Liberia’s new government took its first major step towards fighting graft on Tuesday, telling members of the previous administration they should not leave the country until they had undergone a financial audit.
President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who took office as Africa’s first elected female head of state this month, has pledged to break the West African country’s history of endemic corruption, which has scuppered its efforts to rebuild after years of war.
Watch out for audits
“Consistent with its policy of ensuring accountability and transparency in government, the government of Liberia will shortly commission a comprehensive audit of all government agencies and public corporations,” a government statement said.
“In order to avoid a situation where vital questions are not answered during the audit, the government hereby calls on all former officials ... to remain in the country until such audit is commissioned and concluded.”
Rampant corruption fuelled decades of instability in Liberia, where a 14-year war ended in 2003 after killing up to a quarter of a million people.
It has also meant even the capital Monrovia is without state-supplied electricity or piped water more than two years after the guns fell silent.
Working to ensure aid
Johnson-Sirleaf has said she will stand by a donor-backed program under which foreign experts will oversee state spending in a bid to stamp out graft. Donors had threatened to freeze aid to the country unless the plan was adopted.
