the fight against Corruption in the country.  There can be no successful fight against Corruption if the rule of law is not upheld; if the Legislature and the Judiciary are weak; if infrastructure projects are prioritized over governance and anti-corruption issues; if the President remains silent on numerous allegations of corruption against his officials; if the laws are meant for others and not senior government officials and their friends and relatives; and if, among other things, the national budget is used as a tool for political corruption, and investigations into major scandals and allegations of corruption are stalled or seemingly endless.”