By Myean D Torgbean
Monrovia- Professor Wilson Tarpeh, who was a senior figure in the former administration of President George Weah, has offered a rare glimpse into why the past government fell short on one of its early promises, of auditing officials from the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf era.
In a candid interview on The Daily Show aired on Cape FM, Prof. Tarpeh, who served as Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) during Weah’s tenure, admitted that internal assessments revealed the process of conducting full-scale audits was far more time-consuming than anticipated.
“A single audit could take 13 to 18 months,” he said. “It was inefficient and quickly became a distraction from the work we were elected to do.”
Tarpeh explained that early in the administration, leadership was confronted with a choice to devote critical resources to protracted legal investigations or focus on delivering the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD), the administration’s signature national development framework.
“We chose development,” he said firmly.
“When most of these audit reports get to court, they either lose public interest or are dismissed altogether. Some even cause more embarrassment than outcomes.”
The former EPA boss cited previous efforts to prosecute high-profile figures, including Edwin Melvin Snowe, Lusinee Kamara, and even former Interim President Gyude Bryant, as examples of how long and often fruitless such legal pursuits can be.
He noted that many of the cases never went anywhere.
However, Tarpeh defended the Weah administration’s strategic shift, arguing that prioritising tangible results was a more effective use of limited governmental capacity.
“That’s why we made the gains we did under the PAPD. We conserved time and energy and redirected both into roads, schools, and agriculture,” he said.
While critics have long accused the Weah administration of turning a blind eye to corruption, Tarpeh insisted that the reality is more complex.
Audit reports, he noted, only have legal implications when they reveal criminal wrongdoing.
He further argued that people often assume every audit equals corruption, but many reports do not reach the threshold, and they rarely lead to real consequences.
He acknowledged the widespread public perception that corruption was allowed to flourish under Weah but suggested that such opinions often lack nuance.
“There’s a gap between what the public believes and how institutions actually work,” he said. “Just because someone is accused or audited doesn’t mean the law can convict them.”
As Liberia moves forward under a new administration, Prof. Tarpeh’s remarks serve as a sobering reminder of the delicate balance between governance, justice, and development in a country still navigating its democratic maturity.
Whether history will judge the Weah administration’s decision as pragmatic or negligent remains to be seen, but for Tarpeh, the choice was clear.
“We focused on what we believed mattered most to the people,” he said.
