Published: May 22, 2026
MONROVIA — President Joseph Nyuma Boakai told auditors general and governance officials from 26 African countries Wednesday that the continent’s crisis is not one of poverty but of plunder, and that without independent audit institutions and genuine accountability systems, Africa’s vast natural wealth will continue to be stolen from the people it belongs to.
“Africa is not poor,” Boakai declared at the opening of the 22nd Governing Board Meeting and 2026 Strategic Review Program of the African Organization of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions, held at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex in Monrovia. “Africa is richly endowed with natural resources, fertile soils, mineral wealth, and most importantly, a dynamic and youthful population with enormous potential.”
The summit, which brought together auditors general, governance experts, development partners and delegates from across the continent, marks the first time AFROSAI-E has held its governing board meeting in Liberia since the organization’s founding. Boakai praised Auditor General P. Garswa Jackson Sr. and the General Auditing Commission for securing the gathering, calling it a vote of confidence in Liberia’s governance reform trajectory.
But the president’s address was as much a reckoning with Liberia’s own past as it was a rallying call for continental reform. He said corruption, abuse of public trust and institutional weakness did not merely slow Liberia’s development. They fueled its wars.
“It has long been said that Liberia’s crisis was fundamentally a crisis of governance,” he told delegates.
Boakai said his administration has moved to translate that lesson into enforceable policy. He disclosed that under his watch, the General Auditing Commission conducted what he described as the first-ever audits of the Office of the President, the National Legislature, the Judiciary, and the Central Bank of Liberia, institutions that had historically operated beyond the reach of formal public scrutiny. He called the audits a historic step toward ensuring that no public institution, regardless of political status or influence, sits above accountability.
He also highlighted the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Asset Recovery Taskforce, and reiterated his administration’s push to establish both a War and Economic Crimes Court and a National Anti-Corruption Court, legislation he submitted to the Legislature earlier this week.
On asset declaration, Boakai said his administration has enforced mandatory disclosure requirements with teeth. Officials who failed to comply faced suspensions and financial penalties, and he disclosed that proceeds from those fines were used to purchase school chairs for students, a detail that drew attention from the assembled delegates.
He further said his government fully funded the General Auditing Commission’s approved budgets for fiscal years 2024 and 2025, and operationalized the commission’s financial independence by disbursing half of its annual budget immediately after passage of the national budget, in line with provisions of the 2014 GAC Act. He described both moves as unprecedented in recent Liberian governance history.
“For this reason and more, I have consistently reminded public officials that they were not appointed to be served but to serve,” Boakai said. “They were appointed to deliver results and improve the lives of the Liberian people.”
He said several officials implicated in financial misconduct and misappropriation have been suspended or dismissed, and that his administration maintains zero tolerance for misuse of public resources.
Broadening his argument to the continental level, Boakai said Africa’s nearly 60 percent youth population represents a generational opportunity for innovation and economic transformation, but only if governments stop squandering the resources that should fund it. He praised supreme audit institutions as guardians of public trust and urged delegates to use the Monrovia summit to strengthen both technical capacity and solidarity among African oversight bodies.
“Africa’s development aspirations cannot be achieved without accountable governance systems and prudent management of public resources,” he said.
Following his remarks, Boakai declared the 22nd Governing Board Meeting and 2026 Strategic Review Program of AFROSAI-E officially open.
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