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Liberia must fight corruption
Posted on Friday, April 29 @ 09:29:57 EDT by admin
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mt19 writes "![]() |
Mike Thomas
An Economist
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Events in the past two months in Liberia have raised hope about the government's willingness to fight corruption. Members of Liberia's transitional parliament voted to indefinitely suspend their parliamentary speaker, George Dweh, for corruption along with his deputy and two other members of the house, A report by a special parliamentary committee, published at that time, concluded that the four men had spent US$92,000 of government money without authorisation. Public officials looted the public treasury as if they were competing for the Olympic gold medal in embezzlement. Hence, Liberia repeatedly scored very high on the Transparency International's list of countries notoriously known for corruption.
The money had been intended as resettlement allowances for some members of transitional parliament, set up with representatives from the Liberia's three former armed groups, political parties and civil society, under the 2003 peace deal that ended 14 years of civil war.
There is no chance these people may face trial. To my surprise, I saw these same people roaming Liberian streets. In any case, it is obvious that without a decisive action to defeat corruption, Liberia will merely exist as nation state and nothing more. The country is like a worn out basket full of holes. Whenever money is put into it, the money leaks away just like water in a basket. No one can account for the millions of dollars that the country has earned in the past years or more years due to the fact that those who are supposed to use the money to address the developmental needs of the country have simply stolen the money.
Now, the big questions are: Is the President playing to the gallery and trying to impress some forces? Is he serious about fighting corruption? Does he have the moral standing to fight corruption without being consumed in the process? Will the President be bold to take the battle to some people in certain parts of the country if they are found to be involved in corruption i.e., some powerful elites from rebel factions? Will the President be bold to take the battle to former military and rebels leaders with well-known record of corruption?
This questions become pertinent given the President past performance in this area since he assumed office. It will be recall that the President assured us when he came in as care taker president that his administration is determined to fight corruption in all places including the high places. Yet, we hear of " corruptions, Long term contracts with foreign companies.
The purpose of this article is to answer why Liberia must fight corruption. Yes, Liberia must fight corruption because corruption has no place in Liberia and our country economy. The effect and impact of corruption results in an imbalance in the economic system, and it is directly responsible for the cancer called INFLATION.
When I was in Liberia, years ago, 50 Liberian Dollar was a lot of money, you can feed on it for a day; I have been told I need about 200 LD for a good lunch. How does corruption result in inflation? I will explain it by my rudimentary economics. This rudimentary economics posit that economy, in a capitalist system, sits on a two-legged stool. One side of the stool is what I will call PRODUCTIVITY and the other side is MONEY.
To explain this economic model of mine, you have to assume that the money in circulation is represented by what you and I get paid for the hard work of creating goods and services, and that is all the money available. For the economy to be stable, there must be a balance between the two sides. The imbalance manifests itself in INFLATION or DEFLATION. The worst is inflation. The productivity side, in simplistic term, is represented by goods and services produced through hard work and industry of the people. The money side is the money earned by those who produced goods and services on the productivity side. Where people start making money from means outside this model, then an imbalance sets in.
If everybody starts collecting bride, 10% graft from contract, police and custom collecting money from importers and exporters, messengers collecting bribe before they locate files etc, these are money that is not supported by productivity or production of goods and services. In essence, you will have more money in circulation than goods and services produced from hard work and industry, thereby creating artificial demand that outstrips supply. In effect, you have lots of money chasing few goods. In essence, you have inflation
It is my submission that the in-balance in Liberia is from excess money in circulation. I mean the excess money that cannot be supported by productivity or genuine economic activity, and must be checked by the government to bring sanity to the system.
If you disagree with my model, then think about this scenario. You are a hard working young man. In the course of looking forward, you plan to own a house in the nearest future. Currently, a house goes for $40,000 in your area. Suddenly, house price starts climbing and there are no economic indicator(s), i.e., a sharp drop in interest rate to support the rise in house market. And before you know it, the same house has gone up to $100,000. You wonder why, and found out that drug dealers and corruptors are the ones buying the houses and pushing up the price.
In essence, money that cannot be supported by hard work has invaded your community and your dream of buying a house has been shattered because your salary has not changed significantly. There is no difference between drug money and bribe money; they are both unsupported by genuine economic activity. They both create artificial demand, and consequently, inflation. Why did governments in the West world fight illegal drug trafficking? They are not doing it because it is a moral thing to do; they are protecting their economy from bad money.
If you disagree again, think of a situation where a supplier supplies raw material to a manufacturer at say $1,000 a piece, and the Purchasing Manager demands 10% graft. To make profit, the supplier will have to increase the price by the 10% bribe. The increase in cost of supply will go into cost of production and finally pass on to the consumers in increase price. If this is a common practice everywhere, you will get what the economics called cost-push inflation.
Now corruption goes one step further to destroy a country. It destroys the moral fabric that makes a strong country and people. The debasement of moral values is the beginning of the end for any country. In the scenario above, if the scourge of drug and bride money is not checked, a time will come when the young man will ask himself: Why am I working so hard to earn a living when the boys buying the houses are not as smart?
In Liberia today, money is being worship like god. You could be poor today and become a "big man" tomorrow. Nobody ask questions. There is a serious rat race. It explains why we have rouges as lawmakers. People go into government poor and come out rich, and nobody ask question. Instead, they become heroes and heroines. No nation can survive such depraved moral value for a long time.
Some months ago, an ambassador to Liberia explains why Liberia is not a magnet for foreign investment. He cited corruption and lack of infrastructure. He said corruption has increased the cost of doing business in Liberia. He is right. How do you account for the bribes and extortion? In business you have to report them as expense or cost of doing business. If you are a multi-national business, you compare cost of doing business in country A and B and make strategic business decision. The lack of infrastructure like energy, roads and water, which is a direct result of corruption, also escalates cost of doing business. If you have to run the business with a generator, you will pay more than those who operate with hydro.
Liberia holds a strategic position in the world. It is a shame that a country like Ghana just celebrated 2 years of uninterrupted power supply while LEC supply of power is a dismal failure, all because of corruption.
Yes, Liberia must fight corruption, but can President Bryant or the incoming president do it? We'll see.
Watch out for my next article
To contact the Author : mt19@myway.com
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Average Score: 3.5
Votes: 4
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Street children in Liberia (Score: 1)
by Zinnah on Tuesday, September 20 @ 19:22:21 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | Street Children in Liberia
For some children in Liberia, the streets are where they look to find their home, their parents, their playground, their education, their health care & their love. for others, the streets are where they work, from as earlier as sunrise to as late as midnight.To be street child/children is the plight of so many young people not only in Liberia but west Africa or Africa as a whole. In Liberia, the Lutheran world services has brought relief to not only street children but the entire war ravage Liberian populace since the out break of the senseless civil crisis that claim thousands of lives and properties for fifteen years. During and after the heat of the civil crisis in Liberia, the Lutheran world services provided relief for thousands of people including: Street children, elderly, internally displaced & refugees. Up to present, the Lutheran world services remain one of the biggest hopes for homeless street children & war affected Liberians.
Categories of street children in Liberia
In Liberia, nobody actually knows the number of street children. The dictating situation pushes the number higher on the daily basis. According to some recent census conducted by Don Bosco Homes, "a catholic based non governmental organization catering to street & homeless children in Liberia” the number of street children in the city of Monrovia alone is around 3000. Monrovia street children can be placed into two major groups: working street children and children that live on the streets .working street children comprises of those who leave home in the morning to sell and then return home in the evening. These children are in many instances sent by their parents or relatives to earn money to help with the running of the home.
The second category of street children is the children that live in the streets. This category comprise of those who live in the streets. The do some contracts of fetching water or washing dishes and carrying short distance loads for people, most of them are mentally compared to steal and are involved in other forms of hustle. They sleep in unfinished buildings, market stalls, old & abandon cars, soccer pitches and just any available places they can find regardless of it safety. They are largely selfsupervised.
Causes of street children
In Liberia, the unemployment status of many parents & parental neglect leads to children running away from home to go in the streets to hustle on their own to meet the expense of their survival or to make ends meet. Most of the time when the parents of some of these street children are traced, it is pathetic to see the poverty of the homes they come from. Because of the aftermath of the senseless civil war in Liberia, many parents don't have the means to support their children.
The negative impact of street life on children is enormous. Many street children lack basic rights such as education, family love, health care, good food & safety. Other disvantages include exposure to drugs, the risk of being knocked down by cars, harsh punishment for little offences, the early arrival of adulthood, association with the wrong people & criminals and lost of family ties. Another big problem is exploitation. Street children are most time exploited by adults who hire them to work for wages payable at the end of the month but often the contracts are terminated even before the end of the month without good reason and the children remain unpaid.The dictating situation in Liberia is causing children to rebel against their parents and even their own faith. During my stay in Liberia or Africa, I wonder many time weather God was turning his attention away from Liberia.
During the civil crisis in Liberia, I was joining many other Christians that were arguing over the relationship of the great commandment. The multi million dollars question that came to my mind was: What is my primary responsibility in a world without
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Politics in Liberia (Score: 1)
by Zinnah on Tuesday, September 20 @ 19:26:33 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | Politics in Liberia
In Liberia, the word politics has become another term for dishonesty and corruption. Liberia and Liberians needs to explore some avenue for implementing punity. There is already an ever mounting crisis of public confidence in Liberia’s political leaders. The entire world no longer believes what Liberian politicians say because for too long their words never match their deeds. There is nothing in life that can destroy a man’s credibility faster than making a promise and not keeping it. Liberian politicians see government jobs as the easiest way to get rich overnight. Much of the problems are rooted in the fact that many educated people in Liberian society enter Government with very low or no moral character and have little or no respect for public property. The world no longer trust Liberian politicians because the majority of those in high ranking positions live by the three Gs: Get, Grab & Go. These crooks and hustlers fight tirelessly to get into government positions and then grab whatever opportunities they see and get out of the country “Liberia”.
The major reason why these crooks always succeed in getting into high places in government and snatching away people’s or the country’s wealth is because there has been no system by which new and succeeding administrations would be compared by law to pursue and prosecute perpetrators of public crimes in Liberia. Instead, these criminals run away from Liberia and spent some time in foreign country(ies) and later return to Liberia with their stolen riches. They used the same stolen riches to elbow their ways back to public offices. I personally suggest a permanent commission of inquiry to probe into the activities of such people in Liberia so that Liberians can try to control the high rate of corruption and save money that could be used to implement development projects in the country “Liberia”.
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Fore gleams of George Weah’s dreams to become a reality (Score: 1)
by Zinnah on Tuesday, September 20 @ 19:31:08 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | Criticism after criticism-that is the major theme of the campaign around Liberia today. From corruption to rebellion. Liberian politicians problems seem to be raging out of control. Even their religions have not been able to help. Infact, they have been making matters worse by inflaming the educational background of George Weah. Thick glooms corruption and unpatriotic behaviors has enveloped the Liberian political groups. This time, hundreds “if not, thousand” have turned to soccer star-turned politician “ George Weah” to deliver the nation from underdevelopment and corruption. Most Liberians are now paying attention to Weah’s prophetic words “as to a lamp shining in a dark place” they considered Weah’s words as a bridge of hope for the country “Liberia”. Weah’s prophetic words are now being critically looked at by some political Philosophers as a huge lamp in a dark place. In fact, his soft-spoken words are looked for in some historical dictionaries of some successful American leaders like: Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. Concerning the time of elections, this author wrote: many so-called educated Liberian politicians will return to Liberia to contest the elections but their pass records will serve as suicide weapons for them and the true knowledge will become abundant. Many will cleanse and whiten themselves and will pretend to be refined. The most wicked ones will remain in Nigeria in preparation of their trip to Sierra Leone to face charges relating to their rebellion. Before the official kicking off of the campaign in Liberia, Liberian writers, pressure groups, and International groups began to share lights on the scare secrets of some of the presidential candidates in the coming presidential and parliamentary elections in Liberia. Couple of them were covertly involved in financing the rebellion that destroyed the country. Base on the above reasons, a group of young exile Liberians formed a coalition for Democratic change (CDC) and began evaluating young and patriotic Liberians. The coalition described the return of some recycle politicians to contest the presidency in Liberia as “another buguman installation”. The coalition saw George Weah as Liberia’s “Martin Luther King” who would return to Liberia in the sense of focusing his royal attention on Liberia and Liberians. composite signs have alerted his partisans and sympathizers that his presence in the race has turned the Liberian political field into confusion camp. Carpet crossing has become part of the daily occurrences in the country. Most of those crossing carpet are those same sycophants who finds the winning party as a medium of licking hands. The transfiguration vision has turned out to be a brilliant fore gleam or George Weah and the CDC. This vision is now heading towards reality. Many voters have left off following so-called politicians because of their past records. Likewise, in this time of elections, voters are strengthening their political faith in Weah’s soccer experiences and popularity by shedding lights on the fulfillment of that awesome vision. Referring to the transfiguration, this author wrote: Consequently, we have the prophetic words made more sure; and we are doing well in paying attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dark place until elections day dawns and a young and patriotic Liberian president rises in the coming elections.
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