SUBJECT: LIBERIA'S PRS: GOVERANCE AND RULE OF LAW

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 MONROVIA 000477 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/18/2033 TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON EAID LI SUBJECT: SUBJECT: LIBERIA'S PRS: GOVERANCE AND RULE OF LAW PILLAR UNRULY AND UNGOVERNED Classified By: Ambassador Booth for reasons 1.4 B and D. ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. Sustainable peace and poverty reduction in Liberia require an unambiguous break from the poor governance and disrespect for the rule of law that led to Liberia's crippling civil war. The Governance and Rule of Law (GRL) Pillar of the GOL's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) is charged with repairing the country's democratic process, strengthening institutions of good governance, and revitalizing public faith in and adherence to the rule of law, all of which are vital to stability and economic growth. Regrettably, poor attendance at and preparation for GRL Pillar meetings as well as underlying hostility among judicial sector leaders suggest the GOL may have a difficult time meeting these crucial objectives. President Sirleaf has already rebuked the Pillar for lagging behind the other three. GRL Pillar deliverables underpin the success of the entire PRS and stronger leadership over the Pillar will be required during PRS implementation for the strategy to succeed. More acutely, the failure of the GRL Pillar deliverables, especially in achieving credible and effective governance and rule of law, could seriously hamper UNMIL's ability to continue its drawdown. END SUMMARY. GRL PILLAR'S MANDATE VITAL TO OVERALL SUCCESS OF PRS ¶2. (U) The GRL Pillar's portfolio has the widest breadth of all four PRS Pillars and is intricately linked to the success of the other three. It includes promoting essential democratic ideals such as citizen participation in the governance process, decentralization, and local elections. It hopes to strengthen public institutions by rationalizing and right-sizing all government entities so they can serve the Liberian public effectively and efficiently. It strives to enhance the quality of the GOL civil service by making sure that the right people have the incentives to work hard in key positions and honor a proposed Code of Conduct for Public Servants. The Pillar also expects to tackle corruption head on by establishing an independent Anti-Corruption Commission and empowering citizens to hold their officials accountable through a Freedom of Information Act. It endeavors to achieve holistic judicial reform by ensuring that competent legal personnel handle cases with due process as expeditiously and transparently as possible. Finally, the GRL wishes to rectify past injustices by promoting gender- and age-sensitive development programs. These diverse objectives mean that success in the GRL Pillar is a critical component of achieving the overall PRS goals of a healthy environment for investment, local development of civil society, and transparent economic growth. THE GRL PILLAR'S FOUR STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES ¶3. (SBU) With such a varied portfolio, the GRL Pillar subdivided its priority interventions into four strategic objectives: 1) To increase and enhance citizen participation in and ownership of government policy formulation and implementation. 2) To strengthen and enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of public institutions and functionaries. 3) To strengthen and enhance the effectiveness and integrity of legal and judicial institutions. 4) To expand access to justice, and enhance the protection and promotion of human rights under the laws of Liberia. OBJECTIVE ONE: CITIZEN PARTICIPATION AND OWNERSHIP OF GOVERNMENT POLICY ¶4. (SBU) Since Liberia's Constitution was first written, economic and political decision-making has be made from the top down and imposed upon the indigenous people and other non-elites. Local and traditional leaders, even officials appointed from Monrovia to hinterland posts, have had little say on the policies that affect them, and all funds are controlled from Monrovia. This centralized structure has allowed Monrovia to develop at the expense of populations in the outlying counties. To achieve the objective of enhancing citizen participation and ownership of government policy, the Governance Commission (GC),the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA),and the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs (MPEA) intend to focus on developing and implementing a national decentralization process. CHALLENGES TO ACHIEVING OBJECTIVE ONE ¶5. (C) The GC has begun formulating its decentralization MONROVIA 00000477 002 OF 005 policy but seems to be working independently from the recently completed Census and the NEC, which just finished its Boundary Harmonization Exercise to determine what settlements ought to be called "cities," "villages," etc. based upon objective criteria. Clearly, these three entities need to come together regularly with the MIA and MPEA to synchronize their findings and recommendations. The MIA needs to make sure its district-based community development programs start soon in order to create the maximum benefit for needy citizens, but also remain open and flexible enough in their structure to be truly owned and managed by the local community as soon as decentralization is realized. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism (MICAT) has not thought about how to institutionalize records-keeping within all GOL entities that would be necessary for the proposed Freedom of Information Act and whistleblower protection system. It is also going to be an uphill battle for MICAT to explain the importance of measurable indicators and evaluation in governance to the local population when the relatively more-educated GOL officials have had such a hard time understanding the concept themselves during the PRS process. OBJECTIVE TWO: ENHANCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND FUNCTIONARIES ¶6. (SBU) Generally speaking, government institutions throughout Liberia are overly large, unnecessarily bureaucratic, and lack capacity. Employees who are unwilling or incapable of adapting to new responsibilities within revamped institutional structures need to be systematically replaced by competent, pro-active new-hires. These new-hires need leadership and management that is visionary and dedicated to realizing the GOL's development aims. Civil Service employees at all levels need to be adequately compensated and have appropriate incentives to keep working at the highest standards. "Ghost" workers that plague the rolls of every government agency need to be eliminated and effective, transparent controls need to be put in place at all levels to fight corruption. ¶7. (U) The Civil Service Agency (CSA) has been working hard on its Civil Service Reform Strategy and is coordinating with donors through the Senior Executive Service and TOKTEN programs to attract qualified Liberians in the Diaspora to return home and take up critical management positions in government. It also intends to look at pension reform and a Redirected Government Workers program for those officials that need to be phased out. The GC has written draft legislation to establish an Anti-Corruption Commission and plans to formulate the actual Commission as soon as the final bill is passed. CHALLENGES TO ACHIEVING OBJECTIVE TWO ¶8. (C) The enduring strength of the patronage system here means there will be considerable resistance within certain ministries as the GC and CSA are trying to holistically restructure them. This is particularly true for eliminating ranking officials with the best political connections. A CSA effort to use biometric identification for all GOL employees in order to guard against ghost workers will be hard to institute in areas that have no access to electricity and can still be thwarted by corrupt officials. The GC's draft legislation establishing an Anti-Corruption Commission has been tied up in the Legislature for months and it is not clear in what form the bill will be passed, if it ever will, and there is doubt about the effectiveness of such an un-tested structure. OBJECTIVE THREE: ENHANCE THE EFFECTIVENESS AND INTEGRITY OF LEGAL AND JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS ¶9. (C) Liberia's legal and judicial institutions suffer from a shortage of qualified, honest personnel at all levels, especially in the rural areas. Many of the attorneys, magistrates, and judges lack law degrees. Some are barely functionally literate. The USG-funded Justice Sector Support for Liberia will continue to train these officials, but it will be years before there are enough sufficiently educated legal cadres to manage the large case backlog effectively. Corruption is rampant in the system, as those who can afford to often bribe their way out of jail or bribe their cases closed. Though the American Bar Association is funding alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in some counties, the practice is not wide spread, meaning that caseloads get further weighted down by cases that could have been settled out of court. Traditional systems were corrupted by the war. The juvenile judicial system is extremely weak and juveniles are often mixed with adult offenders in prisons throughout MONROVIA 00000477 003 OF 005 the country due to lack of space. The public's widespread lack of confidence in the legal and judicial system all together mean that mobs form to resort to vigilante justice against suspected criminals and trials by ordeal reportedly still continue in isolated areas. ¶10. (SBU) The Judiciary just inaugurated the Judicial Training Institute and efforts are underway to boost the institutional capacity of the University of Liberia's Louis Grimes Law School in order to effectively train present and future legal and judicial personnel. Legal and Judicial buildings and other infrastructure nationwide should be upgraded to acceptable standards. To tackle the nation-wide case backlog, both the Ministry and the Judiciary are supposed to develop county-level case management systems so that more work can be resolved at local levels. The MOJ should draft legislation establishing a Law Commission that would make recommendations on how to revise civil, criminal, and commercial laws. CHALLENGES TO ACHIEVING OBJECTIVE THREE ¶11. (C) For the GRL Pillar to make any improvements on legal and judicial reform, it is critical that both the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Judiciary be a part of the process. However, Minister of Justice Banks and Chief Justice Lewis have a rocky personal relationship that blocks any realistic developments the GRL Pillar can hope to achieve. President Sirleaf gave the Chairmanship of the GRL Pillar to the Ministry of Planning so that neither MOJ nor the Judiciary could monopolize the body. The Chief Justice responded by boycotting the Pillar entirely, arguing that the Judicial Branch should never be subservient to any part of the Executive Branch. Minister Banks delegated MOJ's representation on the Pillar to his Deputy Minister for Administration, who means well but is not qualified for the responsibility. Regrettably, without either institution's reglar participation, the Pillar has no cohesive strategy for legal and judicial reform. Fighting corruption within the Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary is not even mentioned in the Pillar's matrix though corruption is present in both of their operations. OBJECTIVE FOUR: EXPAND ACCESS TO JUSTICE AND ENHANCE HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER LIBERIAN LAW ¶12. (C) Equal access to justice and the protection of human rights has been a consistent problem throughout the Liberian judicial system. Approximately eighty percent of the incarcerated persons in Liberia are pre-trial detainees who sometimes wait longer for their day in court than their maximum sentence would have been if they had been found guilty immediately. Those who can afford it can bribe to get an earlier hearing or have their case closed entirely. The less fortunate often do not even have access to a public defender. Women, juveniles, the elderly, and the disabled are particularly vulnerable inside the prison environment. A lack of universal civics education means that citizens nationwide are often unaware of their rights under the law and do not realize they should protest when they are violated. CHALLENGES TO ACHIEVING OBJECTIVE FOUR ¶13. (C) As long as the MOJ and the Judiciary fail to work cooperatively, tangible progress in expanding access to justice and ensuring the protection of human rights is questionable. Each institution is working individually to lessen case backlogs, but the lack of coordination means potential efficiencies are being lost. The Ministry of Education should have also been included in the effort to enhance public awareness of citizens' rights so they could boost it in the primary school curriculum. We have heard of no movement at the Legislature of the bill establishing a Human Rights Commission responsible for monitoring government compliance with human rights standards including within the legal and judicial system. GOL MEMBERS NOT COMMITTED PILLAR'S WORK ¶14. (C) Unfortunately, the GRL Pillar is not meeting its objectives. Most of the GOL Pillar members, including the Chair, rarely attend meetings and, if they do, are often late and completely unprepared. On at least six occasions over the last six months, donor members have shown up only to find the GOL-side failed to meet quorum and the meeting had to be cancelled. The GOL officials that do attend are low-level and do not have the authority to make decisions on behalf of their organizations. They also lack understanding of the overall PRS process or the deadlines the Pillar must meet. MONROVIA 00000477 004 OF 005 The unprofessional Secretariat fails to keep an accurate email list of members, never distributes documents ahead of time, and often neglects to draft a basic agenda or minutes. PILLAR'S DISORGANIZATION MEANS COSTING EXERCISE NOT CREDIBLE ¶15. (C) The clashes between Chief Justice Lewis and Justice Minister Banks and poor attendance from other GOL members impede the GRL Pillar from making decisions and meeting its deadlines. The GRL Pillar was the only pillar that failed to turn in a final cost list of measurable improvement indicators in time for the May 19-20 Grand Cape Mount Cabinet Retreat. On the day the costing structures were due to the President, the GRL Pillar met (not attended by either the MOJ or the Judiciary) and started pulling numbers out of thin air to be published on page 136 of the final PRS. Members could not guess the costing for all possible line items especially for those GOL entities that were not present. For example, the Pillar asked for $62.9 million for "Rule of Law - Other" as unallocated funds for the rule of law sector and promised to hold a retreat including MOJ and the Judiciary to brainstorm measurable indicators and finish the costing exercise. President Sirleaf was reportedly angry with the Pillar for failing to complete its assignment and has put pressure on the Minister of Planning (who is moving on this month to a position at the World Bank) to bring it back into shape. The Minister, in turn, delegated the Chairmanship of the GRL Pillar to his Deputy, Peter Ban. Ban has cracked down on Pillar members to start preparing for the Berlin conference, but a credible revised costing is not likely to be ready in time. COMMENT ¶16. (C) Under Deputy Minister of Planning Ban's working leadership, the Pillar is just now beginning to get low-level stakeholders to sit down at a table together. A credible costing exercise and continued teamwork is still needed for the first and second objectives, but the GOL players concerned have pledged to work more closely together in the future. Ban has not, however, been able to get either the MOJ or the Judiciary to attend the Pillar meetings thus far, which casts serious doubt on the Pillar's capability to achieve its third and fourth objectives. Without sincere MOJ and Judiciary cooperation, the proposed judicial/rule of retreat seems unlikely to be productive (if it even takes place at all). ¶17. (C) The GRL Pillar is lagging significantly behind the other three Pillars and will be incapable of fully achieving its objectives without enhanced leadership. The GOL needs to reorganize the GRL Pillar in such a way that both the MOJ and the Judiciary will take part. It also needs to ensure better attendance and more accountability from all GOL members. Only then will the Pillar be in a position to make real improvements in public service, democracy, and the rule of law, which are all fundamental to the success of the whole PRS process. Success of the other pillars, especially Economic Growth, rests on GRL reforms. If vigilante justice continues as it has because average citizens do not believe in the courts, UNMIL will not be able to meet its scheduled drawn down targets. ¶18. (U) GOL MEMBERS OF THE GRL PILLAR -Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs (Chair) -Ministry of Foreign Affairs -Ministry of Internal Affairs -Ministry of Labor -Ministry of Gender and Development -Ministry of Youth and Sports -The Judiciary -House of Representatives -Governance Commission -Truth and Reconciliation Commission -Civil Service Agency -General Services Agency -Environmental Protection Agency -Liberia Refugee Repatriation Resettlement Commission -National Commission on Disarmament Demobilization Reintegration, and Rehabilitation -Public Procurement Concessions Commission -Forestry Development Authority ¶19. (U) DONOR MEMBERS OF THE GRL PILLAR -UNMIL Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General for Rule of Law (Co-Chair) -U.S. Embassy -UK Representative MONROVIA 00000477 005 OF 005 -UNHCR -UNDP -UNICEF -World Bank -Carter Center -American Bar Association -International Rescue Committee BOOTH