The Press Union of Liberia believes the removal from office of Auditor-General John Morlu is a victory for corruption. The Union is convinced that the acrimony between the Auditor General and the President and her officials should never have taken precedence over the supreme national interest to make corruption ‘a public enemy number one.’ Though Morlu’s ejection was inevitable, the Union said it is sorry that the President would “shoot herself in the leg” in her profess fight against this “major public enemy” – corruption.

The Union believes the General Auditing Commission under John Morlu is a discovery that happened in Liberia in the global movement for good governance and transparency. In a country where corruption has been “rampant, endemic, cancerous and major public enemy” Mr. Morlu was certainly a hero to survive for four years.

PUL wonders if this is the same Auditing Commission the President spoke about in her recent state of the nation’s address, when she lavished praises that it “has been unwavering in its commitment and dedication to the fulfillment of its mandate.”

The Union does not wish to be drawn into the argument that Morlu was “disrespectful to the Presidency” but if his e-mail is the overriding reason for the President’s decision, then she has missed an opportunity to be remembered as a true champion of free expression and dissent.

But PUL believes the e-mail is only an alibi here, because the President has just made known her disapproval over the manner in which the Auditor General has been critical. “We did not always agree with the way Mr. Morlu performed his job, including an indictment that our Government was three times more corrupt than its predecessors, even before he officially commissioned his very first audit,” the President declared.

This was a clear vote of no confidence waiting to happen at the end of Mr. Morlu’s tenure. And probably if the EU was not involved with the GAC, Morlu would have been gone before now.

PUL submits that the President has the right to exercise her constitutional powers, but the people too have the right to question their president when they feel that that power has not been exercised in the supreme national interest.

The President needs to be told that she has withdrawn a fearless general from the battle field when this “public enemy” called corruption is attacking on all fronts and crippling the development of the citizens.

We applaud the bravery of Morlu in the fight against corruption amidst the barrage of attacks he received from the “enemy” and could not agree any less that the President needed to “stop the attacks.”

After all, it was President Sirleaf that declared the fight against corruption for which she commissioned and deployed John. No “sleeping giant” wins a fight.

Signed:

Peter Quaqua
President of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL)

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