ENTIRE FINANCE MINISTRY SACKED!

Liberia ministry sacked for graft.

President Johnson-Sirleaf has promised to fight corruption. Liberia's new President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has sacked the entire staff of the finance ministry as part of her anti-corruption drive. She said the ministry's corrupt practices had embarrassed Liberia in front of the international community. On Tuesday, the president told all outgoing ministers to stay in Liberia pending a financial audit. Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf took power last month following elections intended to end 14 years of civil war. She is promising to tackle the corruption that has retarded the development of resource-rich Liberia for decades.

In recent weeks, there have been reports of widespread theft from government offices and their vehicles, with reports of outgoing officials leaving with everything, including carpets, desks and light fittings. During a surprise visit to the ministry, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf said she considered everyone in the ministry to be political appointees, who were now relieved of their functions. "Those who are part of financial malpractices and scandals must give way for those who are prepared to do the will of the Liberian people." Sacked worker Robert BryantThe president said they would all have to reapply for their jobs and those who were successful would be given extra training to improve their skills

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Employees at the ministry are reported to be shocked and angered at the move. "Government owes us months of arrears, we have family to feed, and how are we going to manage it? This is not the way to take decisions," sacked worker Robert Bryant told AFP news agency.
He said he would challenge his sacking legally.

At her inauguration last month, Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf described corruption as a cancer that was eating up Liberia's rich resources. The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mark Doyle says that as a relatively small country with a population of just three million, Liberia has the potential to be a middle income country. After a quarter of a century of misrule, Liberia's road network is in ruins, there is no national telephone network, no national electricity grid and no piped water.
Competition for diamonds and timber in Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone fuelled a 14-year war in Liberia, which ended in 2003 when ex-President Charles Taylor went into exile in Nigeria. An interim regime, made up of representatives of the warring parties ruled until Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf took office in January. The subsequent peace deal led to the election of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf.

BBC NEWS REPORT.