(Agency Report)
The Executive and the Legislative Branches of the Liberian government are said to be locked up in continuing discussions over the passage of the new Maritime Act that has met mass public denigration.
The Legislature has reportedly made a proposal for several amendments in the Act submitted to it by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Many Liberians including the country’s acclaimed right activist Kimmie Weeks have sounded vocal against the Act, alarming that the passage of the Act by the lower House is "an affront to the Liberian development process and defies logic".
The Act, among others, seeks to transform the Bureau of Maritime Affairs into an Authority and gives it the power to collect its own revenue, creates its own security unit and immunes its officials from prosecution while serving a seven-year term, among others.
"Discussions on the new Maritime Authority Act submitted by the President to the National Legislature is continuing," Press Secretary Cyrus Wleh Badio to his regular press briefing Monday.
"The Legislature is proposing some amendments that are still being discussed. The President is confident that very soon the Executive and Legislature will reach an agreement…" the President’s spokesman said.
He said discussion is stemmed on "the contentious issues, including that of financial autonomy and the involvement of the Bureau in security enforcement."
"Those issues are still being ironed out. The President will provide more details once the Act is sent to her for signature," Badio noted.
Both Finance and Defence Ministers Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan and Brownie Samukai have respectively opposed the financial autonomy and the establishment of a security unity under the Act.
The US Government, the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have all slammed the Act, with the US warning that it potentially violates Liberia Public Financial Management Law.
The Economic Section of the US Embassy accredited near Monrovia describes the Act as a "disappointing setback" especially given how essential the Public Financial management Law is to demonstrate the Liberian government’s readiness to conduct independent fiscal policy in the post HIPC era.
Mr. Weeks recently noted that the bill passed by the House of Representatives, currently before the Senate for concurrence, is an affront to the Liberian development process and defies logic.
Mr. Weeks claimed that the Act, which is being debated by the Senate and stands to give the Bureau of Maritime Affairs and its commissioners a broad power, gives way to the creation of an entity that will be unanswerable to the Liberian people and removes safeguards that prevent widespread corruption.
Among other things, according to reports, under the proposed Act, the Authority has the power to borrow money with only its Board approval.
The Authority would do that without presidential or legislative approval. Moreover, none of the persons in the chain of decision-making, either the Commissioner or Board Members, are confirmed by the Senate or subject to public vetting, information gathered averred.
The current commissioner Binyah Kesselly and the BMA are seeking tenure for the chairman of the commission for up to seven years and that all commissioners should be immune from prosecution in the discharge of their duties, but more to that, the new Maritime Authority is seeking to be its own tax collector.
While critics have been pounding Kesselly for trying to muzzle his hold on the lucrative bureau, supporters of the BMA argue that the seven-year tenure was also stipulated in the amended Section II of the Title 22 of the Liberian Code of Laws published with authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1993. Section I (a) states:
"That from and immediately after the passage of this act, the Commissioner of the Maritime Affairs and his deputies shall be appointed by the President of Liberia with the consent of the Senate for a period of seven(7)years. The tenure of these officials shall be renewable."
Ironically, the draft Act being debated before the Legislature, does not call for a renewal of the commissioner and his deputies terms of office.
Mr. Weeks condemned the move by the agency to extend the term of its commissioners to seven years which will keep them in their positions longer than the democratically elected President.
The young Liberian activist, in a press statement issued last week (August 4, 2010) strongly criticized the Act, which he argued would weaken final management controls in place at the bureau.
Weeks said, "I strongly appeal the Commission and the Senate to withdraw the bill. This is a time for us to work towards strengthening Liberian government financial controls and not weakening it.
Mr. Weeks said the fact that the Act would grant the Maritime commissioners immunity from prosecution raises grave concern. "I question a group of people who control one of the government’s largest income generation agencies who want to be free from prosecution."
"What if they embezzle funds? Are we to simply let them go free because of some immunity deal," he wondered, adding, "We cannot and must not grant anybody a safety net to misappropriate funds and be protected by the law."
Mr. Week’s said he is concerned that if the bill passes granting Maritime Affairs and its Commissioners such broad powers, they would essentially become a "corporate dictatorship."
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