By Amos Harris
The Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) has expressed qualified support for President Joseph N. Boakai’s anti-corruption agenda, noting that while several policy commitments are promising, significant gaps remain in translating these intentions into tangible accountability.
During his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered Monday to a Joint Sitting of the National Legislature, President Boakai detailed several initiatives designed to bolster transparency and curb systemic corruption. A cornerstone of this plan is the new Performance Management and Compliance System, which mandates that heads of public institutions sign performance contracts tied to rigorous benchmarks. The President also highlighted the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission’s (LACC) recent legal activity, reporting eleven indictments, two convictions, and one acquittal, with four additional cases currently in prosecution. Furthermore, the administration pointed to the dismissal of officials involved in misconduct and a renewed emphasis on asset declaration.
CENTAL Executive Director Anderson Miamen acknowledged specific improvements in financial oversight, particularly the work of the General Auditing Commission (GAC). The GAC successfully completed 94 out of 105 planned audits, including a high-stakes Domestic Debt Audit covering 2018 to 2023. This audit notably rejected over US$704 million in unsupported claims against the government. CENTAL also observed that compliance with GAC recommendations has seen a marked increase, rising from 13 percent in 2024 to 37 percent in 2025.
Additional progress was noted in the near-completion of a system audit of the House of Representatives spanning 2021 to 2024, alongside the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission’s (PPCC) efforts to digitize procurement across more than 50 public entities.
Despite these advancements, the anti-corruption watchdog voiced serious concerns regarding deep-seated structural weaknesses. CENTAL emphasized that the failure to establish a specialized anti-corruption court and the persistence of a five-year statute of limitations on corruption cases continue to hamper the justice system. The organization also criticized the slow pace of asset recovery, specifically questioning the efficacy of the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Taskforce (ARPRT). CENTAL argued that after more than a year of operation, the task force should have produced more visible results, especially given the various audit reports and U.S. sanctions targeting former officials.
The group further aimed at the Legislature’s Public Accounts Committees, accusing them of undermining the GAC’s credibility by delaying reviews of audit reports and failing to enforce accountability. Concerns were also raised regarding the LACC’s transparency, specifically its failure to publish asset verification reports more than two years after declarations were filed. According to CENTAL, a declaration regime without a robust verification process is fundamentally ineffective.
In its concluding assessment, CENTAL urged for better coordination between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. The organization stressed that Liberia’s anti-corruption framework must be independent and adequately resourced, maintaining that true success will be measured by concrete legal outcomes rather than political rhetoric.
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