Accompanied by UNMIL Civil Affairs chief George Ryan the students and AG Morlu exchanged views over the Liberian recovery and development process, particularly the role of public audit in entrenching peace and stability in the post conflict nation.
The Liberian Auditor General told the visiting American students that Liberia’s reform process has been cruising relatively well over seas of challenges that include heterogeneous systems of economic governance.
He said over the years every political leadership sought to mainstream diverse economic governance system, thus inhabiting coherent and harmonious implementation of Liberia’s fiscal policy.
Amid the ideological confusion, the Auditor General said, Liberia is finding its bearings to meet the challenge of economic stability.
The students quizzed AG Morlu on various concerns, including examples of the manifestations of corruption in Liberia, GAC’s recruitment and training strategy, the need to bring educated Diaspora-based Liberians into the country, amongst others.
The Auditor General said fraud, waste and abuse in the public service was manifested via ghost institutions and personnel, lack of rudimentary accounting system, bribery, etc.
He said the GAC with the help of the European Union took pains to recruit staff locally because importing skilled manpower from abroad without adequate remuneration would be more catastrophic in terms of corruption.
According to him, GAC’s recruitment method is greatly paying off not only because the local personnel are satisfied with stipends provided and are more productive on the job, but also because the Commission has become a reservoir of professionals from which public and private institutions are feeding in terms staff recruitment.
The George Mason University students thanked the Auditor General for granting them audience and providing insight into progress being made to improve economic governance and stability in Liberia following years of conflict.
Located just minutes from Washington, D.C, the George Mason University of Public Policy is one of the largest, most diverse, graduate public policy schools in the United States of America.
It is ranked by the National Science Foundation as the number one program in its field for federal and total research expenditures.
The visiting students gave AG Morlu a souvenir t-shirt bearing the inscription, “George Mason University School of Public Policy”.
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