Liberia announces transparency plan

Liberia has once again put itself at the forefront of transparency in Africa with the Finance Minister’s announcement on 31st July that the government has now put in place “adequate measures to ensure transparency in all sectors of Liberian society”

While thanking development partners, he made pointed comments that over half Liberia’s aid ($750 million a year) is off-budget and so falls outside government oversight and planning; clearly a challenge to donors who want to keep a tight grip on ‘their’ money. But aid that is off-budget does not have to be invisible to government, making it transparent is a necessary first step to integrating donor-funded projects and programmes into government plans.

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), traditionally jealous of their independence, were told that they would have to make regular financial and performance reports to their oversight ministries or agencies. We don’t know how Liberian CSOs are responding to this demand, but some might feel uncomfortable with it, for good or not-so-good reasons.

If these measures are fully implemented, they will make Liberia one of the most transparent countries in West Africa. They will join a transparency law enacted last year covering oil, mining and other natural resource industries which made Liberia the first country in Africa to be fully compliant with Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) standards.