Liberia: Government floats alternative plan to counter donors' anti-corruption scheme

Liberia's transitional government said on Friday it had drafted a counter strategy for improving financial transparency and attracting economic aid that rejects donor proposals for placing foreign experts in key departments as watchdogs against corruption and embezzlement. The document would be reviewed by foreign ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and donor representatives at a meeting in the Niger capital Niamey on Tuesday with the aim of eventually submitting it to the UN Security Council, government spokesman William Allen told IRIN. The donor proposals, a copy of which IRIN obtained last month, sparked an outcry from Liberian politicians, who complained that they would severely undercut the country's sovereignty.