Policy Guidance: A Liberia Where Concessions Thrive — and Liberians Benefit

CorporateWatch Liberia is not against investment. We are against investment that impoverishes. This page is our open hand to government, companies, and communities: practical policy that makes Liberia a place where serious investors want to come, workers are safe, communities prosper, and the nation's wealth is governed in the open. A concession done right is a bridge — between Liberia's resources and Liberia's future.

— Ten Planks for Resource Governance

1. Publish every contract. Digitise and publish all concession agreements, amendments, and side letters, as LEITI recommends. A secret contract is an unaccountable one.
2. Name the real owners. Full beneficial-ownership transparency for every concession and major subcontractor — no Liberian asset should hide behind an anonymous company.
3. Count the harm, by law. A statutory Industrial Accident & Occupational Harm Registry: every death, serious injury, and major spill at a concession recorded by the State and published. What is not counted will be denied.
4. Enforce what already exists. Before new laws, honour the old rulings: ministry orders, court judgments, and compensation awards paid in full and on time, with enforcement reported publicly.
5. Land and livelihoods are not free. No displacement or crop destruction without prior, documented, fairly-valued compensation and resettlement — the Constitution (Article 24) and the Mineral Development Agreements already promise this. Keep the promise.
6. Communities hold shares, not just grievances. Redesign County and Social Development Funds with community seats, published accounts, and independent audits, so concession wealth visibly builds clinics, schools, and water systems.
7. Price the clean-up in advance. Environmental performance bonds and a national reclamation policy: the cost of restoring land and water is posted before the first truck rolls, not begged for after the last one leaves.
8. Work that dignifies. Decent Work Act standards enforced inside every concession and subcontractor — written contracts, timely wages, protective equipment, union rights respected, and Liberians trained into skilled and management roles (local content with teeth).
9. Protect the messenger. Statutory protection for whistleblowers, journalists, and community advocates. A country that punishes the people who report harm will always have more harm to report.
10. Oversight with the people inside. Independent concession oversight boards — government, company, community, and civil society — with published minutes and the power to summon documents. Sunlight, shared.

— An Open Door

We publish criticism; we also publish responses, corrections, and agreements. If you represent a company, a ministry, or an agency working on mining-sector reform — including the LEITI and MCC Compact Two process — and you are building any part of this bridge, write to us. Where Liberia gets it right, we will say so, on the record, in our Good Stories.