A high-level corruption has reportedly been discovered at the Independent National Commission on Human Rights (INCHR).
As such, the Board of Directors, has called on Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) to comprehensively investigate the allegations on financial misconduct, abuse of office, payroll fraud and other offenses that were recently discovered at the entity.
The exercise is part of effort to safeguard public resources and uphold the principal of transparency, accountability and good governance.
INCHR Acting Board Chairperson, Counselor Mohammed E. Fahnbulleh made the disclosure during a press conference on Tuesday, July 14, in Monrovia.
Cllr. Fahnbulleh said, the call is in pursuant to the statutory oversight responsibilities of the INCHR Act that seeks to fulfill its duty as to safeguard public resources, and uphold the principal of transparency, accountability and good governance.
He said, upon this backdrop, the Board of Directors has formally referred the matters involving the Commission’s suspended chairperson Dempster Brown, the Executive Director, Attorney Urias Teh-Pour, and the Director for Planning Bah- wah Brownell, to LACC for a comprehensive investigation into allegations of corruption, financial misconduct, abuse of office, payroll fraud and other offenses that may serve as evidence during the investigation.
Fahnbulleh said, the decision to subject these individuals to investigation followed a review of institutional records undertaken by the current board after his appointment as acting chairperson, which he said, identified matters that raised serious concern regarding compliance with the Public Financial Management PFM Law, the Commission’s internal financial control procedure, and a proper administration of donor and public resources.
Cllr. Fahnbulleh also disclosed that the Board during its research, further identified record indicating that in October, 2025, Brown acted on behalf of the Commission obtained a grant of US$20,175 from the UNICEF Liberia office, which according to him, was transferred to the Commission on October 15, 2025.
However, the Board believes that the management of the grant was conducted outside the Commission’s internal financial control framework, and contrary to governance principal of governing institutional management.
“Preliminary information available to the Board also indicate that the authorized signatory arrangements for the project funds were allegedly alter by the suspended chairperson, the executive director Teh-Pour, and excluding other duly approved institutional signatory, also including the vice chairperson, who served as authorized signatory to the Commission’s accounts.”
Fahnbulleh also informed the gathering that these matters came to the attention of the Board following discovery of a correspondence dated June 24, 2026 from the UNICEF Liberia office, indicating that “portion of a report submitted on behalf of Commission had been rejected, which he said, has the propensity to undermine the credibility of the institution.
Cllr. Fahnbulleh said, it was upon this back drop, prompted the current Board leadership to undertake a review of projects documentation, and financial records, and also requested production of all documents relating to the UNICEF funded project, including project proposal, grant agreements, financial reports, supporting vouchers procurement records, contracts and bank records.
He further maintained that despite the call for all of these documents, Brown and other have refused to present these documents, thereby, preventing the current board to effective discharge its statutory oversight responsibility and as such he said the board has decided to reinforce by inviting an independent investigation, seeking the intervention of the LACC to probe the matters.
