The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and three Civil Society Organizations - CENTAL, Accountability Lab Liberia and Integrity Watch Liberia, with support from UNDP and the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), launched an Anti-Corruption Innovation Project on 26 October 2021 at the Ministerial Complex in Monrovia.

The Project intends to build partnership between the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) with specialized and long-term experiences in corruption prevention. It will promote the use of ICT and innovation to create public demand, transparency and prompt response to incidents of corruption.

Liberia’s corruption perception index has been deteriorating yearly, dropping from a score of 37/100 in 2016, to 32/100 in 2018, and then to 28/100 in 2020 on the global Corruption Perception Index (CPI). (Higher scores are better).

” We need citizens to play a stronger, more active role in demanding transparency, integrity and accountability in governance at all levels. In the absence of that, what we have is an environment that is fertile for corruption to thrive unhindered,” said Stephen Rodriques, UNDP’s Resident Representative in Liberia. “It is therefore important for all of us, collectively, to encourage and support citizens to expose corruption when they see it, as well as to help prevent it by nurturing a culture of citizen-driven accountability.”

In order to deepen citizen engagement in the fight against corruption, the project will develop a secure national digital e-platform to enable members of the public to safely report suspected acts of corruption nationally.

The project will also help to improve the effectiveness of the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission whose work has been undermined by several factors. Currently, the Commission lacks prosecutorial powers, and operates within a weak legal framework in relation to financial disclosure and wealth declaration. Moreover, there is little protection for whistle blowers, which deters citizen from reporting corruption. The anti-corruption agency also has to contend with a deeply entrenched culture of unethical conduct in both the public and private sectors, especially in procurement, and the lack of capacity within state agencies to address impunity and promote integrity.

The project will place special emphasis on building the capacity of the LACC to track, report and investigate acts of corruption consistent with its legal mandate.

Development partners at the official launch of the project included representatives of the EU, USAID, the governments of China, Ireland, and Sweden, and ECOWAS. National partners included the House and Senate Committees on Governance and Public Accounts, the Public Procurement and Concession Commission, as well as the Ministries of Justice and Health.