The Liberian transparency watchdog group, Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) has taken President George Weah to task for appointing the Head of Secretariat of the Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI), saying that the move is “in violation of the Act creating the integrity institution.”
On Monday, the man who was appointed to this post, defeated Montserrado County District 11 Representative Gabriel Nyenkan took armed police to the offices of LEITI and demanded the office keys and vehicle from the incumbent LEITI boss Kona Karmoh for his refusal to hand over to him.
The Head of Secretariat, Karmoh gave in but said he could not voluntarily hand over his office because the President’s move was not in order, as his position requires vetting and that he had a tenure contract.
The action of the former lawmaker to use armed police to take over the office has prompted a big debate in Monrovia, but the Executive Mansion has not made any comment on latest developments at the LEITI offices.
But in a press release issued on Tuesday, CENTAL quoted Section 6.5 of the LEITI Act of 2009 reserves the authority of appointing members of the Multi-Stakeholder Steering Group (MSG), which oversees LEITI, to the President.
The Liberia transparency group said Section 6.3(d) grants the MSG the “power to recruit and dismiss the Head of Secretariat, Deputy and approve the recruitment of other staff members”.
“CENTAL believes that the President overstepped the limits of his authority by ascribing to his office unassigned powers, something which is worrisome and must have no place in the new Liberia we collectively seek to build. The rule of law is a fundamental pillar of our maturing democracy and such arbitrariness has the propensity to reverse gains made in strengthening governance and the rule of law in the country,” the CENTAL press release said.
The press release further said: “CENTAL believes that the law must be upheld if the credibility of the LEITI must remain intact. We therefore call on the President to refrain from taking actions that have the proclivity to undermine his commitment to fight against corruption and promote accountability and transparency.”