MONROVIA, Montserrado – President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has appointed a special taskforce to investigate the recent Global Witness corruption report.

According to an Executive Mansion release, the taskforce will have the power to prosecute indicted officials where evidence provided may require.

Global Witness, a corruption watchdog that focuses mostly on investigating the exploitation of natural resources released a report on Wednesday indicting key government officials for corruption including Speaker of the House Alex Tyler, Sen. Varney Sherman, Sen. Cletus Wotorson, and Sen. Sumo Kupee.

The report accused the officials of collaborating to undermine the Public Procurement and Concession laws to give Sable Mining, a British Company, a non-competitive acquisition of mineral rights over the Wologizi Mountain in Lofa County.

The task force is chaired by Fonati Koffa, who will serve as a special prosecutor. Koffa is the currently the chairman of the opposition Liberty Party. He was also recently appointed as Minister of State without Portfolio. His appointment as a special prosecutor comes while he is still awaiting the Senate’s confirmation of his ministerial appointment.

He will work with lawyers from the Ministry of Justice to implement the taskforce’s mandates.

The task force will also investigate and resolve all allegations contained in current and past audit reports submitted by the General Auditing Commission.

The Executive Mansion said Sirleaf has urged individuals named in the Global Witness report to fully cooperate and submit to the investigation.

According to the release, President Sirleaf has also written British Prime Minister David Cameron asking for the assistance and full cooperation of the British government in the investigation.

Sirleaf said, “The report brings home the fact that the real purveyors of corruption are those predatory investors who rely on the weaknesses of some officials and the vulnerability of poor countries to carry out dubious business while being harbored by rich countries.”

She has admonished “rich and powerful” countries to use the Sable Mining situation to punish criminally minded individuals who are taking corruption to Africa to acquire illegal wealth while the actual citizens who own the natural resources are suffering and living in poverty.

She wants businessmen who are accused of bribery to be prosecuted under the laws of their respective countries.

The government has already requested that Global Witness provide necessary evidence cited in its corruption report to help in the investigation of those accused.

Featured photo by Erik F. Brandsborg, Aktiv I Oslo.no