Observation on the poor performance of the PRS/CDA

Observation on the poor management of the PRS/CDA

By Edmond R. Gray, CDO-Grand Cape Mount County

November 13, 2009

Statement of the Facts

On February 2009 County Development Officers (CDOs) were deployed to their various counties of assignment following a bitter and fruitless debate over the implementation of Annex C of the Performance Contractual Agreement. This agreement is between CDOs herein referred to as employees of the SES and the Civil Service Agency through its affiliate partners, herein referred to as employer.  Annex C among others, mandates the Ministry of Planning to provide all CDOs with an ‘adequately furnished office space, transportation for carrying out official duties, adequate communication facilities required for contract execution, adequate office equipment and logistics (Source, SES Performance Contract, 2008)’. Under the Aide Memoire, the Ministry of Planning in collaboration with the Liberian Reconstruction and Development Committee, Office of the President, Ministry of Internal Affairs and LISGIS endorsed the SES’s mandate when they emphasize that to ensure the effective coordination and implementation of the national development agenda at the county level, structures like the Office of the County Development Officer (CDO) and the M&E Assistant engaged with the monitoring and evaluation process were to be strengthened (Source, Aide Memoire, 2008). Accordingly, the goal was to ensure the successful monitoring of overall national progress towards the goals of the PRS and the strategic objectives across the four LRDC pillars (Security, Infrastructure and Basic Services, Economic Revitalization, Governance and Rule of Law).  

Why the Ministry of Planning would not Implement Annex C

Under the terms of the Performance Contract, the Government of Liberia through its affiliate agency, the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs was to fulfill Annex C of the agreement (see SES Performance Contract, 2008). Not only has this important aspect of the contract not fulfilled, the failure to do so has compromised the integrity of the implementation and monitoring of the Poverty Reduction Strategy and the County Development Agenda (PRS/CDA) respectively.

No will on the part of MPEA to implement Annex C

Despite numerous pressures exerted on officials of the MPEA by the CDOs to implement Annex C, it is almost one year now and nothing has been done about it. There are indications that the Ministry of Planning does not intend to implement Annex C where possible. For instance, despite many demands by the CDOs to have this important subject addressed, representatives within MPEA in the persons of the Minister and his Deputy have employed meaningless excuses and gimmickry to avoid the issue. Furthermore, these officials have sufficiently inferred by their actions or pronouncements of misclassifying CDOs as junior staff members that are not provided for within the hierarchical structure of the MPEA. The denial to provide CDOs assigned vehicles or self furnished offices as mandated by the Performance Contract is consequential of the misclassification. Unabatedly, the focus of the MPEA has now shifted from the successful implementation of the PRS/CDA to one of “personnel discipline”. By misclassifying CDOs from senior executives of the Civil Service Agency to ordinary civil servants violates the performance contract on the one hand, and is sufficient psychological reason why the Ministry does not see it fit to provide them with assigned vehicles.  As a matter of fact, the Minister of Planning has manifested this in varying terms. For instance, in one meeting with CDOs, Minister Konneh made it clear that if any groups were to benefit from assigned vehicles, they will be Assistant Ministers and Directors of MOPEA but not CDOs whom he termed, “ordinary employees”. He also said that his ministry’s budget was only a million dollars that excludes the CDOs. In the past, Minister Konneh has made pronouncements like “those of you who have returned from Ivy League schools in the United States and elsewhere to exercise cockiness and elitism won’t be tolerated here (Konneh, 2009)”. Because the CDOs are aware of the strategic consequence that Annex C has on the successful implementation of the PRS/CDA, and in keeping with contract/employment laws, they reduced their demand for specific performance into writing. Such a move on the parts of CDOs infuriated the Minister and especially his Principle Deputy, Sebastein Muah. Minister Muah stated that the move to have the request signed collectively by all CDOs was synonymous to what he referred to as “collective bargaining”. He could not say which employment or contract laws he was referring to.  As a matter of fact, Minister Muah threatened that “any CDO who failed to take up assignment at his county would be dismissed from the SES” (Muah, 2009). Clearly, there is a lack of will on the part of Minister Konneh and his principle deputies to implement Annex C of the Performance Agreement.

Just another Excuse

Further verifications as to why the MPEA would not implement Annex C of the Performance Contract demonstrated that firstly, there is the myth that the PRS/CDA was the idea of Minister Konneh’s predecessor, Dr. G. Mackintosh; therefore, to successful implement it only enhances the statures of those who derived this brilliant but Minister Konneh. Again, this is only a myth. But when the UNDP confidentially intimated a cross session of CDOs in one acquaintance meeting that MPEA has since turned down a UNDP offer to have CDOs provided with brand new 4x4 jeeps only if the MPEA ensures their upkeeps (maintenance and fuel) adds impetus to this mythology. To concretize this general lack of will, and coupled with the misclassification of the CDOs, Minister Konneh angrily stated that “my personal leadership philosophy would not compel me to beg others for handouts to run this ministry”. Perhaps, the latter pronouncement was what influenced his refusal of the UNDP generous offer. He further stated that Annex C of the performance agreement did not specify that the term ‘transportation’ meant 4x4 jeeps. In his opinion, it could have meant a couple of different things. After telling a boredom story of his tenure with IRC of Conakry, Guinea, he later reduced his anything theory to mean motor bikes. He assured that CDOs would more than likely be provided motor bikes for use in their capacity as Senior Executive Service personnel.

Further Demands by CDOs to have Annex C Implemented

CDOs consider the implementation of Annex C key requirement for the successful and impartial execution of their responsibilities. Because of this, they have relentlessly requested MPEA to act as mandated by the Performance Agreement. Subsequent requests by CDOs regarding Annex C were endeared by one unfulfilled promise to another. For instance, Minister Konneh once assured that Annex C will be fulfilled no soon as the 2008/2009 Supplemental Budget went into effect in July 2009. However, he cleverly conditioned this that CDOs were to be in their various assigned posts. July 2009 swooped through with nothing done. The Minister had once more reneged on his promise. The CDOs filed another grievance to have Annex C implemented. A shift to have this issue addressed was finally hinged upon fiscal budget 2009/2010. We are well on our way through that fiscal budget and this issue still looms in the air. Today, all SES personnel mainly in urban Liberia have assigned transportation less CDOs. May be the term ‘gimmickry’ sounds harsh. But when a leader fails to honor numerous promises made to subordinates or peers, he/she loses flavor.  My inability to honor another piece of the Minister’s pronouncement when others lavished him with praises on his pronouncement that the Honorable Legislature passed MPEA’s 2009/2010 fiscal budget without condition was due to mistrust. This move on my part brought me under the radar. Of course, many CDOs perhaps revered being placed under such radar. Most CDOs dread being terminated as promised by Minister Muah, and today are mute even on matters of their civil and individual liberties. For instance, few months ago, as a Liberian and an Authority on National Security, I commented on some key national security issues which Minister Moah saw as a violation of my employment as a CDO. He unsuccessfully lobbied to have me fired because of that.  Both the Minister and his Deputy have consistently micro managed the SES process to their own cabal. Liberia is a country where a sizable fraction of its small literate class is not exposed to post secondary education, (BBC African Perspective, September 17, 2007; Maxwell 2006; US.gov.state/2007 annual report; World Bank annual report 2003). It is a country where a chunk of the educated class is not willing to relocate to a county beyond Montserrado. To terminate the employment contracts of few that an international HR firm selected as the best among the lot was simply a bluff that ices someone’s ego. I dismiss Minister Muah’s threat towards me as sheer malice and levity.   

No Due Process, No Progressive Discipline Equals No Personnel Management Knowledge

 I was recently excused by the Superintendent, Head of the CDSC, and others within the SES to answer an urgent family maternity and housing matters. The right of the family is a Preamble Declaration under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights also known as the 1948 Convention (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/). Also the right to adequate housing is one sanctioned by the United Nations under Article 11(1) of its Covenants on Human Rights (GESCR, 1991). Moreover, my trip is consistent with the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of the Civil Service Laws under Section 6.3 of the Holiday and Leave portion of the Performance Contract.  While I was away, Minister Muah circulated a request to have my wages/salary withheld while he pursued avenues to have my employment terminated.  Minister Muah’s action further strengthens my belief that he personally hates me. This ambitious euphoria to terminate my employment is also partially visible in past arbitrary actions either by the Minister of Planning or his Principle Deputy, Sebastein Muah. For instance, MPEA has consistently provided gas allowances to all CDOs but me. What else may have influenced such discrimination but hate and malice? I believe these sorts of poi behaviors contravene the Civil Service code of ethics. One can only hope that such unfair policies do not form a part of our nation’s planning process.

Monitoring of the PRS/CDA why is it not working?

The monitoring of the PRS/CDA by CDOs was significantly hampered by the failure to implement Annex C. Only a handful of the PRS/CDA activities have been truly monitored thus far. Thanks to a gesture from the Norwegian Refugee Committee (NRC) which graciously provided few of its vehicles to bring a small number of CDOs at few PRS’s project sites. For most part, not once have the many national projects within the PRS/CDA which the Aide Memoir so vigorously promised to effectively monitor been checked in the past year or so. At some point, MPEA exerted its usual intimidation tactics on CDOs to deliver reports surrounding the implementation of the PRS/CDA whether verified or not.  To be candid, no CDO is in the position to truthfully and precisely report on the progress of any of the PRS/CDA’s projects without valid means of transportation. The idea of the PRS is a brilliant strategic recovery program in my opinion, but the failure to accurately track or monitor its progress may lead to its failure. To some, reporting on the PRS/CDA does not necessarily mean that one must verify the accuracy of what is being reported so long there was some pieces of information to show. Some of us have left our family in the United States to participate in the nation rebuilding process with the focus that Liberia reclaims its position within the comity of nations. I am of the opinion that posterity would judge us tomorrow if we pride to present inaccurate pictures of our noble intervention. At some point, we wanted the UN to realize that the use of the PRS/CDA to rebuild Liberia does not only rest on meeting to meeting (CDSC, WCs, pillars meetings), but on the effective monitoring of all the processes. It could be an understatement to say that the UN which is the principle facilitator is ambivalent about the importance of the monitoring process. Sometimes its actions suggest that there is a general lack of will to ensure compliance. The UN County Support Team (CST) through the UN Civil Affairs was the only agency providing support to the CDOs on the one hand, and the NRC on the other. However, a transitional mandate to hand over matters to Liberian institutions stifled the UN’s ability to continue its unflinching support to the monitoring and evaluation process. As a CDO, one had no means to transport himself; the meager twenty gallons gas allowance that MPEA was providing CDOs is no longer forthcoming. The last time I received one was back in April 2009; MPEA has absolutely no provision for scratch cards or other communication means aside from the wireless internet provided and paid for by the NRC. However, the NRC’s internet gesture ends in December, 2009. And of course you know what happens once this reverts to the MPEA. MPEA has provided no stationery or office equipment to CDOs to run meeting citations aside from two reams of sheet and handful low graded pens provided during deployment. There is a complete shutdown of activities at the county level, if you will. Fatigue is well in sight as the committing of own resources is now the norm. It is a known fact that in change management, one must lead the change that will affect performance and improve organizational culture to affect an individual’s personal effectiveness (http://monkeykingmanagement.com). It goes to say that the emotions and fulfillment an individual experiences are all interrelated to corporate and public sector work performance. The leadership at MPEA has not led that change which influences the effectiveness of CDOs.

A change management theory-what affects one affects all

Unfortunately, there is a chain reaction that affects every portion of the PRS. The poor performance of a composite piece like the Office of the County Development Officer from lack of logistical support affects the way the UN or GOL does business. All of these institutions hinge on a slippery slope such that fall of one tips the others to lose balance and likely follow. The many reports reflecting the lack of support for CDOs by MPEA have yielded little or no attention. Today, the intent of the CDSC is not holding. I am of the opinion that the PRS at the county level is in dire limbo.  

Has he been fired yet?

Although the UN through its Civil Affairs section said it has also brought pressure on the MPEA to honor its obligation to the CDOs, it seems to have had no affects so far. During my short family emergency trip, the UN complained that my absence from the county was impacting the CDSC. That just tells how closely we are bound on the development chain. Rumors had circulated that I was frustrated with the MPEA’s lack of support, and have since returned to the family in the United States and won’t be coming back. Of course, for the likes of Minister Muah, this is a welcoming opportunity to fulfill his burning desire to have me fired.  The glottal interest that the UN has taken on the meeting of the CDSC and not other portions of the implementation of the PRS solidifies its ambivalence to the entire process. It is amazing how my purported absence created a stare to Ministers Konneh and Muah, but not the impact their lack of support to the CDOs has on the implementation of the PRS.  These men were inundated by their anxiousness to dismiss me and not to follow due process. The hasty circulation of dismissal notices to the UN, Civil Service and others even where they lack the direct authority to dismiss me, clearly demonstrates such anxiety. I wish these men could borrow a pinch of such enthusiasm to implement Annex C. You see the processes to dismiss SES personnel are clearly crafted in the performance contract, a document that is not honored by these men. To say the least, the statement by the UN was tenuous. Besides, these men solely relied on hearsay to take a ceremonial termination decision. Why should an administrator without regard for employment regulation effect a termination? If malice was not the undertone, why would the head of a regulated agency like the MPEA would enquire publicly whether someone has been terminated yet? It is interesting to note that the CDOs who head all the strategic county initiatives of the PRS/CDA are the only senior officials without vehicles in the county, and perhaps among SES personnel. Today, LISGIS, all heads of Line Ministries, County Officials down to the Public Defenders have assigned vehicles. This is shameful and disgusting. No need to look elsewhere for answers. The Minister of MPEA who serves as Chairperson of the Board for LISGIS approved vehicles for all LISGIS Directors but failed to do so for CDOs. This further tells how low the MPEA considers CDOs.  

Theory of Hearsay

The Minister also asked how an act could go on for three or four months without anyone noticing. Does that mean he finds the claim incredulously unbelievable? This also tells how unfounded the UN claim is. But mostly, this shows that the MPEA has truly abandoned the CDOs. Aside from the Performance Contract, (Selwyn, 2008) also discusses HR procedures that these men can benefit from. I am sure that these step by step procedures are too boring to match the level of anxiousness in these men. Moreover, not once in the last ten months or so since deployment of CDOs has the MPEA or the M&E Coordinator visited a leeward county to check on the progress of CDOs. One report I saw pointed out that Henrique Wilson, the M&E Coordinator visited some counties. These types of blatant deception should have instead warranted the attention of the Minister far more than that of an unsupported CDO. For most part, Henrique graciously enjoys exceptional benefits for doing nothing.  In fact, our MPEA supervisory team is armchair bound in Monrovia while CDOs languish in some of the remotest parts of Liberia. Such act of good citizenship by CDOs is sometimes overlooked. But if you think residing in Monrovia is difficult, try the jungle of Sinoe County, or Congo Mano in Cape Mount. With their level of accomplishments, no one must think that people serving as CDOs cannot find a job in Monrovia. This shunning of CDO is not accidental; it is coiled in the belief that they deserve nothing more. The refusal by the Minister to accept a UNDP transportation offer reinforces that belief. Minister Moah’s action to ceremoniously dismiss a commissioned senior executive staff person is indicative that either he lacks the managerial know-how, or was trampled by a wishful ambition. These baseless threats and bullying by men whose honorable functions were to help defend the rights of workers everywhere, demonstrate sheer lack of consideration for others. In contract law, Clyatt v United States (197 U.S. 207, 1905) holds that a demand for specific performance is binding on a party to perform a specific act. Usually remedy lies in what is stated in the contract. No one asks for anything more but what was agreed upon as contained in Annex C. Such unnecessary intransigence or gestures to fulfill Annex C have no place in law. They only violate civil service standing procedures everywhere, Lando & Rose (2003).  

Conclusion

In concluding I wish to make the following recommendations that Annex C of the Performance Contract be executed to facilitate the smooth implementation of the PRS/CDA. That the Civil Service conducts regular in service leadership training for people in management positions. Also the Civil Service should circulate its personnel action notices on the rights of employee/employer to people in leadership positions. If the government wants the PRS to be successful, it should once more place it in an independent LRDC as it was previously.

President Sirleaf Continues to risk Liberia into Further Chaos (By Edmond Remie Gray)

The arrival of information technology made it somewhat near possible to predict future circumstances such as weather condition, sex of an unborn child, extinction of endangered species, etc. Today, we are told in advance the birth-day of a child in its fetus stage. With the help of a GPS, we can arrive at the doorstep of a distant location. But the quest to predict man’s future behaviors remains a stifling progress.

For instance, fast forward to 2012; who in their rational mind would have predicted a future in which President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will be redefining nepotism to exclude “appointing one’s blood relations who are educated?” It leaves me to wonder whether Stephen and Benedict Tolbert were goons and illiterates when Madam cited them as clear examples of nepotism under the Tolbert regime. Sometimes, the case is made as though corruption under Madam Sirleaf’s watch is plausibly, a contemporary public policy practice. Wait a minute; didn’t she earlier condemn corruption as an abominable act under Richard Tolbert and Samuel Doe? Were these not the very ills that bastardized the good works of her predecessors? One can safely say that these inconsistencies on her part amount to political arrogance.

But the annals of history have enough to say about arrogant leaders. For instance, in his epic poem “Paradise Lost”, John Milton, a 17th-century English Poet brilliantly narrated the biblical account of the fall of man from the Garden of Eden. The poem has two storylines: one on Lucifer, and the other on Adam and Eve. The plot of the poem revolves around the banishment of Angel Satan from heaven. Once exiled, Satan used his rhetorical skill to rally his followers (Mammon, Beelzebub, Belial, and Moloch).

As national leaders, especially as presidents, we should be very careful on how we interpret national laws when in power today. The reality is, by redefining nepotism to exclude one’s educated family member only softens the ground for future tyranny. At most in Lucifer’s account, Milton posited that Satan’s action poisoned God’s newly created Earth and the human race. Like Lucifer, Madam is fearlessly sowing the seeds for future political discord in a manner that is reminiscent of Odysseus or Aeneas. She is poisoning Liberia’s future political landscape.

Milton further accounted that Satan’s action, triggered an Angelic War over the heavens, one he classified as large-scale. Under Ellen, Liberia continues to degenerate into a land in full scale warfare mode. Poverty is on the rise in a land where the population has almost quadrupled the eighties and nineties. The gap between the haves and have-nots continues to outstretch its elasticity. Corrupt officials of government are increasingly doing business with impunity. In the kingdom of Ellen, the most qualified Liberian is a Sirleaf, who sits on this board, that senior advisory role, or that special envoy position. There is even a joke that the Sirleafs have so much in their plates, that it takes many personal assistants to remind them by the day. Security forces are brutally overburdened, but poorly compensated.

The irony is, in a country where some of the bloodiest wars in human history occurred, security is not a priority. Others have made the case that, by the end of her second term, Madam will retire in her newly built mansion overlooking the Western Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Whatever becomes of Liberia then is of little concern to her, it is said. It can be recalled that in her quest to become president of Liberia, not only did Madam Sirleaf sponsor a bloody war that claimed the lives of some two hundred fifty thousand Liberians; she directed her NPFL forces to level the Monrovian landscape if that is what it takes. Funny how few cronies and some paid agents continue to brag how she accounts for zero political prisoners. But is nepotism not a breach of the constitution also? Poetic Justice they call it!

Liberia: Sirleaf Needs to Use Powers to the Fullest

Guest Column

Liberia has come a long way from the bloody civil wars that raged from 1989 until former president Charles Taylor left office in 2003.

In less than a decade, two credible elections have been held, the last in November. But Taylor's imprisonment for war crimes in Sierra Leone has done little to help with reconciliation. Indeed, Liberians remain divided, and by some of the problems that plunged the country into conflict.

Corruption, nepotism linked to oil contracts, impunity; a security sector in disarray; high youth unemployment; and flaws in the election laws have polarized society and corroded politics. Unless President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf uses her limited powers to the fullest to reconcile the nation more insecurity beckons.

Even last year’s relatively-successful polls highlighted these divisions. Inflammatory rhetoric by some politicians and sporadic violence in the run-up to the elections, then opposition allegations of cheating after the vote, show how fragile things are.

Young people are increasingly resentful that they can’t find work, even as Liberia’s elite grow richer. Community relations are also tense, notably between the residents of Nimba in the north, and Grand Gedeh, to the east.

Security is a central issue. The recent conviction of Taylor was welcomed world wide, but Liberians are uneasy that others like him have not been prosecuted for crimes committed not next door but in their own country. Some say they will not feel safe until those responsible for the atrocities are behind bars.

A new campaign led by the Grand Bassa county representative for a law to establish a war crimes court in Liberia is encouraging news and the initiative should be supported by the government. Yet the numerous recommendations made by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2009 have yet to be implemented.

To address the problem, the government needs to clarify how the recommendations tie into the national peace and reconciliation initiative launched by President Johnson Sirleaf. It should also adopt a recommendation by the Special Independent Commission of Inquiry to pass a law against hate crimes. Civil society and donors must invest in strengthening the media, notably by building a media training centre and encouraging worker exchange programs with countries that have an established and vibrant press.

On top of that, people have little confidence in the police. The Liberian National Police was totally revamped in 2004, but its officers failed to control some of the election-linked violence, and they were accused of using excessive force against peaceful protestors. This has only undermined public confidence and cast doubts over the extent of police reform.

The United Nations, wary of the force’s abilities, has decided to keep its police contingent at current numbers even as it draws down its soldiers in the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) over the next three years. The government must urgently seek funds for further police training and to buy essential equipment.

Liberia’s next elections are not due until 2017, but the voting laws must be revised. The opposition claims of cheating were driven by the National Election Commission (NEC)’s inability, or unwillingness, to stop the ruling Unity Party from allegedly using state resources.

Parliament ought to debate and introduce new laws so that the NEC can control party funding and set tougher criteria for parties to stand in the polls. The criteria could include demands for financial transparency, significant representation in all regions and the respect of democratic standards in their internal structure.

A special fund could also be established for party reform, to strengthen their legitimacy and capacity. In addition, efforts should be made to educate voters and polling staff, some of whom were uncomfortable last year with the counting and tallying methods, according to observers.

Finally, national development must be bolstered. Young people, many of whom fought in the conflicts, must be given long-term economic opportunities so they don’t return to violence. Investment should be poured into neglected communities like Westpoint in the capital Monrovia, and unstable areas like Grand Gedeh near the Côte d’Ivoire border.

President Johnson Sirleaf is leading a divided country and is doing so with a limited mandate. But Liberia could easily be destabilized by disputes over natural resources, a weak police force and a frustrated younger generation with few prospects for the future.

So she must spur the government to boost the economy and do more to fight corruption, as well as encourage reconciliation – without encouraging impunity – and reforms, both electoral and in the security sector. Only then does Liberia stand a real chance to definitively turn its back on the conflicts of the past.

Gilles Yabi is West Africa project director at the International Crisis Group.

Government expects agreement with investors by late May

Project meant to help meet growing domestic and export demand

(Reuters) - Ivory Coast is near a deal with foreign investors to build a 330-megawatt thermal power station near the commercial capital Abidjan as part of wide-ranging efforts to boost energy production, a senior official said on Wednesday.

A final agreement between the West African state and the yet unnamed investors will be signed by the end of May, paving the way for construction of the plant in Abatta to be completed by 2016, Sabati Cisse, energy director for the country's ministry of mines and energy, told Reuters.

"Capacity at the Abatta thermal power station will come in 110 MW stages and will reach its final phase by 2015-2016," Cisse said on the sidelines of a visit to a newly renovated substation in Abidjan.

Cisse said building of the station would be a joint project between state oil and gas company Petroci and the investors. The project's cost would be announced later, he said.

Unlike many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ivory Coast usually has an enviably reliable power supply and exports power to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Benin, Togo and Mali, all on the same network. It currently has plans to add Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to its grid as well.

But consumption is rising. In 2010 it increased by 3.5 percent to 4,010 gigawatt hours and the government has launched ambitious plans to upgrade the power sector and keep up with domestic and export demands.

The world's top cocoa producer is recovering from a decade long political crisis that resulted in years of economic stagnation and a civil war last year.

Under new President Alassane Ouattara, the government said last July it would pour $500 million into power generation by 2015 and in November announced plans to build a 275-megawatt hydroelectric power station in the west of the country to be completed in 2015 or 2016.

"Today, our annual production is around 6,000 GWh. We estimate that in the two to three years to come, we will grow gross production by around 10 percent," said Dominique Kacou, who heads Ivory Coast's national power company, the CIE.

"Our needs are enormous. We've had major delays in investment. We urgently need to invest 275 billion CFA francs ($550.92 million). Then afterward, we can return to normal investments of 30 billion (CFA) beginning in 2014," he said.

Ivory Coast's six hydroelectric stations and three thermal stations have a total production capacity of around 1,000 MW, but weather has made hydroelectric output unreliable.

Cisse said on Wednesday London-listed short-term power supplier Aggreko {AGGK.L} would also soon boost its production in Ivory Coast from 70 MW to 100 MW. ($1 = 499.1680 CFA francs).

Taylor verdict takes aim at Africa Big Man impunity

(Reuters) Begging outside a supermarket in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown, Tamba Ngaujah has little doubt who was behind the Revolutionary United Front rebels who, 20 years ago, gave him "short sleeves".

"They put my arms on the sticks, took machetes, and cut them ... They only thing I can tell you about Charles Taylor: I heard from the RUF who amputated my hands that they were supported by Charles Taylor," 46-year-old Ngaujah said.

On Thursday, a special court in The Hague will give its verdict on just what level of responsibility former Liberian President Taylor had in these war atrocities. Taylor himself denies any responsibility.

In an 11-year conflict which by 2002 left over 50,000 dead and become a byword for gratuitous violence, "short sleeves" was the macabre tag used to distinguish amputations like Ngaujah's at the elbow from less drastic "long sleeve" cuts at the wrist.

Prosecutors allege Taylor, from his base in neighboring Liberia, directed and armed the Sierra Leonean rebels and so bears responsibility on 11 counts including murder, mutilation, rape, enslavement, and recruitment of child soldiers.

Whether Taylor is found guilty or not, the verdict will be the first in a court of this kind against a former head of state on serious violations of international law.

Yugoslav ex-leader Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006 before the judgment was due in the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal, also in The Hague.

In 2009, Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has ordered his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide related to the conflict in Darfur. Bashir rejects the charges.

"The Sierra Leone conflict was brutal, and Charles Taylor was seen as a 'Big Man' in the region," said Elise Keppler, senior counsel at Human Rights Watch of the slowly dwindling club of those ruling with impunity in Africa.

"Regardless of the verdict, this will send a clear signal that people implicated in the worst crimes will face justice no matter how important or powerful they are," she said.

'STRANGE TO US'

Since Taylor's indictment in 2003, the Special Court for Sierra Leone - a so-called "hybrid" court staffed by both international and Sierra Leonean personnel - has produced testimony ranging from the horrific to the titillating.

As prosecutors sought to link Taylor to the locally-mined "blood diamonds" which helped fuel the war, the court heard the bafflement of supermodel Naomi Campbell at the uncut diamonds - or "dirty little pebbles" in her words - delivered during the night to her hotel room after a 1997 charity dinner with Taylor.

It also featured victims of amputation who displayed remains of mutilated limbs, and graphic accounts of massacres, torture and cannibalism as the prosecution called 91 witnesses whose accounts are included in almost 50,000 pages of transcripts.

Typical is the description by one such witness of the mutilation and execution of his brother by rebels.

"They cut off all his 10 fingers," Patrick Sheriff said. "They put them in (a) cup, then they shot him."
Another witness described fighters betting on the sex of a pregnant woman's child. According to the prosecution: "The rebels shot the woman dead, opened her belly, took out the baby... The baby cried and then died."

For prosecutors, the challenge is to show a link between Taylor and such crimes. Much depends on the evidence of seven radio operators who allegedly kept him in touch with rebel groups. Taylor does not deny atrocities, but does deny any role.

"We did hear of certain actions that were going on in Sierra Leone that ... were a little strange to us, because these things were not happening in Liberia," he said at the trial.

MENACE TO STABILITY

Former Special Court of Sierra Leone lawyer Sareta Ashraph argued that even if a link between Taylor and RUF rebels is demonstrated, it would be harder to show he had a clear planning or command role in the late-1990s period covered by the court.

"It difficult to see the motivation for putting himself in charge of the RUF," said Ashraph, who is writing a history of the Sierra Leone war.

"He was already president of Liberia, was making money off them and would have realized the best the RUF were going to do is force the government into a stalemate."

Rebels and government signed a 1999 peace deal but fighting continued for nearly three years until the RUF was defeated with military help from ex-colonial power Britain and U.N. forces.

While Taylor, 64, was deemed enough of a menace to West Africa's stability that his trial was moved to The Hague after his March 2006 arrest during exile in Nigeria, his present-day influence is harder to define.

The region is still plagued by mercenaries like those who created havoc two decades ago. But militant Islamists such as Nigeria's Boko Haram or al Qaeda agents in the Sahel zone are now the bigger threat, alongside the growing narcotics trade.

Nonetheless, acquittal for Taylor would be an uncomfortable prospect for Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf who became his arch-enemy after withdrawing support for him early in the Liberian civil war of the 1990s that brought him to power.

"I never speak about Charles Taylor," Johnson Sirleaf told Reuters during her successful re-election campaign last year. Yet while he is abhorred by many of Liberians, Taylor remains a local hero and symbol of national pride for some.

"The best president I have seen in my time is Charles Ghankay Taylor. He is better than Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf," 40-year-old farmer Karhn Dayplay told Reuters.

"Taylor must come back here to rule this nation. We are waiting for him," said the resident of Karnplay, one of the Nimba County towns from which Taylor launched his 1989 rebellion to unseat the then President Samuel Doe.

OLD ENEMIES

A man used to giving orders, Taylor has wanted to be closely involved in shaping his defense, taking the witness stand for seven months with confident, forthright performances.

As he awaits the verdict, he has immersed himself in study of the Jewish faith to which he converted before arriving in The Hague. He has regular visits from a rabbi and does not receive his lawyers on the Sabbath.

His library - now put in storage - had occupied an entire room at the seaside detention facilities used by the tribunal and the International Criminal Court, where he is said to maintain cordial relations with old enemy Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivory Coast leader transferred there last year to face charges of crimes against humanity.

His defense team reports that he is reading "Strategic Vision," the latest book by former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, and that Taylor followed last year's upheavals in North Africa with avid interest.

He has benefited from the company of other African detainees including Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo to go through legal briefs and cook home favorites together - one domestic option he may lack in the British maximum security prison due to house him if found guilty.

While some Africans see the long list of countrymen due to be tried in The Hague as evidence of bias in the international legal system, others see the Taylor verdict as one step towards breaking down the impunity many of its biggest criminals enjoy.

Liberia itself has made little progress in prosecuting those responsible for crimes in its war, while abuses committed by northern rebels who backed Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara in last year's conflict have yet to be fully investigated.

"This is part of a global process of increasing accountability for the worst crimes," said HRW's Keppler. "In the world of justice versus impunity, justice is still young."

The Wish Center Sponsors A Law Suit to Replace Major General S.A. Abdurrahman with a Natural Born Liberian

The succession of a Nigerian General, Yusuf by his countryman, Major General Suraj Alao Abdurrahman in June 2007, as Commander of the Armed Forces of Liberia, is not only damning and denigrating for one of Africa’s oldest nations, it defies all international legal wisdoms. Under Article VII of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), the Armed Forces of Liberia along with other security agencies were to be restructured under a new command. The call to restructure Liberia’s security apparatus came from concerns held by a group of Liberian politicians, including Madam Sirleaf on the “brutal role” of security units under previous Liberian governments. This thirst to institutionalize Liberia’s security units was to ensure that, never again in the history of Liberia, would any government or politicians use the security to protect their political interests. 

In all fairness, the rebuilding of new security machinery for Liberia not only restored its lost dignity, but that process completely removed the pariah status which it inherited from prolonged years of civil unrest. Nonetheless, how worthy is the sovereignty of a nation whose security apparatus is headed by a foreign national? There remains to be seen, how Nigeria would allow Ghana or Liberia to head its security apparatus, because it was prosecuting a bloody Biafaran War; or neighboring Sierra Leone or the Ivory Coast subjecting its sovereign pride to a regional counterpart, from political differences?

The intentions of rebuilding a new Liberia, including its security sector may have been well intentioned. But the subjugation of its security responsibilities to foreign nationals puts the process aloof. Would an Amos Sawyer or a Boima Fahnbulleh allow a UN sanctioned foreigner to head Liberia because both men vigorously prosecuted a progressive struggle against the Samuel Doe regime? Should Madam Sirleaf be excluded from the presidency of Liberia because she admittedly, contributed ten thousand dollars to a rebellious process which dissipated Liberia? 

It can be said that, yes prior to the takeover of Liberia by a military junta on April 12, 1980, the security sector served in détente, or an ease of relationship with its political masters, one that resulted into a trust-deficit. This strange relationship largely sanctioned a very popular indigenous struggle. Some contended that, “the Liberian security sector was used as instrument of coercion by politicians,” and not the reverse. Would a discharged weapon which resulted to the death of someone be blamed instead of its user? Should the courts find a vehicle used in a felony drive by, guilty, and not the operator? Bluntly put, the security apparatus exists at the wills and caprices of the state. In fact, where praises belong, the Sirleaf administrations, previous and now have done well to institutionalize Liberia’s public sector, to include the security. On the contrary, the condoning of Nigerians and other nationals to head the Armed Forces of Liberia in particular, indignantly risks the territorial integrity of the once proud lone star nation, Liberia.

The basis for this unlawfully ignoble arrangement, which lends authority to a Nigerian national to preside over the Armed Forces of Liberia, arguably came from the “Comprehensive Peace Agreement of Accra,” signed by MODEL, LURD, and the then willy-nilly government of Mr. Taylor. Part IV, Article VII (A&B) of the CPA mandated the disbandment of irregular forces (MODEL and LURD), restructuring of a citizenry binding Armed Forces, one which is proportionally represented with a new command. While this provision vaguely mandated a Nigerian, Ghanaian, or other foreign national to serve in advisory capacities, the intention was to mostly oversee the transitioning of the AFL and other security units. But the CPA did not grant the subordination of the AFL to the Republic of Nigeria, or any other ECOWAS member countries. 

Moreover, Urias Pour of the Liberian Policy Research Group argued that “key stakeholders of the Liberian civic society, including the Legislature, were excluded from the dialogues and vetting aspects of the security sector reforming process.” Pour further claimed that, efforts to reform the AFL and the Liberian National police without the full participation of the Liberian people are fundamentally flawed, if they are to serve as pillars of a very weak democracy. 

To say the least, the reform process has not only moved at a sluggish pace, it continues to condone the unconstitutional heading of the AFL by Nigerian and Ghanaian nationals. Under the two term presidency of Madam Sirleaf, the Armed Forces of Liberia continue to struggle with a number of transformational issues, key among, is size. The current strength of the AFL for a nation of almost four million people is ridiculously less than 2,500. In addition, reports have pointed to the unattractively low wages to security personnel, as the hallmark for a weaker security apparatus. Some of these reports argued that, the prevalence of corruption within the security sector is largely to a very unattractive severance package. But the argument can also be made, that a third of the lofty benefits given to nationals from foreign nations, could be given to Liberians with equal or better leadership skill set. 

It can be said, that there is abundance of qualified Liberians with post graduate education, including PhD, and extensive military and, or security knowledge from the United States Armed Forces and others, who can ably preside over the Armed Forces of Liberia, and other Liberian security entities. Undoubtedly, some may believe that the presence of a Nigerian General as head of the AFL is in itself, a way of playing it safe. 

Yet, others may argue that, in the event of an insurgency, or civil strife, the Federal Republic of Nigeria will commit Nigerian troops to quell down that rebellion. While this may sound pleasing, under international law, there is something called, pacta sunt servanda—this is a Latin phrase, which means that promises or agreements must be kept. It is a private contract which in tandem implies that non-fulfillment of respective obligations is a breach of an international pact.

But history shows that, these types of private pacts are nominally unfulfilled. The fact remains that, under such agreements, both parties have to constitutionally evaluate the financial and human costs of committing troops to foreign crises. Under a totalitarian administration, Nigeria may have little or no struggle in meddling in a foreign strife. However, it may not be that easy under the current democratic atmosphere, where containing its own Islamic insurgency posed by Boko Haram continues to present Nigeria’s security apparatus, as a feeble entity.  

On the part of Liberia, this pact has never been ratified or approved by our Legislative branch? And because of that, Madam Sirleaf is in violation of the Liberian Constitution, which clearly grants the responsibility to head the Armed Forces of Liberia under Article 86, to a Liberian citizen, who is to be commissioned by the Liberian National Legislature. 

Besides, under the same international protocol, there is a subsequent law, which excuses parties to such pacts from execution. Under Clausula Rebus Sic Stantibus—things thus standing: is such that whenever there is a fundamental change of circumstance, which was not anticipated by the parties, other than what otherwise existed, may not be enforceable.  And unless the change is objectively essential to the obligations of the agreement; and the instance wherein the change of circumstances has had a radical effect on the obligations of the treaty, it is unenforceable. For instance, under President Tolbert, a similar pact was signed between his government and the late President Sekou Toure’s. What happened in 1980 at the behest of a military junta takeover? Guinea could not fulfilled its side of a similar agreement, because of the occurrence of a Liberian coup d’état, which was not factored into the Tolbert-Toure’s Pact. Dejavu! 

Are we implying that within one of the oldest nations, there is no capable Liberian other than a Nigerian to head the AFL? Where in twenty-first century Africa is this possible other than Liberia? Sometimes, I wonder whether there exists any civil legal body in Liberia, to take on such unconstitutionally irrational decisions. Such a move will protect Liberia’s brittle democracy. Nonetheless, a few weeks from now, a group of Liberians lead by The Wish Center, a human rights organization, will sponsor a law suit in our Liberian courts, with the hope of replacing Major General Suraj Alao Abdurrahman with a natural born Liberian. Stay tuned.

Sources:

 http://www.ssrnetwork.net/ssrbulletin/liberia.php

http://www.usip.org/files/file/resources/collections/peace_agreements/liberia_08182003.pdf

Edmond Gray is a Liberian national residing in Minnesota, and can be reached at remiegray@gmail.com .