BARELY LESS THAN A WEEK following the acquittal of Samuel D. Tweah, former Finance Minister of Liberia under the George Weah administration, it is reported that the Asset Recovery Team has invited or is contemplating inviting another batch of Weah government officials. Inviting them to account for their services rendered in the discharge of their respective duties is welcoming, but it must be done holistically and with caution.
BESIDE THE INVITATION EXTENDED to former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah for the second time by the Asset Recovery Taskforce, several other former government officials have also been invited.Those invited are Former Deputy Finance Minister Samora Wolokollie, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Wesseh Blamo, former Commerce Minister Mawine G. Diggs, and the current Comptroller of the Ministry of Commerce, Gudi Nuvelle.
THE TASK FORCE, ACCORDING to information, has petitioned the criminal court "C" to issue a travel ban on those invited until order wise. All of these efforts will not yield any positive impact if the taskforce does not put in place a workable system that will show adequate evidence to indict and convict the accused. What the Taskforce should know is that it is at war with corruption, and corruption is highly entrenched in Liberia. Calling individuals to account for their actions while serving in the previous government is fundamentally a new concept in our new political dispensation. We highly appreciate this effort because it has added flavor to the democracy we envisioned, but should be handled with caution, knowing that anything you do is a precedent, whether good or bad. It must be done with honesty, not political manipulation. The fight against corruption should be holistic, not cosmetic or politically motivated.
DO YOUR GROUNDWORK BY building sufficient evidence and how to present the evidence when you have the opportunity to confront the accused in the court of competent jurisdiction. . If need be, recruit more investigators who will gather additional facts outside of the scope of the audit documents.
CORRUPTION IS AN INVISIBLE CREATURE that lives with us in every aspect of life in Liberia. Corruption must be fought by people who know how to identify corruption because it manifests itself in so many different ways. Corruption could be in the form of inducement, abuse of power, theft, sexual assault and harassment, converting public funds into private accounts, etc. All these different forms of corruption are prevalent in our society and we must be fully prepared legally to confront it.
