Liberia’s Finance and Development Planning Minister Samuel Tweah has dismissed corruption accusations by the US that led the Treasury to sanction him and two other officials this week.
The Treasury on December 11 designated Tweah along with Senators Albert Chie and Emmanuel Nuquay for their involvement in “significant corruption by abusing their public positions,” according to a statement. The three men “offered bribes to manipulate legislative processes and public funding, including legislative reporting and mining sector activity,” the Treasury said.
On Monday, December 11, 2023, the US placed him on a sanctions list that bars him and his immediate family from entering the country.
Two other parliamentarians and their families were also placed on the list.
The three men were accused of “abusing their public positions through soliciting, accepting, and offering bribes to manipulate legislative processes and public funding”, the US Treasury said.
In an address with pressmen in the capital Monrovia, Tweah said they had been “summarily accused and rendered guilty without any due process of law”.
“All the efforts to destroy the international image of the CDC ignore the massive progress the Government had been making on governance, in the fight against corruption and on transparency in public finances. Under difficult circumstances, we raised the biggest slice of domestic revenue to date, increasing domestic revenue by 3 percent of GDP.”
Tweah vowed to clear his name, he also explained that the sanction was a ploy to weaken the outgoing ruling party, adding that it intends to offer strong opposition to the incoming administration of Joseph Boakai.
The current government is due to hand over in January 2024 when opposition leader Joseph Boakai will be inaugurated as president.
Boakai who defeated President George Weah in elections last month has vowed to fight corruption and revamp the economy.