Observation on the Performance of the Ellen J. Sirleaf Administration By Edmond R. Gray Part III

Madam Ellen Sirleaf on many instances told the world of how much she despises those national governments which engage in reckless spending. According to her, back in 1973, while serving as Assistant Minister of Finance under President Tolbert, a very junior post, she resigned after getting into a disagreement about spending (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Johnson_Sirleaf). 

History accounts also that in 1979, as Minister of Finance of Liberia, Madam Sirleaf spearheaded the move to curb the mismanagement of government finances. It was at least, my hope that as President of Liberia, she will do more. There is a saying that success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out (Robert J. Collier). Oscar Wilde, on the other hand, expresses grief that biography lends to death a new terror. For most of us, terror lies in the two sided-images that President Sirleaf has reflected in the global public mirror. One image frowns on financial mismanagement of the past, while another condones corruption in the present. It’s called double standards.

What is the Problem?

Liberians are not the only ones complaining of how corrupt the government of Madam Sirleaf is. In its annual human rights report of 2009, the government of the United States declared in very stronger terms, “that corruption is endemic in Madam Sirleaf’s government”. Looking further, the lenses of Transparency International, Forbes, and www.nationmaster.com, entities that collect financial activities and data of countries around the world, have not only ranked Mother Ellen’s government among the world’s most corrupt regimes, they classified it as a pseudo democracy. Wherever corruption is endemic, it is also systemic and pervasive. Under Ellen’s Liberia, when audit findings reveal the incoherence of large sums of money amounting to millions of dollars, government shamelessly terms it as ‘funds used for security operations’.

This is a country with over ten thousand foreign troops from the United Nations. But such was the classification given to the half a million dollars seized from a Nigerian national who was illegally trafficking it into Liberia, God alone knows for what. At some point, Meredith DeKalb Miller, a former FBI forensic expert was called in, paid by the minutes with taxpayers’ money to verify, that the signatures used to withdraw a total of $1.1 million by an unknown person(s) from government’s account situated at ECOBANK Liberia Ltd, were not the authentic signatures of Madam Sirleaf, and other key officials of her government. Evidence surrounding this issue shows that, on May 29, 2009, Auditors Winsley Nanka, Deputy Auditor General, Hanason Kollie, Audit Manager and Friday Buddy-Tamba, Audit Manager met with Dr. Edward McClain, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Chief of Office Staff at the Executive Mansion with the hope of understanding the Ministry’s role in the transfer of this money from GOL’s account. Although it was established that the signature of the President and others were allegedly forged, whatever happened to that money, remains a mystery today. In separate incidences, Larry Bropleh, Dr. Christopher Toe, Willie Knuckles, Harry Greaves along with his $25 million shady deal with Zakhem International, and to include a number of present and former protégés of Madam Sirleaf who were said to have engaged in wanton corruption, are freemen out there today. The plundering of our nation’s wealth is not only taking place among her loyalists within the stupefied walls of President’s Sirleaf, it is prevalent among those without in counties such as Montserrado, Grand Cape Mount, River Gee, Grand Gedeh, Grand Bassa, Rivercess, and you name them.  For instance, the Assistant Superintendent for Development of Grand Cape Mount County was dismissed for allegedly converting US$110,000 of that county’s Development Funds to his private use or on bogus companies.

Recently, the Superintendents of Montserrado and River Gee were replaced for matters amounting to corruption. There are loud cries coming out of Grand Geddeh regarding shady and corrupt actions of its Superintendent, please visit (http://www.liberiacorruptionwatch.org) for follow-ups on these and tons of others. It is quite interesting that all of these vexing situations have not led to the resignation of this very Madam Sirleaf, who in the past separated with other governments, because in her own words, ‘they were corrupt’. On the contrary, she is requesting a carte-blanche and a damning second chance of presidency. Here in the US, we sometimes laugh or giggle at the stupidity of some American electorates for their choices of presidential characters they put into the Whitehouse every four years or so. May be a number of Liberians need to examine themselves before laughing at others. We refer to Ghanaians, Ivoirians, and fellow West Africans who enjoy lofty modern state infrastructures in their respective countries, as green. Yet, in our smartness, we cheer on when few potholes within our very upbeat and dusty old Capital City are mended. We haul criticisms at others, when we are applauding and praising others to our perils.    

Why should I take this matter so personal?

Someone may incline to say, oh, this guy must be very angry with the old woman. I believe that public servants must intend and resolve to put the public good above private advantage for anyone-self, family, friends, political allies, factions, or interest groups. Therefore, public servants are obliged to identify the public good, and to serve it impeccably. Trusting someone is a serious matter, since it gives other people the power to effect by their words and actions, our feelings, interests, and well-being. Because of that, we choose our friends, husbands, and wives, who we believe we can trust. Mostly, our intimate bonds to others are forged by many things-chemistry, affection, shared interest, common ideals-but trust is always present. We may enjoy the company of rogues, or sexually involved with people we may not trust. Howbeit, lust and mere companionship are far from the genuine intimacy that joins our lives to the lives of others. Betrayal thus causes deep resentment, anger, and heartache. Trusting others therefore, is to believe that they won’t forsake us. Oops, sorry for drifting from the focus of this analysis.

May be a number of you have easily forgotten that the price Liberia has paid to get Madam Sirleaf into the Executive Mansion as President, is far too heavy than what she has repaid her in return. Under her stewardship, over two hundred fifty thousand Liberians lost their lives; Liberia saw a destruction that reels it as far back as a hundred years. I hate to sum up the cost, but it was a very, very heavy price. In return, Ma Ellen has repaired few bullet riddled streets in Monrovia, condones the idea that those who helped her fulfill this lifelong ambition of becoming President of Liberia, must without any disturbances, filled their pockets with tax payers money. This was a griming hope she summed up in her memoire, ‘This Child will be great’. A number of these protégés who have become accustomed to converting lump sums of Liberian taxpayers money for their private use, will in few days, lead a high power delegation to a city near you. Armed with a projector to show you a power point slide of where Liberia was before Madam Sirleaf became president, where it is today, and where it will be if you re-elect her. One can only wish that such a slide tilts slightly backwards to the era of Samuel Doe, an era, which in her own estimation and words, was an “Armageddon”.  There is the need to compare and contrast the Armageddon of Samuel Doe with the Paradise of Ellen Sirleaf. Liberians, this is the 21^st Century, and you should be very glad that yours is the age where the computer has made man’s life, very easy. Please take a close look at events in Liberia as they stand right now, under Madam Sirleaf’s government.

A Glimpse of the PRS 

The Peace Building Funds (PBF), a key UNDP peace initiative in Liberia acknowledges the fact that corruption is a key obstacle to the National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS). Moreover, PBF did not only say that corruption was the central hurdle to the development and political legitimacy of Liberia’s immediate past, it also confirms that corruption could very well incapacitate existing efforts of development and peace in Liberia, if it is not addressed (View as HTML). In neighboring Sierra Leone, under President Kabbah, a 30 year veteran of the United Nations, and a closed friend of Madam Ellen Sirleaf, that country was plagued by corruption. The problem was solved after Kabbah was replaced by a much younger generation of honest Sierra Leoneans. This younger generation of Sierra Leoneans came to the realization that the building of their nation is not only the sole duty of their seventy-year-olds like Madam Sirleaf and Kabbah, but to younger generations of Sierra Leoneans as well. In Liberia, a much younger generation of voters understand now that being old does not necessarily amount to wisdom.

This class of Liberians seems very determined to replace anything stale or outdated that appears in an electoral race. The recent election of Geraldine Doe-Sheriff amidst plenty of spending by a rival UP makes the case. The political situation in Liberia today is even frightening. A number of young people, who cast their votes in the 2005 Presidential Election, believe or hold this myth that someone other than Madam Sirleaf won that election. This time, they profess, ‘we will wipe Liberia off the global map if anyone tries to cheat us again’. There is also a second myth that the ‘international community’ is more passionate about the prolongation of an Ellen administration. That myth holds that even if someone other than Madam Sirleaf wins the 2011 elections, victory will be granted to Madam Sirleaf. Such myths are not only nonsensical, but are daring to the destiny of a group of people who are only exercising their natural rights to self-determinism.  I can only factor such outburst, as a displaced anger of trust against older generation of Liberians like Madam Sirleaf, who promised to fight corruption with tooth and nail, but have instead, done otherwise.

The root of state corruption

In addition, a number of U4 Helpdesk Query, centered mainly on corruption in nongovernmental and international nongovernmental agencies, and to clarify the bureaucracy on how donor funds are channeled to benefiting countries, has clearly put these administering organizations at the center of corruption ( Part I , Part II , and Part III ).  These studies have shown that most civil society organizations (CSO), and international agencies like the United Nations, could be penetrated by corrupt government officials, or serve as staging grounds for rogue officials to take advantage of donor funds. These studies also warn that donor practices can, oddly enough, encourage corruption. For instance, when donors think of, say the rebuilding of the Waterside Bridge. They include it in a specified output indicator as part of an approved limited timeline budget. The Liberian National Poverty Reduction Strategy (Final PRS) has a timeline that starts from July 2008 to June of 2011. In view of this, every county has a set of priorities it wants to see complete within this specified period ( Bomi County Development Agenda , RiverGee County Development Agenda ,Rivercess County Development Agenda , Nimba County Development Agenda , Montserrado County Development Agenda , Maryland County Development Agenda , Margibi County Development Agenda , Lofa County Development Agenda , Grand Kru County Development Agenda , Grand Gedeh County Development Agenda , Grand Cape Mount County Development Agenda , Grand Bassa County Development Agenda , Gbarpolu County Development Agenda , Bong County Development Agenda , Sinoe County Development Agenda ). What donors cover is only an above the line expenses of a project. For example, if a loaf of bread costs 2 cents. You are given the two cents, but how you get to and from the store is not covered. Donors normally will not cover the overhead expense of those CSO partners they team up with. In essence, “an NGO manager who works in the real world with people who exist before and after projects, and who wants his or her organization to exist beyond a project, has to find ways to spend donor funds to cover his or her real costs while only reporting fund expenditure to the donors in ways that are acceptable to the donor. In other words he/she starts to lie (Holloway 2001)”.

Quarterly PRS Reports

Reports under the SES are done on a quarterly basis. Usually three calendar months mark one quarter. Because of the rambling over logistics to facilitate the smooth execution of CDOs’ functions within the counties, as reference on Part I of this analysis, projects highlighted in every county agenda also fell behind. In Grand Cape Mount County where I worked, absolutely nothing was in place by March 2009. The Steering Committee which coordinates the business of PRS was not formed. This all important body was created under my tutelage. Usually, a number of pillar meetings are held and decided upon at steering committee meetings. Please refer to Part I & II of this paper for references on most of these languages. Under the PRS, strategic decisions, follow-ups on project executions, project stalls, land appropriations for constructions of county facilities that are identified in the CDA or National Poverty Reduction Strategy (NPRS), are discussed during steering committee meetings. In the counties, these meetings are termed county development and steering committee (CDSC) meetings.

Minutes from these meetings are disseminated via channel to various oversight agencies, and including the Liberia Reconstruction and Development Committee (LRDC). This office in technical terms falls under the Ministry of State without Portfolio, which has presidential oversight. LRDC has since been transferred to the Ministry of Planning. There are also sub-sectional meetings held prior to the CDCS. These are meant to constructively engage various line ministries and civic organizations that are involved with local development issues. For instance, under the infrastructure and Basic services pillar (IBS), the Ministries of Health, Education, Public Works, LRRRC, etc tell you what sort of projects they are undertaking within the district or clan levels, types of conditions hampering their projects, and others. In short, these meetings are intended to provide updates. All of these meetings are coordinated by the County Development Officer.

 Why Monitor

 To ensure that projects have been implemented as claimed by these line ministries, the CDO through its monitoring and evaluation officers, and field monitors must verify to ensure the quality of work done, authenticity of projects, and others. Within the district or clan levels, these projects were earmarked to be situated in remote terrains, a number of which are inaccessible till the construction of farms to market roads, identified in the CDA or PRS. Most of these sites require 4X4 vehicle verifications. These are the pressing logistics that the Ministry of Planning under Amara Konneh who is scheduled to come to a location near you, has said his ministry lacks the funds to provide. Knowing the importance of this piece of commitment, Minister Amara Konneh turned down a UNDP offer in which that agency of the United Nations were to provide vehicles for CDO’s operations, so long MPEA will ensure their upkeeps and maintenance. Every effort to empower CDOs were either thwarted or stepped on by the MPEA.

At the legislative level, funds were approved under MPEA for CDO’s operations in fiscal years 2008 and 2009. Nothing has been done to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation part of the PRS. What that means is that the MPEA and the government of Ellen can make any claims without independent verification. The funds are there. The numerous heavily accompanied trips abroad by Minister Konneh and delegates, speaks to the availability of such funds. At the county level, the CDO recommended that local citizens be educated about the PRS after it was discovered that only a hand full of people knew what the PRS/CDA were all about. We needed this informative piece to be aired on local radio stations, town hall forums, etc. No one honored this simple proposal. Don’t be fooled, the Liberian elections are right around the corner. Amara Konneh, Augustine Ngafuan, etc, are cabinet ministers today because of there various roles played in 2005 to get Ellen elected.  Up until this moment, most of the projects within the CDA/PRS have not been touched, phased out, or funding shifted somewhere else. Based on donor requirements, conditions for HIPIC qualification, demands were made to submit reports on the implementation of these projects whether verified or not. By auditing standards, it’s called cooking the books. But according to Minister Konneh, less than 18% of all PRS projects were so far completed by the end of fiscal year 2009. My estimation will advise you to reduce the Konneh’s estimation by half. This should only tell you that absolutely, nothing substantial was achieved. Furthermore, there was an independent commission, headed by Mr. Sam Jackson, appointed to verify the implementation aspects of these projects which also concluded that most projects under the PRS are either abandoned, or not available for verification. One key policy recommendation made by Mr. Jackson’s committee was that GOL should reassess its PRS.

 Partial report from Grand Cape Mount County

 For instance, take this very small portion of my 2009 Annual Report on Grand Cape Mount County for your assessment on (STATEMENT ON OUTSTANDING ACTIVIITIES FOR THE YEAR INCLUDING MEASURES TAKEN TO REALIZE OUTSTANDING QUARTERLY ACTIVITIES. The issues of health and education continue to claim the attention of the CDO. Because of this, interest was taken on the delivery of health and education. Few of these projects were captured in picture. However, currently, there are 33 health facilities including 01 hospital, 01 health post, 01 health center and 30 clinics of which 32 are functional except Zaway clinic in Garwula. Of these facilities 08 is run by the County Health Team (CHT), 09 by African Humanitarian Agency, 10 by International Medical Corps (IMC) 05 by Medical Teams International (IMC) and 01 by Guthrie Management.  This indicates that over 70% of the health facilities are still run by INGOs. A public awareness campaign was facilitated under the tutelage of the CDO on communicable diseases. More needs to be done. The human resource capacity of the sector shows that there is 1 Physician, 13 Physician Assistants, 27 Registered Nurses, 11 Licensed Practical Nurses in training or trained, 1 Nurse Anesthetist, 30 certified midwives, 34 Nursing Aids, 34 Dispensers, 22 Vaccinators and 02 Laboratory Technicians. However, additional manpower is required especially for midwives, Physicians, Physician Assistants, dispensers and Nurses. The CDO also teamed up with the NRC and the County Education Heads to ensure the following: increased presence within the County. The entire education sector personnel lack logistics to enable them discharge effective and efficient monitoring and supervision of schools.

The recent provision of vehicle and bikes to DEOs has largely capacitated that sector. The shortage of qualified teachers especially for Junior and Senior High schools persist, insufficient learning and teaching materials, lack of libraries and science laboratories are affecting students performance. There is lack of science teachers in the senior high school in Robertsport. A recent assessment based on recommendation from the CDO saw some improvements in the area. All unlicensed teaching assistants were dropped while others recommended for additional capacitating. The stealing of school feeds by school officials stopped well before it was ended. This was due to reinforced monitoring by field monitors under the supervision of the CDO. NRC reported of low attendance in schools after the conduct of the census. Mobilizing teams have been set up by NRC to mobilize students to go to school.

 Summary of major issues under the PRS

 One of the good things that came to Liberia was the hiring of Mr. John Morlue as head of the General Auditing Commission (GAC). Had it not been for Mr. Morlue, a number of the shady deals that have so far been uncovered today would have gone unnoticed. Aside from that, most of what the government of Madam Sirleaf is hoping to showcase for its success is summarized as this:

1. On power generation, key locations around Monrovia enjoy power ration (electricity). However, what you won’t get is the statistic of privately run generators within those key locations, and the number of health hazards they posed. On the prospect of a durable national power supply, GOL will attempt to scuff you with adequate rhetoric on how Liberia will be the first country to become the first biomass economy in the world. This is a proposal in which unproductive rubber trees will be used to energize an estimated $150 million power plant to be constructed by a Netherland based company (http://www.energyboom.com/biofuels/rubber-trees-provide-electricity-liberia).  Don’t get confused, these are only white paper proposals (http://www.buchananrenewables.com/) that will take generation to complete. So far, nothing concrete has come out of this experiment. Liberia is still a very dark country. In a bid to address the issue, Madam Sirleaf visited Brazil few weeks ago. This also has resulted in a second proposal in which Brazil will extract Liberia’s Iron ore in exchange for building a hydro plant (http://www.netnewspublisher.com/brazil-to-support-liberia%E2%80%99s-electricity-development/). This only tells you that Liberia is back to square one on the issue of energy. However, in nearby Sierra Leone, an energy project at Bumbuna which dates as far back as the Siaka Stevens’ era was only completed by the current administration under its PRS program (Download (178K) Print (2 pages)Plain HTML). Prior to this new and energized Sierra Leonean leadership, made up of mostly young Sierra Leoneans, the administration under Kabbah obtained funding from donors for this very project, but was divvy up or redirected to other private use. 
2. A key HIPIC qualification requirement in which Liberia is to establish a financial management system saw the setting up of a Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS). This is a system in which bio-data of civil servants under the Civil Reform initiative will be integrated with a Ministry of Finance system, known as, Information Financial Management Integration System (IFMIS). This was required mostly to address key issue of financial transparency, duplicity of civil servants on multiple government payrolls.  In a sense, this was very good for Liberia. Such systems mainly led to the recent uncovering of a wave of financial mismanagement amounting to $5 million from the Ministry of Finance by the General Auditing Commission (GAC).
3. The Liberian government constructed no new roads with the exception of the Borpolu highway which is just at its starting phase. However, key primary roads in Monrovia were reconditioned following years of neglect as the result of the war. The main road leading to the North and South Eastern Regions via Kakata is still under rehabilitation. In Sierra Leone, there is increasing focus on the construction of new and bigger freeways, which do not only address the issue of modernization, but improve the standard of living of its citizens as well.
4. GOL will boast of a radical increment of civil servants pay structure. However, what it won’t tell you is that this small nation which should be able to establish a national welfare system that will cater to all Liberians regardless whether employed, or not, and based on the nation’s wealth, has salary disparities in which some civil servants make US$15,000, where others in the same line of work, are making less than US$100.
5. On Security, the government has made very little strides. Most of Liberia’s borders are porous. In Grand Cape Mount County for instance, there are about 49 border crossings that are unmanned or poorly manned. What that means is that someone can literally walk with swinging hands into enter Liberia without being questioned by anyone. As a matter of fact, there exist a large number of communities, especially around the Congo-Mano areas that are cutoff from Liberia through natural disasters, such as erosion. The AFL is struggling to sustain its 2000 manpower, or one brigade size army. The national police are poorly trained as stated on Part II of this paper. As a matter of fact, both the Liberian Police Commissioner, his deputy for Administration (103) and a host of higher-ups have no backgrounds in policing or general security aside from one or two workshop credits. Morale in the police force is very low. In fact, recent State Department Human Rights report on Liberia states that police officers could be a source of problems for visitor (Liberia)
6. Since the lifting of the Kimberly restriction, the Mining sector continues to extract meaningful gem stones and gold dust through nonindustrial methods. However, there is no transparency system setup to capture vital information on this all important sector. Officials of the mining sector are required to only report to the Minister of LME.
7. On Agriculture, some 86% (WFP) of the nation’s farming population is still engaged in subsistence farming. Within the PRS, there is an underachievement in this sector. Efforts to provide farming seeds and equipment were frustrated by large presence of disparities. In fact, the passing of seeds by the World Food Program (WFP) to famers is mostly late. Those seeds are sometimes converted into household meals by farmers and their families.
8. On education, a number of classrooms that were constructed by UNICEF and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), especially in those remote parts of Liberia’s rural areas, are abandoned. The food for school program sustained by donor funds, and which mainly attracted students and teachers, has been discontinued.
9. Liberia’s basic healthcare system is poor. The Clinton Foundation on HIV/AIDS prevention, the Malaria prevention unit, and key other programs are managed with foundation funds. Infant mortality rate is relatively higher; life expectancy is low at 48 years. Here is how it is summarized in a US State Department report:  Hospitals and medical facilities in Liberia are very poorly equipped and are incapable of providing many services.  Emergency services comparable to those in the U.S. or Europe are non-existent, and the blood supply is unreliable and unsafe for transfusion.  Americans with serious medical problems travel or are medically evacuated to the United States, Europe or South Africa. Medicines are scarce, often beyond expiration dates, and generally unavailable in most areas.  As there is neither an effective garbage removal service nor a functioning sewer system, the level of sanitation throughout urban areas is very poor, which increases the potential for disease.  Upper respiratory infections and diarrhea are common, as well as more serious diseases such as typhoid and malaria.  All travelers to Liberia must be vaccinated against yellow fever and should carry a supply of all prescription medication, including anti-malaria medication, adequate for their entire stay.  A typhoid vaccination is also recommended.
10. Conclusion pending.

Contact: Edmond Remie Gray, email: remiegray@gmail.com, Tel: 763-447-1063. Why don’t you connect with me on Tweeter and Face Book to talk some national issues?