Game-Changer for Public Workers Looms -CSA Boosts Civil Servants’ Welfare with LPA Launch

MONROVIA – For years, Liberian civil servants faced significant challenges in accessing essential goods and services through the Legal Power of Attorney (LPA) program. The traditional system was plagued by inefficiencies, corruption, and bureaucratic red tape, leaving many workers frustrated and disillusioned. The process of obtaining approvals, verifying identities, and making purchases was often lengthy, opaque, and open to abuse. All that will soon be history with the launch of the Automated LPA platform by the leadership of the Civil Service Agency (CSA), marking a new era of efficiency, transparency, and accountability. As The Analyst reports, this innovative digital service leverages biometric technology and real-time processing to provide civil servants with seamless access to goods and services, eliminating the need for cumbersome paperwork and lengthy wait times.

The Civil Service Agency of Liberia (CSA) has proudly announced the launch of the Automated Legal Power of Attorney (LPA) platform, a revolutionary digital service designed to transform the lives of public sector workers across Liberia. This innovative platform is set to provide efficient, secure, and transparent access to essential services and benefits for government employees.

The LPA platform, launched at the EJS Ministerial Complex, is the culmination of the CSA’s efforts to modernize and humanize the civil service delivery system.

By leveraging biometric technology and real-time digital services, the platform ensures that civil servants can access goods and services without the need for cumbersome paperwork, long waiting times, or bureaucratic hurdles.

“Today is not just a ceremony. It is a turning point. We are gathered to mark the rebirth of an idea, an idea that once defined what it meant to be a proud Liberian civil servant,” said Dr. Josiah F. Joekai, Jr., Director-General of the Civil Service Agency of Liberia.

He said the Automated LPA platform is a promise that the era of delay, confusion, and distrust is over.

From this day forward, he said, “every civil servant can walk with confidence, knowing that the government has their back. The LPA platform has been designed to provide a range of benefits, including instant service, accountability, and transparency.  The platform uses biometric technology to verify the identity of civil servants, ensuring that transactions are secure and efficient.”

The visibly elated DG of the CSA said at the launch: “Today is not just a ceremony. It is a turning point. We are gathered to mark the rebirth of an idea, an idea that once defined what it meant to be a proud Liberian civil servant.”

“Today is not just a ceremony. It is a turning point. We are gathered to mark the rebirth of an idea, an idea that once defined what it meant to be a proud Liberian civil servant.”

He declared: “Today, we are here to tell every teacher, every nurse, every police officer, every public worker across this nation: Your government sees you. Your government values you.
And your government is working not only to pay your wages, but to restore your dignity.

This is the story of the Legal Power of Attorney, the LPA. But more importantly, this is the story of a civil service that is rising again.”

Looking back as a reflection of the legacy of the LPA, Dr. Joekai said: “Many years ago, before the storms of conflict, the LPA was more than a benefit. It was a promise, a quiet assurance that if you served your country faithfully, your country would stand by you. Civil servants could walk into a store, show their identification card, pick up the items they needed for their homes, and pay later without shame, without delay, and without the long lines of bureaucracy.
It was simple. It was fair. And it worked.

“That system gave hope to thousands of families. It built homes, educated children, and strengthened the bond between the worker and the state. But then came the years of war, and with it, the slow unravelling of systems we once trusted. The LPA became a memory, a good idea buried beneath piles of paper, waiting for someone, someday, to breathe life into it again.”

The Rationale: Why We Had to Change

He said upon taking office at the CSA, he found a system that had lost its soul, civil servants filled out endless forms, and files were misplaced. “Approvals took longer,” he recalled. “And honest workers who only wanted to buy a mattress, a television, or a refrigerator for their families were left waiting in despair. We realized that the problem wasn’t the people, it was the process. A process trapped in paper. A system designed for another time, another century.

“And so, we asked ourselves the hard question: How do we take a program built in the 1970s, with little done in the recent past, and make it work in 2025? The answer was clear: we must digitize, modernize, and humanize the system. Because efficiency is not just about technology, it’s about dignity. And when government serves with speed, fairness, and security, people begin to believe again.”

The rest of Dr. Joekai remarks at the LPA launch below:

The Transformation: From Paper to Platform

And so, my team at the Civil Service Agency went to work. We studied, we reimagined, and we built not just a system, but a platform of trust. Today, the Legal Power of Attorney is no longer a stack of dusty files. It is a fully automated, biometric, real-time digital service that is fast, smart, and secure. Here’s how it works:

Every government employee, whether in a ministry, an agency, a commission, a county office, or a hospital, will be biometrically enrolled into the system.

So, in other words, your fingerprint becomes your signature of authenticity. Our partner vendors will be equipped with LPA-approved Point-of-Sale devices and smart terminals directly linked to the CSA database.

When you walk into a participating or an LPA-approved store, all you do is verify your identity, choose your goods within your credit limit, and you’re done.

No forms. No approvals. No waiting. No humiliation. The total cost is spread over six months through automatic payroll deductions, allowing every civil servant to make purchases and pay small amounts, safely and honorably. That, my friends, is progress made real.

The Benefits: A Smarter, Safer, and Fairer System

This transformation is not just technological. It is transformational. It means: No more falsified authorizations. No more impersonations. No more waiting longer to receive approval for a simple purchase. It means instant service. It means accountability. It means that every transaction is recorded, traceable, and transparent. For vendors, it means trust, guaranteed payments, and renewed confidence in doing business with the public sector.

For civil servants, it means empowerment, access to goods and services without the burden of exploitation or delay. For the government, it means integrity, a modern, auditable process that upholds both fiscal discipline and human dignity.

This is not a system built for convenience alone.

It is a social contract built on fairness and respect.

The Broader Vision: Reforming the Civil Service

The LPA automation is part of a much larger story, a story of reform, modernization, and renewal across Liberia’s civil service.

In the last two years, we have cleaned our payroll through the Employee Status Regularization Project, removing ghost names and saving millions of dollars.

We have raised the minimum wage of civil servants to a fair and decent level.
We have launched the National Civil Service Testing Center, ending favoritism and ushering in merit-based recruitment for the first time in our nation’s history.

We have reconstituted the Civil Service Board of Appeals, ensuring that justice and fairness return to the workplace.

And we are finalizing the Act to Establish the Civil Service Commission — an independent body that will safeguard the rights of every public worker in Liberia.

Each of these reforms points in the same direction — toward a government that works smarter, serves better, and treats its employees as partners in progress.

National Partnership & Empowerment: Building Together, Standing Together

My friends, the progress of this scale does not happen in isolation.

It happens through partnership, collaboration, and a shared vision for national transformation.

And so, I want to express profound gratitude to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and the Ministry of Justice, two institutions that have walked this journey with us from conception to implementation.

Your collaboration represents exactly what His Excellency President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr. has consistently charged us to do to govern through peer learning, resource sharing, and technical cooperation.

This is how we build a responsive government, one that does not operate in silos, but in solidarity.

To our financial partners, I extend heartfelt appreciation:

To ECOBANK Liberia and the International Bank of Liberia Limited, thank you for your confidence, your partnership, and your continued support for this reform.
And today, we are equally honored to welcome AfriLand Bank, whose vast rural infrastructure will help expand the reach of the LPA across every county, ensuring that no civil servant, no matter how remote, is left behind.

To our technology partner, Mwetana Consulting and Technology Group, a professional, proudly Liberian firm and an undisputed leader in our nation’s tech sector, I say this: You have proven that Liberian ingenuity can drive Liberian progress.

You built this system. You automated it. And you will manage it in concert with the Civil Service Agency.

At the CSA, we profoundly believe in and promote Liberian businesses, Liberian talent, and Liberian workers.

Because no nation can rise by neglecting its own.

We must empower our own citizens.

We must open the doors of opportunity to qualified Liberians.

And we must have the courage to transition thousands of regular job roles currently occupied by foreigners to competent Liberians who have earned the right to serve.

Let’s be honest, our people do not enjoy these privileges and opportunities in their countries.
So why should they enjoy them freely in ours, while our own citizens struggle to survive?

It is not just bizarre.

It is unfair.

It is unjust.

Liberians cannot be beggars and destitute in their own land.

We must rise with confidence, with courage, and with collective conviction to restore pride in Liberian labor, Liberian enterprise, and Liberian excellence.

That is how nations are built, not by outsourcing potential, but by believing in the power that lies within our own people.

A New Spirit of Service

My fellow Liberians,

What we celebrate today is not just a platform; it is a promise.

A promise that the era of delay, confusion, and distrust is over.

From this day forward, the Legal Power of Attorney will no longer be a privilege for a few. It will be a right for all who serve.

From this day forward, efficiency will not be the exception; it will be the standard.

And from this day forward, every civil servant can walk with confidence, knowing that the government has their back.

So, to every teacher in River Gee, every nurse in Lofa, every police officer in Grand Bassa, this innovation belongs to you.

Use it wisely. Protect it proudly. And let it remind you that service to country is never in vain.

Because when we modernize systems, we multiply trust.

When we dignify workers, we strengthen democracy.

And when we lead with vision, Liberia moves forward.

Together, let us continue to build a civil service that works for its people, a workforce that reflects the best of who we are: disciplined, innovative, and patriotic.

The age of excuses is behind us.

The age of excellence begins now.

This right here is: Thinking Liberia, Loving Liberia, and Building Liberia.

Thank you!