The Realities Versus the PRS Delegation’s Presentations


On slide show, the PRS concept presentation looks very captivating and mind wrecking. It looks like an impressive photo that was taken in shabby clothing. But that is exactly what the pro-Ellen Johnson Sirleaf spin masters wanted to achieve. They came over to redirect your attention away from the present realities of wide spread corruption in Liberia, win your hearts and minds that the country, more so under Ellen Sirleaf was making great progress in its PRS efforts. And based on that, they will try to cajole you to talk to your family members back home to reelect Madam Sirleaf as president in the 2011 elections. But put yourself in the driver’s seat. If you were given the opportunity to advertise your goods and services to few buyers, would you have done it in a way that those buyers and their word of mouth counterparts will keep away from your products whenever they see them on the shelf? Most people won’t. What the delegation will not show or tell you in those presentations, are the colossal failures of the PRS under Madam Sirleaf. This is no attempt to win you over or solicit your support for another political party. I hold no political ambitions for now. In Liberia, these things are also taking place. In addition to my observation series put out earlier, here is the grim realities of what our Ellen Sirleaf spin masters could not told.


Governance and Rule of Law Pillar


In his efforts to paint a very good image of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration, William Allen, Head of the Civil Service Agency (CSA) claims that the government listened to the voice of the people by establishing a good governance policy that will prevent Liberia from slipping further into civil war. According to him, all of the people’s wishes were considered under pillar one of the Poverty Reduction Strategy (Governance and Rule of Law Pillar). Firstly, most of the people are not aware of these claims, let alone agreeing that they made them. Secondly, government set forth a goal of structuring and reforming security agencies (Final PRS p51). Under police reform, the goal was to recruit 1 police officer to every 400 people (aka 1:400) at the county, township, and city limits.


The proposal of 1:400 was realistically set forth by the UN (http://www.ssrnetwork.net/ssrbulletin/liberia.php). As manifested in the Minister of Planning town-hall address, the issue of Security Sector Reform is not a priority under the government of President Sirleaf. There is no money to build a new police force. The United Nations Police (UNPOL) and the US were tasked under Article VII of the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and UN Resolution 1506 to restructure the LNP, AFL and other security agencies (See SSR). According to UNPOL, it has reached the goal of recruiting a total strength of 3,500 police officers. Given the UN requirement of 1:400, and Liberia’s current population being 3.49 million (www.lisgis.org), the LNP needs a stable force size of 8,725 for the whole of Liberia. The problem is that the AFL is still struggling to sustain its ridiculous force size of one to two brigades (2000), comprising of newly trained personnel. All but 500 of the Liberian National police personnel recruited are poorly trained. Liberia remains very unsafe, human security is at risk; the United States describes security under the current LNP as one with a very limited and low presence in and outside of Monrovia; police officers can be a source of problems for visitors (Liberia).


LNP and Crimes


Crime rate in Liberia is high, and is intensified by the high rate of unemployment. Theft, assault, sexual crimes, frequent mob justice, and most times resulting to death. For instance, on June 12, a mob burned down a police station in Harper, resulting in the death of a detainee. In August 2009, angry mobs in Monrovia beat to death two suspected criminals. Women have been attacked on deserted beaches. Residential armed break-ins have occurred. The police are ill equipped and largely incapable of providing effective protection or investigation. Criminal activity has been reported in both urban and rural areas (Liberia). The Sirleaf administration has no political prisoners or prisoners of conscience. But this could be due to the presence of an 8,000 strong UN force, and the zero sum tolerance by donor countries and institutions to further support recipient countries which stifle social freedom and political dissent. However, there is awfully, a very large number of imprisoned Liberians and fellow Africans who are kept in very poor conditions behind bars (Zoker 2009), for as little as facing a judge for arraignment; some have been there for as long as three years only to be told by a judge to go home for lack of proper evidence. The justice system is sluggish; prison accommodations are inhumane and prisoners are frequently ill resulting to their early death, some of the prisoners are without proper clothing; prisoner insanity is high. Being a victim herself, Madam Sirleaf professes to despise poor prison conditions, but fails to follow through (http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-01-16-prison-conditions-in-liberia-deplorable).


The LNP Headquarter and all police sub depots are poorly equipped and experience their share of the city power ration; police operate with outdated equipments, no modern police amnesties to conduct fair and impartial investigations, few offices within the LNP are equipped with functioning desktops; improper or old fashion methods of extracting statements from suspects and complainants; the use of flying sheets and ledgers to extract information are commonplace, the breach of habeas corpus is frequent, there is little or no room for prisoner’s rehabilitation, little or no correction system, government has no system in place to educate citizens of their rights to the justice system, and because of this, people held before arraignment are not informed of their rights to bonding/bailing (http://ocha-gwapps1.unog.ch/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/VDUX-7NBRW3?OpenDocument). Police officers are not adequately trained to read the Miranda rights of those they arrest. According to Minister Amara Konneh, government is thinking whether or not to employ adequate safety measures to protect the helpless from further harm. Minister Konneh for his part has the LNP checkpoint very close to his residence. Therefore, he does not have the problem of insecurity that you and I have. In fact, there are reports that he wants the checkpoint removed from his immediate backyard. Folks like the Konneh and Allen don’t share the fiercest urgency of being protected from armed gangs roaming your neighborhoods freely at night. People like them have enough time to cool off and contemplate whether or not it is important to take extra measures to protect you, the destitute. Ritualistic killings are on the rise, In essence, Liberia’s justice system needs a complete overhaul (http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/18277.html).


Constitutional and other human rights concerns


Liberia continues to live under racially segregated laws, and denying people of non Negro decent their rights to citizenship and ownership of real property; children born unto unions of Negro and non Negro people of Liberian descendants are treated as second class citizens, and at some point denied the rights enjoyed by other Liberians till their eighteenth birthday where they will have to declare whether they want to be Liberians or not. Widespread child abuse continued, and reports of sexual violence against children are on the increase. According to a December 9, 2009 UNMIL report, 66 percent of girls between the ages of 10 and 19 had been raped; 20 percent of victims were under 10 years of age. Civil society organizations reported increased incidents of rape of girls under 12, and there were 37 cases of alleged child endangerment during the first six months of 2009. This too is Liberia.


What can Liberians abroad do to help with National Rebuilding?


Both William Allen and Amara Konneh ask, “What can you as a Liberian in the Diaspora do to help?” While it is true that both of these men are vigilantly working to effect changes in Liberia, they should seek to address their own contributions to the failure of the PRS. Who do I start with? Dr. Allen I understand nurtured the idea that instead of seeking to employ non-Liberian expatriates, which comes with heavy salary burden, Liberians with similar skills and orientations can be hired locally and internationally to perform the same job for less salaries. This is a very brilliant idea right?


This initiative has a three tier phase. Tier one has to do with the transfer of knowledge through expatriate nationals (TOKTEN), tier two is the Senior Executive Service (SES), and tier three is the Civil Service Reform Directorate (CSRD). The broad aim of these three programs is to develop a cadre of top public servants properly trained, well motivated and “adequately compensated.” For most part all but few of tier-one has phased out. When it was fully functional, the UNDP paid highly qualified Liberians a salary of $3,000. You are left to take care of your housing in Liberia, and family abroad. You will be extremely lucky to be given a car. For most part, 40% your salary is spent on living and working expenses; and excluding supporting one’s family abroad. Liberians in Liberia frown on the idea of you working in Liberia, and yet transfer funds abroad for family support. Bring the family home, they advice. Those Liberians who have not left Liberia, but have gained the level of education needed to compete for these jobs, feel that they too should be given priority over their counterparts coming from abroad. It is unfair to pass over us, and import Liberians from abroad to perform jobs that we right here can perform, they complain.


There are a few folks in Tier-two that are paid $3,000 or so dollars. The rest including County Development Officers, the Head of the Civil Service Reform Directorate, are paid $2,000. There is a class of CSRD that is paid a minimum of $1,000 only. I am sure for a number of Liberians, these salary scales sound great. On the contrary, those programs don’t carry with them, the level of resettlement opportunities, i.e. lofty salaries, housing, transportation, communication, and so on, that other foreign expatriates enjoy for doing less or the same jobs. Don’t tell me about that crap sacrifice for country rhetoric; it does not repay the loan taken to obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees here in the West. Folks like Minister Konneh were at the fore front of putting down their fellow qualified Liberians who earlier responded to the calls of serving their country over their families. This guy told us that qualified Liberians coming from abroad deserve nothing but a Chinese Scooter or cheap motorcycles for work purposes; in Liberia, placing a 15 minutes call to a family member in the US, cost you $5. This may seem like a small amount, but it adds up in the course of a month. It even hurts, when your only means of getting to work, make calls, eat, etc, come from the $2,000 monthly salary. Those are the fine prints, the Konnehs and Allens won’t dare tell you in their slide show. Back in November 2009 when armed robbers broke into my bedroom and made away with valuable items, things could have been worst, but thanks to my resistance, no one from the Ministry of Planning called to check on my wellbeing, even though they were the first to learn of the incident via email. People come here and tell you that you are part of a middle class in a system in which you do not gain tax incentives. That’s a cleaver way to get away with words. By answering to these low incentive programs with their current structures, take you backwards, and not forward. To the Allens and Konnehs, these programs mean a lot them. Because responding to their calls, your presence brings them monies to further go on vacation. You don’t want to hear their miserable audit performance under the GAC. Please.


1. Elise A. Zoker (January 22, 2009:http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/features/article_1454984.php/Awful_prison_conditions_in_Liberia_lead_to_jailbreaks_Feature)


2. http://ocha-gwapps1.unog.ch/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/VDUX-7NBRW3?OpenDocument


3. http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-01-16-prison-conditions-in-liberia-deplorable


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


5. http://www.afrika.no/Detailed/18277.html


6. Liberia


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


8. www.lisgis.org


9. Final PRS p51


Author’s Note: Edmond R. Gray, is a former military intelligence officer and a former Senior Executive Staff of the Civil Service Agency of Liberia, with over twenty years of public service experience. He can be reached on 763-447-1063 and at remiegray@gmail.com.