Published: September 17, 2025
At the Forestry Development Authority (FDA), the stench of corruption is overwhelming. What should be Liberia’s proudest custodian of one of West Africa’s richest forest resources has instead degenerated into a den of greed, nepotism, and lawlessness. Our latest investigation has unearthed damning allegations against the very people entrusted with safeguarding Liberia’s forests, an institution meant to balance economic use with preservation, now consumed by self-interest.
This bureaucratic mismanagement and betrayal against the workers risking their lives in the forests, against the laws of the Republic, and against future generations who will inherit barren lands if the rot continues unchecked.
Employees of the Legality Verification Department (LVD) toil in dangerous logging zones, often without insurance or basic protections. Their promised $300 monthly allowances, once guaranteed under SGS’s stewardship, have vanished under FDA’s current leadership. Yet, the Liberia Revenue Authority continues to allocate more than $1.4 million annually for this very project. Where is the money?
Managing Director Rudolph Merab’s excuse that funds are used at “management’s discretion” is not only evasive, it is contemptuous. The money has a clear, legally defined purpose. Any diversion without accountability is theft, plain and simple. When the General Auditing Commission is finally called in, the paper trail must be laid bare.
The allegations of nepotism at FDA are as shameless as they are corrosive. Relatives and concubines parachute into well-paid jobs while seasoned professionals are sidelined. Payroll records showing health officers pocketing $1,200 and nurses taking home $800, far above national standards, reveal a racket, not a system of merit.
Drivers and rangers who venture deep into hazardous forest zones earn half what the “favored” do, further exposing FDA’s culture of exploitation. This is not governance. It is legalized looting.
The FDA board, designed by law to be a bulwark of accountability, has been reduced to a playground for political appointees, absentee profiteers, and conflicted actors. By sidelining statutory members such as the Minister of Finance and Internal Affairs, and allowing private business figures like Philip C. Parker Jr. to chair, the Boakai administration has violated the law and handed the fox the keys to the henhouse.
Board members drawing double per diems or collecting benefits while residing abroad is a national disgrace. This body is not providing oversight; it is participating in the pillage.
The allegations that FDA executives are personally entangled in logging operations are perhaps the most dangerous of all. If true, it means regulators are regulating themselves. How can the public trust Merab to enforce forestry laws when he is accused of ties to Euro-Liberia Logging Company? How can Deputy Managing Director Gertrude Nyaley claim impartiality when her own husband’s logging interests operate under FDA’s watch?
These are not conflicts of interest; they are direct violations of public trust. Liberia’s forests are being carved up for personal gain while communities and the environment suffer.
The FDA’s rot has festered for years, but this latest wave of allegations makes clear: reform is not optional; it is urgent. President Boakai and his administration must stop treating FDA as a political spoil and instead restore its integrity. The General Auditing Commission must launch a forensic audit, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission must probe with vigor, and the Legislature must summon FDA leaders under oath.
Anything less would make the government complicit in the plunder. Liberia’s forests are not the private property of a few elites; they are a national heritage, vital for rural livelihoods, climate resilience, and future development.
The Liberian Investigator’s motto is not empty rhetoric. We will not look away as Liberia’s forests, once described as the lungs of West Africa, are suffocated by corruption. We will continue to shine the light on FDA until accountability is delivered.
The rotten wood at the FDA must be cut away before it takes the whole house down.
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