Liberian President Joseph Boakai has suspended more than 450 top government officials, including ministers, for failing to declare their assets to the anti-corruption agency.<\/p>\n
They will be off work without pay for a month or \u201cuntil they submit the required declarations\u201d, according to the presidency.<\/p>\n
Boakai said that the officials had contravened the code of conduct for state officials by not being transparent about what they own.<\/p>\n
The president, who had pledged to fight corruption when he came into office last year, said failure to comply undermined efforts to combat corruption and ensure accountability.<\/p>\n
Among those suspended include the ministers for education and health, as well as the special envoys for tourism and investment.<\/p>\n
They also include officials working for the Executive Mansion, the official residence of the president, and county administrative officials.<\/p>\n
The law requires all public officers to declare their wealth before taking up their posts and when they leave positions in government.<\/p>\n
The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) published the list of all the 457 affected public officials, noting it was doing so as prescribed by law.<\/p>\n
Boakai, who pledged to fight corruption when he came into office last year, said failure to comply undermined efforts to combat corruption and ensure accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic officials are reminded that asset declaration is not only a legal obligation but also a fundamental measure to promote transparency and restore public trust in governmental institution,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Last July, the president announced that he was reducing his salary by 40%, saying he hoped to set a precedent for \u201cresponsible governance\u201d and demonstrate \u201csolidarity\u201d with Liberians.<\/p>\n
The government of his predecessor, George Weah, had faced accusations of corruption and lavish spending, sparking mass protests amid a rise in the cost of living.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, some of the suspended officials visited the anti-corruption commission offices in order to comply with the requirement.<\/p>\n
There has been mixed reaction over the president\u2019s move.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Abdullah Kiatamba was quoted by Liberian newspaper FrontPage Africa as being supportive of the president\u2019s anti-corruption stance, but raised concerns about the challenges some officials faced in submitting their asset declarations.<\/p>\n
Civil society group Solidarity and Trust for a New Day described Boakai\u2019s move as insufficient.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuspending these officials for just one month is a meaningless, symbolic gesture \u2013 a slap on the wrist that no serious person should take seriously,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liberian President Joseph Boakai has suspended more than 450 top government officials, including ministers, for failing to declare their assets to the anti-corruption agency. They will be off work without pay for a month or \u201cuntil they submit the required declarations\u201d, according to the presidency. Boakai said that the officials had contravened the code of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110385\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}