LACC Marks 18 Yrs.-Cites record amid corruption warnings

MONROVIA – After 18 years, Liberia’s anti-corruption fight still confronts a credibility test: can enforcement punish graft without sacrificing fairness? The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission’s anniversary exposed that tension. Its 81 closed cases and more than 3,000 asset declarations signal institutional activity. Yet officials treated the occasion as a checkpoint, not a triumph. Their warnings matter because corruption drains schools, clinics and public confidence, while careless accusations can destroy reputations before evidence reaches court. The message from government and development partners was therefore demanding. Prevention, professional investigations, ethical public service and due process must work together. As THE ANALYST’S MATTHEW TURRY reports, Liberia will judge the Commission less by anniversary speeches than by whether credible cases produce fair, timely and lasting public accountability.

The Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) on Friday, August 28, 2026, marked its 18th anniversary with a mix of celebration and blunt warnings, as top officials pressed the graft-fighting body to balance aggressive enforcement with strict adherence to due process, even as they acknowledged that corruption continues to erode public trust and stall development across the country.

The commemoration, held under the theme, “Reflecting the Journey and Renewing the Commitment,” brought together senior government officials, lawmakers, diplomatic partners, civil society organizations, LACC staff and students for what organizers described as both a celebration of institutional progress and a sober accounting of the work still ahead.

Officials repeatedly framed the anniversary as a checkpoint rather than a victory lap, acknowledging that nearly two decades after the Commission’s creation, corruption remains an active and corrosive force in Liberian public life.

Speaking at the celebration, LACC Executive Chairperson Cllr. Alexandra Zoe told the gathering that the Commission investigated and closed 81 corruption-related cases between 2013 and 2023, a figure she offered as evidence of the institution’s investigative record over the past decade.

Zoe also highlighted a compliance milestone under the current administration: more than 3,000 asset declarations have been recorded under President Joseph Nyuma Boakai, which she described as the highest number logged in the Commission’s 18-year history. She used the figures to argue that Liberia’s accountability architecture is functioning, even as she called for stronger enforcement, tighter case management and deeper public confidence in the country’s anti-graft institutions.

Her remarks set the tone for a program that alternated between institutional self-assessment and pointed calls for reform from the officials who followed her. Speakers acknowledged the Commission’s progress but maintained that its credibility would ultimately depend on the fairness, independence and professional quality of its investigations.

Warning Against Public Conviction

The anniversary’s sharpest message came from Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Samuel Stevequoah, who used his keynote address to draw a hard line around how the LACC conducts its work. He stated that the Boakai administration treats the rule of law, accountability and responsible management of public resources as central to good governance, stressing that corruption “is not abstract,” but a problem with real victims.

Stevequoah insisted that investigations must be independent, professional and evidence-driven, while cautioning against turning the Commission’s work into a vehicle for personal vendettas or public condemnation ahead of proof. An accusation, he stressed, is not a conviction, and every accused person retains the right to due process under Liberian law.

He was direct about the risk of the Commission’s work sliding into what he called “trial by public opinion,” a situation in which reputational damage is inflicted before facts are established and due process becomes an afterthought to public sentiment. The goal of anti-corruption work, Stevequoah stated, is not simply to punish people based on accusations.

Rather, he argued, the objective must be to establish the truth, protect public resources, correct weaknesses in government systems and hold accountable only those whose wrongdoing can be proven through credible evidence.

He closed his remarks by tying that discipline directly to institutional legitimacy, telling the audience that adherence to fair process—not the speed or volume of prosecutions—is what ultimately earns public confidence in oversight bodies.

Stevequoah also underscored that accountability runs in both directions, declaring that public officials and ordinary citizens bear responsibility for how authority is exercised and how state resources are managed.

His remarks placed due process at the center of the Commission’s responsibility, warning that an institution created to defend accountability could undermine its own legitimacy if it substitutes public pressure for evidence.

Citizens Hold National Stakes

Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, framed corruption as a societal sickness requiring a holistic cure, arguing that public resources belong to the Liberian people, not to the officials who manage them. He likened the nation to an enterprise in which every citizen holds a stake, with public servants acting as custodians of that stake.

Ngafuan warned that diverting public resources carries consequences that compound over generations. When money intended for public services is siphoned off, he stated, it can deprive a child of schooling, and that single disruption can consign the child to poverty for a lifetime.

The finance minister argued that the damage from corruption is rarely confined to a single transaction because it echoes through the life chances of people who had no hand in the wrongdoing.

He extended his criticism beyond government offices and into schools, criticizing the normalization of informal “flexibility fees” charged to students and warning that today’s tolerance for small-scale compromise produces tomorrow’s compromised leaders.

Ngafuan argued that conscience, not law alone, should serve as the first check on wrongdoing, telling the audience that while perfection belongs to God, a functioning conscience is one that still feels discomfort after doing wrong. A society that has stopped feeling that discomfort, he suggested, has lost its most basic internal safeguard against graft.

He placed responsibility on schools and communities rather than government alone, arguing that some institutions effectively normalize low-level corruption by treating informal fees as routine rather than improper.

He questioned whether an entire school could collect such fees and still consider the practice acceptable, cautioning that students absorbing these lessons today will become the ministers and civil servants of tomorrow.

The public, Ngafuan stated, is often quick to point fingers at the government without acknowledging that government officials are products of the same society and its institutions. His remarks presented corruption as a problem that begins long before an individual enters public office and cannot be defeated solely through prosecution.

Corruption Undermines National Development

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Liberia Deputy Resident Representative Louis Kuukpen urged a broader framing of the issue, arguing that corruption should be understood primarily as a development failure rather than merely a legal problem. He linked graft directly to under-resourced clinics, disrupted schooling and eroded public trust, calling for prevention—not only prosecution—to become the centerpiece of Liberia’s strategy.

Kuukpen argued that framing corruption purely as a legal matter understates its true cost. He described it as a development issue with direct human consequences: the reason a child may not receive quality education, the reason a clinic may lack essential medicines, and a driver of disconnected communities, youth unemployment and declining public confidence in government.

Every dollar lost to corruption, he stated, is a dollar taken from development, while every abuse of power further erodes the social contract between citizens and the state. The UNDP envoy credited Liberia with meaningful progress in strengthening its accountability architecture over the past 18 years, describing the LACC as a critical part of that journey but stressing that institutions cannot function without capable and ethical people behind them.

Policies do not implement themselves and laws do not enforce themselves, Kuukpen stated, because public servants behind every institution determine whether it succeeds or fails. In his framing, if institutions are the pillars of governance, public servants are the foundation on which those pillars stand, meaning Liberia’s anti-corruption fight depends as much on cultivating integrity and professional ethics as it does on building formal systems.

Kuukpen stated that the UNDP remains engaged through initiatives including the Peacebuilding Fund-supported Social Accountability Project and assistance for the LACC’s strategic planning. He described the partnership as one combining knowledge, resources and collective influence toward strengthening accountability.

He argued that no single actor—the government, the LACC, civil society or development partners—can defeat corruption alone and called for a “whole-of-society” response involving citizens, the private sector, media, academia, and traditional and religious leaders.

Looking ahead, Kuukpen stated that prevention must become the cornerstone of Liberia’s anti-corruption strategy, arguing that while investigation and prosecution remain essential, the greatest victory lies in preventing corruption before it happens.

He described prevention as a matter of building transparent systems, strengthening institutions ahead of crises, educating young people before unethical behavior becomes normalized and embedding accountability into everyday governance. He called it, ultimately, a development strategy rather than merely a law-enforcement intervention.

Commission Celebrates Historic First

LACC Vice Executive Chairperson Arthur W.B. Fumbah, delivering an overview and statement of purpose for the occasion, noted that despite the Commission’s 18 years of existence, the event marked the first time the LACC had formally celebrated an anniversary.

He used the occasion to reassure Liberians that the Commission remains committed to leading the country toward a corruption-free society, tracing that ambition to August 2008, when the LACC was established amid public hope that sustained institutional reform could curb graft.

Fumbah described corruption 18 years ago as a predatory force that needed to be confronted directly and credited the Commission’s earlier leadership for pressing forward with that mission despite operating in a difficult environment.

He described the anniversary as an opportunity to thank those predecessors and draw lessons from the Commission’s founding era, while acknowledging that detection and prosecution alone are insufficient.

Just as overgrown grass around a home must be continually cut back, he stated, corruption requires sustained and active prevention rather than periodic enforcement. He restated the LACC’s core mission as building a corruption-free society through a three-part strategy of prevention, detection and prosecution.

Fumbah argued that reflecting on the Commission’s 18-year journey was necessary to reassure the public that the goal remains achievable and that its current leadership is equipped to carry the work forward.

He closed by expressing hope for continued engagement and dialogue on how Liberia can move closer to achieving that goal.

A Shared National Reckoning

Across the speeches, a common thread emerged: officials described corruption as a structural and cultural challenge requiring sustained cooperation among the government, civil society, private sector, schools and ordinary citizens.

Several speakers explicitly cautioned that focusing narrowly on prosecutions and case counts, without addressing the social and institutional conditions that allow corruption to take root, would leave the underlying problem largely intact.

The celebration drew government officials, lawmakers, diplomatic partners, civil society organizations, LACC staff and students to reflect on the Commission’s record and the road still ahead. Whether the anniversary marks a genuine turning point or simply another milestone in a longer struggle will likely depend on how the LACC and its partners translate Friday’s rhetoric on prevention, due process and shared responsibility into practice over the years ahead.