Audit Commission urges Sirleaf to act quickly against graft
By William Selmah/WADR CORRESPONDENT
The General Auditing Commission (GAC) in Liberia has unearthed more corruption scandals in some ministries and agencies, with the its latest batch of audit reports indicting five institutions.
The latest report uncovered scores of accounting irregularities, including fraud and waste in the Finance and Agriculture Ministries and in the administration of the Mittal Steel County Social Development Fund in Bong, Nimba and Grand Bassa Counties between 2006 and 2009.
The report also indicts the audited institutions of running accounts ‘marred by conflicts of interest,’ and GAC has urged President Sirleaf to quickly take action against the culprits.
Other accounts against them are that their awarding of contracts violated provisions of the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission law of Liberia.
The GAC accused the audited institutions as well of hiring bogus companies, outright theft, and operating without an accounting system.
Meanwhile, the GAC has urged the Liberian Government to swiftly act in implementing recommendations contained in all audit reports.
Critics of the Sirleaf Government have often accused the administration of sweeping numerous audit reports under the carpet and selectively implementing some.
Analysts say the former Auditor General John Morlu’s contract was not extended because of his intense pressure on the Liberian leader to act on the stockpile of audit reports he had issued, recommending prosecutions for officials implicated in allegedly stealing millions of US dollars of public funds.
When she took office in her first term over six years ago, Sirleaf vowed to make corruption “public enemy number one.”
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