The Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia (CENTAL) said, it supports the latest indictments the Asset Recovery and Property Retrieval Taskforce (AREPT) announced.
But the anti-graft institution has warned that government’s broader corruption fight risks losing credibility if the cases do not quickly lead to convictions and the recovery of “stolen public assets.”
CENTAL Executive Director Anderson Miamen, spoke over the weekend at the entity’s headquarters in Monrovia.
He described the latest legal action as a necessary step in the pursuit of accountability, but cautioned that indictments alone should not be mistaken for justice.
Miamen’s statement followed AREPT’s recent indictment of former Commerce Minister Mawine Diggs, and several officials of the past Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration over the “diversion of more than US$1.8 million earmarked for a rural women’s empowerment program.”
According to the taskforce, the charges stemmed from “credible evidence gathered through due process.”
But CENTAL says the significance of the indictments will ultimately depend on whether the government can secure convictions, confiscate illicit assets, and ensure that stolen public wealth is returned to the state.
In a sharply critical assessment, Miamen said, Liberians are becoming weary of a “recurring pattern of public investigations, headline-grabbing indictments, and little visible progress in the actual retrieval of stolen money and properties.”
“The fight against corruption becomes meaningful only when it goes beyond indictments to convictions, recovery, and deterrence.”
CENTAL said, the latest indictments add to a growing list of high-profile corruption cases pursued by AREPT, including the indictment of former Chief of Protocol Nora Finda Bundoo, and more than 40 others in an alleged US$6.7 million corruption scandal, as well as the widely discussed Saudi Rice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs renovation cases.
While acknowledging that AREPT has survived early legal and institutional obstacles, and has broadened the scope of its investigations, CENTAL argued that more than two years after the taskforce’s establishment, the Liberian people deserve “concrete and measurable outcomes.”
The organization also raised concerns about the scale of public resources already committed to the taskforce, pointing out that AREPT has reportedly received significant budgetary support surpassing allocations to some long-established public integrity institutions.
Against that backdrop, CENTAL said the slow movement of corruption cases through the courts and the delayed pace of asset seizures are unacceptable.
The watchdog has renewed calls for the government to urgently establish the long-promised Specialized Anti-Corruption Court. Miamen argued that corruption cases continue to languish in the ordinary judicial system where they often lose momentum and urgency.
He meanwhile, urged AREPT to deepen cooperation with foreign governments, financial intelligence institutions, and international legal firms to trace and repatriate offshore assets “stolen by Liberian officials and their collaborators.”
Although AREPT has already reported partnerships with UK-based firms to pursue foreign-held wealth, CENTAL says the public has yet to witness any major success in the repatriation of overseas assets.