On Wednesday, November 12, 2025, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent U.S. government agency working to reduce global poverty through economic growth, released its fiscal year (FY) 2026 country scorecards for Liberia, with the country passing 12 out of 22 performance indicators, including the indicator on “control of corruption”.
In a release issued Tuesday, CENTAL welcomed and applauded the government for this positive development, but observed that the score of 56 percent on the control of corruption indicator shows that more institutional, legal, and enforcement-driven reforms are required to achieve lasting progress and avoid regression.
“Indeed, we cannot be complacent, as impunity for corruption remains high, and far more political will and prosecution efforts are needed to hold the corrupt fully accountable. In addition to the control of corruption, the country also passed key performance indicators such as fiscal policy (for the first time since 2007), inflation, trade policy, gender in the economy, land rights and access, access to credit, health expenditure, rule of law, immunization rates, and political rights. This is highly commendable,” CENTAL stated.
The MCC report highlighted that the country failed 10 indicators, including civil liberties, government effectiveness, primary education expenditures, natural resource protection, business start-up, employment opportunities, access to justice, girl’s primary education completion rate, child health, and regulatory policy.
“CENTAL applauds the Government of Liberia (GOL) for progress in controlling corruption, as highlighted by the MCC scorecard, including efforts made in preventing and detecting corruption.
“As we welcome Liberia’s continuous passage of this key indicator, we wish to highlight that the 2025 score of 57 is a marginal decline in score for the control of corruption, as opposed to 2024 where the country scored 59. Other declines observed include fiscal policy, which dropped from 51 in 2024 to 41 in 2025, trade policy from 63 in 2024 to 21 in 2025, and gender in the economy from 84 in 2024 to 76 in 2025. These drops in score signify the need for robust concerted efforts by government actors to ensure improved systems and policies to improve the lives of citizens,” the release noted.
CENTAL also welcomed the overall marginal strides being made in the fight against corruption, as reflected in the Transparency International’s (TI) 2024 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), with Liberia scoring 25 in 2023 and 27 in 2024 respectively; CENTAL’s 2024 State of Corruption Report (SCORE), with a seven points decline in public perception about corruption and its pervasive nature, from 90 percent in 2023 to 83 percent in 2024; and the now successive passes in the MCC scorecard on control of corruption.
However, CENTAL indicated that impunity for corruption remains very high, as many high-profile politicians and others accused of corruption are yet to be investigated and prosecuted, including those sanctioned by the US government and implicated in several GAC’s audit reports.
The integrity institution called for more political will, adequate support to integrity institutions, non-discriminatory actions against persons accused of corruption, and greater civil society and citizens’ involvement in the process.
Also, the group called for timely establishment of the specialized court to prosecute corruption cases, as well as judicial and legislative reforms and accountability, including continuous financial and other audits of the Legislature and Judiciary, as seen with the executive branch.
“Moreover, the government must make information about projects funded by state resources timely available to the public, including the controversial on-going alleged US$10 million presidential villa in the President’s hometown in Lofa County,” CENTAL added.
