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2007 Assessment

Liberia: Integrity Indicators Scorecard

Liberia: Integrity Scorecard Report > Sub-Category: Political Financing
Indicators		Score
20	Are there regulations governing political financing?	71
21	Are the regulations governing political financing effective?	25
22	Can citizens access records related to political financing?	83

Indicator and sub-Indicator Details

Are there regulations governing political financing?

20a: In law, there are regulations governing private contributions to political parties.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Article 82(a & b) of the Liberian Constitution

Peer Review Comments: These laws exist, but there is no system to actually monitor its abuse. On February 1, 2008, the New Democrat, a leading and respectable local daily, published in its Vol. 15 No.023 edition that the ruling party received funding from foreign businesses and individuals who are, by law, barred from funding political party campaigns.

20b: In law, there are limits on individual donations to candidates and political parties.

Score:

YES

Comments: There is no limit on donation. Rather, there is a cap on expenditures. See "Is the vote for sale?", a political finance monitoring report by Campaign Monitoring Coalition (CMC). Authors: G. Jasper Cummeh, Christian Peah, J. Siaquiyah Davis et al.

References: Campaign Finance Regulations Section 2.2 (Contributions) Article 82(a)

Peer Review Comments: Article 82(a) of the Liberian Constitution allows the legislation to set guideline and the maximum amount to be contributed. So indeed there is a limit by law.

20c: In law, there are limits on corporate donations to candidates and political parties.

Score:

YES

Comments: Corporate donations are banned to political parties or candidates.

References: Article 82(a) Liberian Constitution Campaign Finance Regulations Section 6.1 [ LINK ]

20d: In law, there are limits on total political party expenditures.

Score:

YES

Comments: The law limits expenses by a party or candidate for several elective offices.

References: Campaign Finance Regulations Section (7) [ LINK ]

Peer Review Comments: But there is no monitoring mechanism in place to ensure that such expenditure limits are observed or enforced.

20e: In law, there are requirements for disclosure of donations to political candidates and parties.

Score:

YES

$Scoring Criteria :: YES: A YES score is earned if there are any requirements mandating the disclosure of financial contributions to political parties or candidates. NO: A NO score is earned if there are no requirements mandating the disclosure of contributions to political parties or candidates, existing regulations do not require a donor\'s name or amount given, or the regulations allow for anonymous donations.$

Comments: Parties and candidates are required to give sources of funding and list assets acquired every year.

References: Article 82(b) of Liberian Constitution Article 83(d) of Liberian Constitution www.richmond.edu

20f: In law, there are requirements for the independent auditing of the finances of political parties and candidates.

Score:

YES

Comments:

References: Article 82(c) of Liberian Constitution Campaign Finance Regulations Section 17 www.richmond.edu [ LINK ]

20g: In law, there is an agency or entity that monitors the political financing process.

Score:

YES

Comments: Civil society has taken on the responsibility of monitoring political finance. Political finance of the 2005 election was monitored by the Campaign Monitoring Coalition (CMC).

References: There is no such agency.

Are the regulations governing political financing effective?

21a: In practice, the limits on individual donations to candidates and political parties are effective in regulating an individual's ability to financially support a candidate or political party.

Score:

100

Comments: There are no limits, and even if there were, enforcement would be difficult due to lack of capacity and the current manner in which business is conducted. There are several potential loopholes associated with such limits.

References: Breznev Paasawe, monitor, CMC, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia George Ebba, CMC media relations, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia

21b: In practice, the limits on corporate donations to candidates and political parties are effective in regulating a company's ability to financially support a candidate or political party.

Score:

100

Comments: Limits on corporate donations are ineffective due to lack of enforcement capacity.

References: Brezhnev Paasawe, monitor, CMC, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia John Fello, Public Relations Officer, CMC media relations Liberia Political Finance Report, "A level playing field for all," Election 2005, published by CMC, Herald Printing Press, 2006

21c: In practice, the limits on total party expenditures are effective in regulating a political party's ability to fund campaigns or politically-related activities.

Score:

100

Comments: There are several loopholes. In fact, incumbents raise money from misuse of state and administrative resources.

References: Brezhnev Paasawe, monitor, CMC, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia John Fello, public relations officer, CMC media relations Liberia Political Finance Report, "A level playing field for all," Election 2005, published by CMC, Herald Printing Press, 2006

21d: In practice, when necessary, an agency or entity monitoring political financing independently initiates investigations.

Score:

100

Comments: There is no agency set up by law, but in practice the NEC assumes the responsibility to enforce the regulations it has issued. The case brought against several political parties and candidates by CMC was given only one hearing. CMC documented detailed accounts of violations by various candidates.

21e: In practice, when necessary, an agency or entity monitoring political financing imposes penalties on offenders.

Score:

100

Comments: CMC wrote the National Elections Commission reminding it that it needed to do something about parties that failed to submit reports.

References: Brezhnev Paasawe, monitor, CMC, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia

John Fello, public relations officer, CMC media relations

Liberia Political Finance Report, "A level playing field for all," Election 2005, published by CMC, Herald Printing Press, 2006

Peer Review Comments: The lack of will to im plement this key electoral component has led to the proliferation political parties some of which had to get dropped in the 2005 elections.

21f: In practice, contributions to political parties and candidates are audited.

Score:

100

Comments: CMC has written the Elections Commission reminding it about the need to audit political finance records, but there seem to be insufficient capacity or will to do this.

References: Brezhnev Paasawe, monitor, CMC, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia

John Fello, public relations officer, CMC media relations

Liberia Political Finance Report, "A level playing field for all," Election 2005, published by CMC, Herald Printing Press, 2006

Peer Review Comments: This has not been a traditional here at all and so the political will is simply absent.

Can citizens access records related to political financing?

22a: In practice, political parties and candidates disclose data relating to financial support and expenditures within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments: Parties and candidates are required to make disclosures once a year; many don't do this. However during the recent bye elections in Margibi, Nimba and Bassa, candidates disclosed but did not publish those disclosures. Some parties were fined earlier in 2007 for failure to submit reports.

References: Brezhnev Paasawe, monitor, CMC, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia

John Fello, public relations officer, CMC media relations

Liberia Political Finance Report, "A level playing field for all," Election 2005, published by CMC, Herald Printing Press, 2006

22b: In practice, citizens can access the financial records of political parties and candidates within a reasonable time period.

Score:

100

Comments: Citizens can access the records for free at the National Elections Commission in the Internal Audit Section. For an example, see [ LINK ]

References: Brezhnev Paasawe, monitor, CMC, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia

John Fello, public relations officer, CMC media relations

Liberia Political Finance Report, "A level playing field for all," Election 2005, published by CMC, Herald Printing Press, 2006

Peer Review Comments: Citizens can access theis data from the parties that have it available. NEC had to threaten some political parties with revoking their licenses if they did not file their financial report.

While it is true that citizens can access this information, it depends on their availability. And in most cases it is just not available.

Peer Review Comments: This has been solely the business of the National Elections Commission. It's the NEC that gets financial records from the political parties and make them accessible to the people.

Peer Review Comments: Some records would probably be made available, but not all for all parties and candidates

22c: In practice, citizens can access the financial records of political parties and candidates at a reasonable cost.

Score:

100

Comments: While this is the case, a study showed that only CENTAL, a local anti-corruption group, and IFES, an international group, had requested this data and gotten it for free. While there are no barriers blocking citizens from getting such data, people have not made an attempt to do so.

These records can be accessed for free or a minimal photocopying cost to the extent of the record the person needs. See CENTAL's "Piercing the Veil of Secrecy: Access to Information Report 2006" by Jasper Cummeh, Peaches Suah, Malcom Joseph, Eunice Dahn.

References: Brezhnev Paasawe, monitor, CMC, Sept. 19, 2007, Monrovia, Liberia

John Fello, public relations officer, CMC media relations

Liberia Political Finance Report, "A level playing field for all," Election 2005, published by CMC, Herald Printing Press, 2006

Peer Review Comments: That is, if the information is available.

Peer Review Comments: There would most likely be costs involved both logistical and more informal costs