A former President of the Liberia Council of Churches, Bishop Kortu Brown has added to the many other voices against the amendment of the 2008 Act that established the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission(LACC) which will gave the ant-graft institution full prosecutorial powers as “bad 26 for Liberians” as “it terribly undermines the fight against waste, fraud and abuse which the commission is established to confront and enable the country promote transparency and accountability, amongst others”.
Bishop Kortu who is also Pastor of the New Water In the Desert Assembly said whatever the differences or persuasion may have been, the lawmakers’ action is untimely, bad news and it undermines the very practice of good governance that”we are striving to achieve”.
“As a stakeholder and religious leader, I personally support a Supreme court interpretation of this resolution of the Legislature because the integrity of the lawmaking process is at stake. How can you remake a Commission like the LACC with staff who hold tenured positions without any reference to them? What’s the motive?”, he said.
“As we commemorate the 175th Independence Anniversary of our dear country, we call on all Liberians to pull together, overcome their differences and work for greater unity in the country. Every Liberian has a responsibility towards this. Without a United country, the kind of growth and development we aspire for will continue to certainly elude us as a nation and a people: “IN UNION STRONG SUCCESS IS SURE, WE CANNOT FAIL”. Let’s not just sing it on ’26 day, let’s live on ’26 and beyond.
“As we march towards the end of 2022 and preparations for 2023 Presidential and Legislative elections, we call for a national dialogue to sustain peace, security, and reconciliation. It is a table that must bring all actors on board including political leaders from both the ruling and opposition parties, religious leaders, civil society, etc. This is the time to dialogue! It is the time to engage! It is time to come together to sustain the hard-won peace”, the statement concluded.
Since the lawmakers took the decision to amend the LACC Act, there have been shades of opinions, both for and against from many stakeholders in the polity. While some are in favor of the amendment which according to them will give the needed bite the integrity institution should have, others are saying that the much hyped prosecutorial power given to LACC was actually a ploy to make it an ineffective body that cannot confront corrupt cases it was created to deal with.