Africa-Press – Liberia. The Register General of the Cooperative Development Agency (CDA), Lwopu G. Kandakai, emphasized the detrimental impact of stealing on national development. Kandakai, during a meeting with Conservation International (CI), stressed the importance of accountability and proper auditing to combat corruption and ensure the effective use of funds for projects.
“Development’s greatest enemy is stealing. I will just say it raw. I don’t want to say corruption because, in our situation, it looks like we have jumped over corruption,” she said. “Sometimes I pray and say, if this culture of corruption doesn’t change, it’s going to force us to go to that level of getting it changed, but what we have here with us now is the medicine and the medicine is the audit.”
She presented an audit report to CI, describing it as a step towards strengthening cooperatives and promoting national food security. Kandakai expressed appreciation for CI’s longstanding support and underscored the need for continuous sensitization and accountability within the CDA.
“We will have to make sure to sensitize the people enough,” she declares. “If we will do it through flyers, through drama, and songs, something has to happen to bring our people to the level where they will know that you don’t just take anybody’s money and eat—because the people who are providing this money are taxpayers from other countries and they are doing it with their sweat and their blood, so it can’t come here, and we just use it anyway.”
Kandakai highlighted the significance of taking legal action against individuals found guilty of misusing funds, emphasizing the need for setting examples to deter such behavior.
She said that when money is given to a particular person for a particular purpose, it must ensure that at the end of the usage of the money, the project is audited. “People should be Audited in the way that whatever the consequences will be, there should be no hesitation in punishing those people because that’s what got us here. After a hundred and some more years, see where we are; see the office we are in; in some countries now they are calling the cooperative agency a cathedral, a country like Gambia. So we need to work harder.”
Furthermore, Kandakai addressed recent challenges in River Cess County and called for decisive actions to uphold integrity within the organization.
She emphasized the transformative potential of cooperatives in enhancing global food security and urged collective action toward achieving shared goals.
In a positive development, over 200 beneficiaries received support of US$70K in 2022, and 2023 from CI’s Blue Ocean program to empower fishmongers and women in cooperatives.
“Unity First Fishery Cooperative Society and Fanti Fish Folks located in Cestos City, Rivercess County with a joint membership of 148 received US443,300.00, and the Help Yourself Fishery Cooperative Society headed by Timo Kru, Rivercess County with a membership of 53 also received US$23, 638.00,” she disclosed.
The money was intended to empower fishmongers and women in the various Cooperatives which said money is intended to rotate among members of the Cooperative Societies.
Meanwhile, Kandakai noted that the audit findings would be implemented to prevent the misuse of funds within Cooperative Societies, emphasizing the importance of accountability and responsible financial management.
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