President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has reiterated her administration's commitment to support government's decentralization of power, as well as ongoing initiatives for the reform of public institutions.

Collaborating in the implementation of these reforms is: the Governance Commission, the Civil Service Agency, the Liberia Institute of Public Administration, the Liberia Revenue Authority, and the Ministries of Finance and Education.

According to an Executive Mansion release, President Sirleaf made the commitment when she put in a brief appearance at a local hotel on Thursday, December 19, where the second of a series of educational forums for media practitioners and intellectual centers was held. The President called for depoliticizing the civil service by allowing the Civil Service Agency to do the vetting for the recruitment of professionals for service.

She said she has thus waived her right to appoint, as President, and mandated the CSA to do the vetting of political appointees before they are presented to her for appointment, as a demonstration of her commitment to the process to depoliticize the civil service. She said that merit-based appointments will continue to be a matter that will not be compromised.

The President believes that the civil service is challenged with inefficiencies that hamper government's operation, and that steps should be taken to address the situation. She said she liked to be more radical by calling for a re-vetting of all civil servants to ensure their qualifications. Such a process would uncover people who are not qualified, she said, and she hoped the forum would advance recommendations on how to address this. Such recommendations should also include a social factor on how to retrain, train and redeploy those found to be unqualified, as leaving them out completely would not promote social inclusion.