PHOTO: Agriculture Min. Cooper and her top officials
By Our Staff Writer
A statement from the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) has linked Agriculture Minister Jeanine Cooper and her top officials to a serious corruption scandal.
An LACC statement released in Monrovia on Monday, January 10, 2022 and published on its website says:
“The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission says it has placed the entire leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture under full scale corruption investigation for issues of conflict of interest, financial improprieties and other inappropriate awarding of agro contracts amounting to millions of United States Dollars.”
This is the second time in few weeks that the hammer on the national anti-graft agency is landing on a public institution for alleged act of corruption, following the recent indictment of the Chairman of the National Elections Commission (NEC), Madam Davietta Browne-Lansanah.
Madam Browne-Lansanah was indicted and issued a writ of arrest on Thursda,y December 23,2021 by the Criminal Court ‘C’ on multiple charges ranging predicate offense of money laundering, insider trading, manipulation, conflict of interest and violation of the code of conduct among others.
The NEC boss is said to have admitted knowingly offering an over US$182,000 contract to the Tuma Company owned by her brothers to rent electronic verification system for four Representative By-elections held in Nimb, Bong, Grand Gedeh counties last November. This is a charged the NEC Chair has since denied.
“The Commission said for the past few months it has gathered sufficient intelligence on the country’s agro ministry that warrant the conduct of a full-scale investigation of all senior officials including Minister Jeanne Cooper, her deputies, assistant ministers and those with decision making powers,” the LACC’s latest statement says.
The statement quotes the Executive Chairperson Edwin Kla Martin as saying that, “the LACC was deeply worried and baffled by the intelligence it has gathered on the reckless disregard to public financial management laws, Public Procurement laws and the country’s code of conduct for public officials at Liberia’s Agriculture Ministry.”
The LACC has urged all those concerns to give the LACC the full cooperation as the Commission will not tolerate delays and excuses during the investigative processes.
Minister Cooper has spent nearly two years in office, following her appointment by President George Weah on March 4, 2020. Prior to her appointment, she headed her private agricultural company, Fabrar. And back in March 2020, the Liberian female Agriculture Minister told the local FrontpageAfrica newspaper that in order to avoid conflict of interest, she was putting her shares in that private company in “blind trust”.
“In this public forum, I like to say something about my company Fabrar, which I was running peacefully before, but which I have now put my shares into a blind trust so that I can focus my attention on the affairs of the Ministry,” she disclosed then.
According to Part II of the 2008 Act of the LACC, corruption is defined as:
“Any act or acts, decision or decisions or use of public resource or resources by a public or private official in the discharge of official duties and responsibilities which in order to satisfy their selfish desire or interest ignore the established Laws, regulations and thereby denies, deprives and prevent the state or citizens from receiving just entitlement, consideration and treatment. Signs of corruption are: “Bribery, embezzlement, extortion, fraud, insider trading, misuse of entrusted public property, theft of property, economic sabotage and any economic and financial crime which are provided for under the Penal Code of Liberia”.