We Have Been Working To Strengthen Governance -Says GC Boss, Gives Progress Report

By: Matthew H.Turry

The Officer in Charge at the Governance Commission, Madam Elizabeth Dorkin said that the institution over the period under review has been working hard to strengthen and improve governance in the country through bills and other representations made to government for review and implementation especially with respect to decentralizing the governance space.

Speaking to a team Journalists over the weekend in Monrovia, Commissioner Dorkin said, the Bills include the Bill to establish the Ministry of Local Government and The Revenue Sharing Formula Bill.

According to Madam Dorkin, the bill when passed into law and the the Ministry of Local Government is established, it will replace the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

She explained that there is a difference between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Local Government, adding that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was established to implement a centralized form of governance and the Ministry of Local Government is designed to govern and to implement the Local Government act of 2018, which promotes a decentralized form of governance.

She added that, also when the revenue sharing formula bill is passed into law, Counties/ Local government will be able to retain some revenue generated in the counties disclosed noted that the bills had been submitted to the President for onwards submission to the National Legislature.

The Governance Commissioner said the revenue sharing bill an achievement, because is  it intended to give power to the people in line with the PAPD which talks about giving power to the people and the foundations of the Governance Commission.

“The GC has come up with series of radio programs, other NGOs have started the popularization of our decentralization program giving power to the people and telling them what is it in the power in order to build infrastructure in various communities and counties and we pray that this Bill is passed to be able to give power to our local government”, she said.

On the Strengthening of Public sector, Commissioner Dorkin noted that the GC has been able to conduct the Mandate and Functions Review (MFR) of a number of public institutions.

“Recommendation from the MFR process sometimes lead to the transferring of functions from one institution to another, or merging of institutions”, she asserted.

At the same time, Commissioner Dorkin called on all political appointees to declare their assets. She noted that the Governance Commission is embarking on efforts to popularize the entire code of conduct.

“Because that’s one of our core priorities that all government officials that are appointed in other government institutions should prioritize popularizing the Code of Conduct”, she noted.

Madam Dorkin stressed that as an anti- graft institution, declaring assets shows transparency and accountability and whatever you acquired in the period of time you should be able to declare your assets.

“The Governance Commission takes the Code of conduct very seriously and urges other public institutions to do the same so as to have good governance in the process”, Dorkin noted.

The Governance Commission is an integrity institution and central advisory, monitoring, and oversight body with authority to formulate, implement and coordinate policies to govern Government-owned or-Controlled Corporations.

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