Summary: Claims that President Joseph Boakai violated the Code of Conduct on assets declaration have taken center stage in the Liberia media. We fact-checked and found that the claim was correct.
On February 8, talk show host Austin M. Kawah claimed that President Joseph Boakai has violated the Code of Conduct on asset declaration for failing to declare his assets before taking office. Kawah made the claim on Freedom Morning Rise on Freedom FM 87.9 a radio station in Monrovia.
The claim was made at 1:27:30 of the 2:42:53 talk show.
The Claim
Said Kawah: “It does not change the fact that a law has been violated. Even if Mr. Boakai declares this morning and sends us a copy of his declaration, it does not change the fact that a law has been violated. That one has been recorded into history that Joe Boakai violated the Code of Conduct that requires assets declaration.”
Rating Justification
To authenticate this claim, we checked the Executive Mansion’s Facebook page to acquire the date President Boakai declared his assets. Our search found that he declared his asset on Thursday, February 8 – 16 days after he was inaugurated as Liberia’s 26th President.
To ascertain if the declaration of assets by Pres. Boakai more than two weeks after his inauguration violated the Code of Conduct as claimed by Austin M. Kawah, we then obtained a copy of the National Code of Conduct. In the document, we found that Section 10.1 on the declaration of assets and performance bonds mandates every public official and employee of the government to declare their assets before taking office.
Section 10.1 Code of Conduct on Declaration of Assets and Performance Bonds reads: “Every Public Official and Employee of Government involved in making decisions affecting contracting, tendering or procurement, and issuance of licenses of various types shall sign performance or financial bonds and shall, in addition, declare his or her income, assets, and liabilities prior to taking office and thereafter: a. at the end of every three years; b. on promotion or progression from one level to another; c. upon transfer to another public office; and d. upon retirement or resignation.”
To further verify, we also obtained a copy of the Liberia Anti-Corruption (LACC) Act of 2022. LACC is an anti-graft institution tasked with the responsibility of formulating and adopting new regulations and measures aimed at strengthening laws and policies that adequately address the peculiar nature of corruption in society.
Part VI Section 4.1 (g) of the LACC Act of 2022 empowers the commission to update a comprehensive assets declaration according to the Code of Conduct Act of 2014 and that “all requirements by said Code of Conduct Act of 2014 for the registration of assets of employees of the government of Liberia with any other authority are hereby repealed and nullified.”
This means the LACC Act of 2022 supports every provision in Section 10.1 of the Code of Conduct of 2014 including the portion that compels officials to declare their assets “before taking office”.
Conclusion
Based upon these findings, we therefore concluded that Pres. Boakai violated the Code of Conduct by not declaring his assets before taking office. Section 10.1 of the Code of Conduct mandates all public officials and employees of the government to declare his or her asset “prior to taking office and thereafter: at the end of every three years; on promotion or progression from one level to another, upon transfer to another public office; and upon retirement or resignation.”