Corruption

Whatever you may call it, corruption, graft, kickback, stealing, coldwater, greasing, appears just about everywhere.

What is new, is that the media nowadays is free to report and investigate on it. This is a huge step in our country. What I would like to highlight is the smalltime corruption that is taking place.

In most societies, information is critical to curbing these practices. What I would like to focus on is fees, govenment fees.

Many government bodies do certain tasks for a fee that should go directly to the government coffer. What I have not seen here in Liberia is any pricelist for fees. (With some exceptions like the NPA)

Example:

You go to the Ministry of commerce to register a company. What does this cost? It depends on who you ask. But, why not put up a big signboard with the different fees for the different forms of companies. (This is free information that cannot be misinterpreted)

Immigration fees. Same thing. Put up a signboard with the regulated fees so that anyone entering the reception area imediately sees how much their business costs. Then you would not have the employees taking 300US dollars and giving customers a receipt for 50 US dollars.