Editorial: Boakai Administration Must Clarify the TIA Contract Saga - FrontPageAfrica

PRESIDENT JOSEPH NYUMA Boakai’s decision to suspend the controversial Traffic Monitoring and Revenue Assurance Contract between the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) and Telecom International Alliance (TIA) may have been politically popular given his administration’s pledge to fight graft.

HOWEVER, AT THE HEART of this controversy lies a troubling contradiction: the Executive Mansion insists the contract was tainted by fraud, procurement violations, and irregular amendments, while the Ministry of Justice — the government’s chief legal advisor — had already issued a formal opinion affirming that the agreement was legal, valid, and enforceable.

THAT CONTRADICTION CANNOT simply be brushed aside. If the Boakai administration genuinely believes the TIA agreement was illegally procured, then it must present clear legal grounds and pursue a judicial determination to invalidate the contract.

THE MINISTRY OF Justice’s own legal opinion stated that the 2022 Amended and Restated Agreement became law after ratification by the National Legislature and signature by former President George Weah. The opinion further argued that any alleged procurement flaws became legally “moot, irrelevant, and immaterial” once the Legislature enacted the agreement into law.

THE BOAKAI ADMINISTRATION is right to demand accountability if audit findings indeed revealed procurement manipulation, questionable amendments, or unfair revenue-sharing adjustments. Allegations that TIA was registered in Delaware only days after receiving bid documents, and that the contract ballooned from six to twenty years without proper value-for-money analysis, are serious and deserve scrutiny.

BUT ACCOUNTABILITY MUST itself follow the law. The Legislature appears to have recognized this delicate balance when it reportedly favored renegotiation instead of outright de-ratification. Renegotiation acknowledges that governments may revisit problematic agreements while still respecting contractual obligations and institutional processes.

NULLIFICATION SENDS A far more dangerous signal. It suggests that agreements endorsed by one administration, ratified by lawmakers, and affirmed by the Justice Ministry can later be discarded by executive decree whenever political winds change. No credible investor ignores such signals.

EVEN MORE TROUBLING is the lingering silence over who is currently performing the functions originally assigned to TIA. If another entity is effectively carrying out the same responsibilities under a different arrangement while the original agreement remains suspended, the government risks exposing Liberia to costly litigation and allegations of bad faith.

LIBERIANS DESERVE CLARITY. Is the Boakai administration standing by the Ministry of Justice’s legal opinion or rejecting it? If rejecting it, on what legal basis? Has the government formally accepted the Legislature’s recommendation for renegotiation? If TIA remains suspended, who currently controls the traffic monitoring system and under what authority?

THESE ARE NOT political questions alone. They are governance questions. The government cannot preach transparency while remaining silent on critical legal and financial matters involving millions of dollars and Liberia’s telecommunications infrastructure.

FRONTPAGE AFRICA IS right to demand answers. The credibility of Liberia’s investment climate, the sanctity of contracts, and confidence in the rule of law all hang in the balance.