Monrovia, Liberia – The Center for Transparency and Accountability has praised President Joseph Boakai’s choice to have the Taskforce specifically work with important organizations including the Office of Ombudsman, the Ministry of Justice, FIA, and LACC. Anderson Miamen, the CENTAL Executive Director, told reporters at the Sinkor office on Monday, April 21, 2025, that he thought the knowledge and experience of these organizations would greatly improve the taskforce’s efforts to find and recover the nation’s misappropriated financial and non-financial resources and assets.
He added that CENTAL would want to offer the Task Force her complete cooperation and assistance in carrying out its vital purpose, which supports Liberia’s efforts to combat corruption, uphold integrity, and promote good governance in general.
According to him, the Assets Recovery Taskforce was established by President Joseph N. Boakai’s executive order number 126 on March 6, 2024, to guarantee the procedures for locating, recovering, and retrieving improperly obtained public resources and properties both in and outside of Liberia.
He emphasized that on March 8, 2024, the Executive Mansion appointed over 15 people and organizations to the taskforce, including officials from the Ministry of Justice, General Services Agency, and Liberia National Police.
Despite having a broad authority to combat corruption, which includes discovering and recovering stolen government resources and assets, he noted that the Liberia Anti-corruption Commission (LACC) was left off the list.
“The exclusion of LACC and inclusion of politically active individuals to the taskforce led to CENTAL’s open call for the dissolution and reconstitution of the taskforce, if it must enjoy the confidence and support of the public and partners, including but not limited to the development community, civil society, and other public integrity institutions,” he said.
He pointed out that based on all the evidence, the Task Force did not perform up to par during its first year of operation. This was partly because of internal conflicts between the leadership and some members, numerous court cases, a bad start to the operation, and a lack of cooperation and engagement from stakeholders.
However, President Boakai decided to prolong the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Taskforce’s mission in March 2025 when Executive Order #126 expired. This time, the President fixed a few serious errors that plagued his 2024 decision and weakened the institution’s efforts. Additionally, instead of the previous 15-member Taskforce that financially burdened the nation and had significant coordination and other challenges, the President appointed a 5-member Taskforce.
He added that in carrying out its responsibilities, the team is now required to work in tandem with the Ministry of Justice, the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA), the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA), the Office of Ombudsman, and LACC.
This reflects a deliberate cooperative approach in carrying out such an important assignment, which may significantly aid Liberia’s anti-corruption efforts and guarantee the abolition of the nation’s culture of impunity for financial and other types of corruption.
The decision by President Boakai to cut the team’s size from 15 members to 5 will save government funds that would otherwise be used to pay salaries and other benefits to team members, he added. According to him, “those resources will now be directed towards execution of the institution’s core mandate.”
To boost trust and support for its work, he urged the Taskforce to act with openness, fairness, and political neutrality in the performance of its duties. In order to achieve exceptional success in carrying out its duties, CENTAL also urged the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Task Force to venture beyond LACC and other designated state agencies and establish cooperative relationships with the media, civil society, people, and other stakeholders.
Mr. Miamen called on the government to provide sufficient funding and guarantee the autonomy of the Taskforce and other public integrity organizations, as they are crucial in increasing the trust of citizens and partners in the system by facilitating the government’s ability to raise sufficient internal and external funds to support its operations.
Reported by: Prince Saah
Contact: +231778239813
Email: saahprince119@gmail.com
