-WPA, MOJ Lead Final Push
The Witness Protection Agency, WPA, in coordination with the Ministry of Justice, has concluded a one-day legislative engagement with relevant committees of the National Legislature on proposed amendments to the Witness Protection Act of 2021 and the Whistleblower Act of 2021.
Held at the Boulevard Palace Hotel in Monrovia, the engagement was the third and final in a series of consultations on the reform, and brought together lawmakers, anti-corruption and rule-of-law institutions, civil society organizations, and international development partners.
Opening the engagement, the Director of the Agency, Atty. Teklo Maxwell Grigsby II, traced the reform to the condition in which the Agency was found.
Although the two Acts of 2021 established the legal framework for protecting witnesses and whistleblowers, the.
He said the Agency remained largely inactive for years, without leadership, staff, or the means to protect a single witness.
That changed in late 2025 with the conclusion of the recruitment process and the appointment of the Director and Deputy Director, followed by the recruitment of staff, constitution of a secretariat, establishment of operating procedures, and development of a protection program covering the three phases in which witnesses are most at risk during investigation and pre-hearing, trial, and post-trial.
He acknowledged that the Agency began “with modest resources and a mandate considerably broader than the means placed at our disposal.”
Against this background, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr. issued a Cabinet directive on March 25, 2026, calling for amendments to the whistleblower Act to incentivize reporting, combat smuggling, and strengthen accountability in the mineral sector.
The reform process began on May 5 with a high-level technical review with the Ministry of Justice, followed by a July 3 stakeholders’ engagement at Monrovia City Hall involving 59 institutions and approximately 120 participants from government, civil society, the media, and the donor community.
The consultations subjected the proposed reforms to substantive scrutiny, including questions concerning the composition of the proposed Board of Advisors, grounds for removing the Director and Deputies, leadership eligibility, and definite implementation timelines, issues carried into the final engagement “because it is here that the matter is decided.”
Explaining the need for amendment, the Director pointed to the Agency’s own operating experience, noting that its mandate is narrower than the threats it presently confronts, while penalties for retaliation and the unlawful exposure of protected identities remain too weak to deter such conduct.
He further stressed that the Agency’s protection capacity remains concentrated in Monrovia, leaving citizens in counties such as Nimba, Lofa, and Grand Kru with limited assurance that the State can reach and protect them when they provide information critical to justice.
He also noted that existing digital safeguards have not kept pace with the speed at which reporting persons can be tracked and exposed, while the current five-percent whistleblower incentive is too modest to make coming forward “a rational decision rather than an act of sacrifice.”
Delivering special remarks, the Speaker of the 55th National Legislature, Hon. Richard Nagbe Koon, thanked the Agency and the Ministry of Justice for the invitation and told the gathering that the matter before it went directly to a core constitutional responsibility of the Legislature, specifically the making of laws that protect the rights and interests of the people.
A law becomes powerful, he said, when it protects the citizen who knows something and must decide whether to come forward. “Corruption does not confess itself,”
the Speaker observed, adding that economic crimes do not surrender themselves willingly and that organized wrongdoing rarely leaves the full truth with those responsible for it.
He expressed dissatisfaction that the existing framework offers such citizens insufficient assurance that the State would stand with them against those they may expose and declared that this must change.
Turning to the proposed amendments, the Speaker said their enactment would strengthen the Agency’s capacity to provide protection in proceedings before the proposed Anti-Corruption Court and the War and Economic Crimes Court. The credibility of those institutions, he cautioned, will depend not only on the quality of evidence presented before them, but on whether witnesses and victims believe they can testify truthfully and return to their communities without fear of intimidation, retaliation, or harm.
Witness protection must therefore be regarded not as an administrative function alone, he said, but as an essential pillar of justice, and Liberia’s laws must conform to its international obligations, including the United Nations Conventions against Corruption and against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Convention against Torture.
Accordingly, the Speaker commended the Agency, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, and the Ministry of Justice for acting on the President’s directive, and gave the forum a firm assurance: upon formal submission, the relevant committees of the House will accord the bills prompt, thorough, and fair consideration in keeping with legislative procedure.
He further committed his Office to working with the Office of the President Pro Tempore of the Senate to encourage orderly and coordinated consideration by both Houses, while reminding the gathering that legislation alone will not be enough and that the laws passed must be properly implemented.
For his part, the Chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary, Hon. Johnson S. N. Williams, Sr., said he was honored to witness the nation move once again to improve its justice system.
Difficulties in obtaining facts during investigations and hearings, he noted, have long impeded access to justice in Liberia, and since our jurisprudence requires the State to prove allegations beyond all reasonable doubt, the amendment and restatement of the two Acts must be acted upon immediately.
As the process advances, he urged particular attention to shelter-in-place arrangements for witnesses, the maintenance of confidentiality and integrity, and psychological support, warning that organized crime syndicates, criminal cartels, and powerful defendants may target witnesses or their families with threats capable of forcing many to withdraw their cooperation.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) commended the Agency, the Ministry of Justice, and the Legislature for initiating the dialogue
emphasizing that witnesses, victims, and whistleblowers are indispensable to credible investigations and fair prosecutions.
Their safe participation, OHCHR noted, will be essential to the credibility of the proposed War and Economic Crimes Court and the anti-corruption court framework.
Protection, it stressed, must be timely, adequately resourced, and responsive to the circumstances of each individual and their families, with particular attention to women, children, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.
OHCHR also announced the imminent deployment of an international expert on witness protection, who will work under the leadership of the Director of the Agency in the coming weeks.
Representing the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL), Executive Director Anderson D. Miamen described the engagement as an important step toward ending impunity for corruption, war and economic crimes, drug trafficking, and human rights violations.
Welcoming the proposed establishment of a joint whistleblower and witness protection agency, he called for the process to be holistic, realistic, and evidence-based, and urged that the new agency be financially and operationally independent, with competitive recruitment, strong safeguards for the confidentiality of complaints and identities, predictable financing through the national budget, and the incentives provided for under the law.
Similarly, the Executive Chairperson of the Law Reform Commission, Cllr. Bornor M. Varmah, endorsed the proposed amendments, telling lawmakers plainly:
“We cannot ask citizens to be courageous while the state cannot protect them.” While the 2021 laws were a good start, he said, new challenges demand stronger protection, better coordination, and a direct response to retaliation, and he pledged the Commission’s support to the 55th Legislature in passing reforms that build public trust in the justice system.
Stakeholders further urged full implementation of the existing Act, so that persons already supporting ongoing prosecutions receive the protections guaranteed to them under current law, and the Agency reiterated its zero-tolerance stance on identity leaks, warning that exposing protected individuals carries severe criminal penalties.
In conclusion, it confirmed that the recommendations compiled during the engagement will directly inform the final draft of the amendment package, and that it will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Justice, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, and the National Legislature to see the final bill enacted.
