Isaac Doe, a political figure aligned with the former administration of President George Weah, made a public claim, shared on Facebook, that the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) had found "No shred of evidence" linking Margibi County Senator Nathaniel McGill to corruption and that the LACC had therefore cleared McGill of all corruption allegations.
Doe framed the clearance as a sweeping vindication and as proof that corruption allegations against McGill during the Weah administration were politically motivated. He wrote that the LACC had challenged the Boakai government to produce any evidence and stated, "LACC says it will clear McGill of any corruption if the Boakai Government fails to provide any evidence against McGill."
The post circulated widely on social media, prompting significant public debate.
What Did the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission Actually Say?
On Monday, March 9, 2026, the Commission's Executive Chairperson, Cllr. Alexandra Kormah Zoe held a press conference at the Commission's headquarters in Monrovia to address the claims directly. The press conference and the official LACC press statement are both on record.
Cllr. Zoe was unambiguous: "The information that we issued clearance to Senator McGill for all allegations of corruption is a blatant lie. If you look at the document circulating on Facebook, it clearly states payroll padding."
She stated further: "The clearance that was issued to Senator Nathaniel McGill has to do with only, and I repeat, only findings from the Ministry of State 2018 to 2023 payroll padding case."
The LACC explained that the clearance issued on February 3, 2026 (Case No. 0521), was a routine administrative action taken after the Commission concluded an investigation into payroll irregularities at the Ministry of State and found no documentary evidence directly linking McGill to those specific administrative crimes.
However, Cllr. Zoe was explicit that this clearance:
• Does not cover any other corruption allegations against McGill.
• Does not address the U.S. Treasury sanctions against him.
• Does not represent a finding of general innocence.
• Remains open to revision if new evidence is produced.
"This clearance has nothing to do, also, with other allegations of corruption, even involving sanctions that were placed on him," Cllr. Zoe, LACC Chairperson, said.
Multiple Liberian news outlets, including FrontPageAfrica, The New Dawn, and Smart News Liberia, reported the LACC's clarification in detail.
What Did the LACC's Payroll Padding Investigation Actually Find?
The LACC confirmed that its investigation did uncover payroll irregularities. According to Cllr. Zoe, the Commission established that 731 individuals were improperly added to the payroll of the Ministry of State between 2018 and 2023, outside the Civil Service Agency (CSA) Standing Order.
The Commission found that senior officials of the Ministry, including the Deputy Minister for Administration, HR Personnel, and the Comptroller, were responsible for the improper additions.
However, the LACC said it did not find documentary evidence that McGill personally signed documents authorizing those payroll additions.
"Our investigation at this time has not established any documentary evidence against Senator McGill in connection with the payroll padding," Cllr. Zoe said.
The LACC added that if new evidence emerges, the investigation can be reopened.
The LACC's press statement listed 28 other individuals who were investigated between 2024 and 2025 and cleared of specific not all allegations after the Commission found no probable cause to prosecute. The clearances covered a range of government institutions, including the National Disaster Management Agency, the Liberia Football Association, the Ministry of Justice, and the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation, among others.
Cllr. Zoe said, "The Commission wants to categorically state that the issuance of these clearances has been widely politicized and, in some instances, mischaracterized as an action intended to benefit a single individual. This interpretation is inaccurate."
The LACC clearance relates only to the payroll padding investigation. It does not address the broader and more serious allegations against McGill that preceded it.
On August 15, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated McGill, then serving as Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and Chief of Staff to President Weah, under Executive Order 13818, which implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The sanctions were imposed for "involvement in ongoing public corruption in Liberia."
According to the U.S. Treasury's official press release, McGill was specifically accused of:
• Bribing business owners and receiving bribes from potential investors.
• Accepting kickbacks for steering government contracts to companies he had an interest in.
• Manipulating public procurement processes to award multi-million dollar contracts to companies in which he had ownership.
• Using government funds from other institutions to run his own projects.
• Making off-the-books cash payments to senior government leaders.
• Organizing warlords to threaten political rivals.
The U.S. Embassy in Liberia also published the full sanctions statement. Two other Weah administration officials, Solicitor General Sayma Syrenius Cephus and National Port Authority Managing Director Bill Twehway, were sanctioned simultaneously. McGill dismissed some of the charges as "vague" in a letter to then-President Weah.
The U.S. Treasury sanctions remain in effect. They were not lifted as a result of the LACC's payroll padding clearance, and the LACC's jurisdiction does not extend to U.S. sanctions designations.
Conclusion: The explainer is squarely based on official records: the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission press statement, the commission's press conference of March 9, and the U.S. Treasury OFAC designation of August 2022. We found that the commission's investigation was solely on payroll padding; as such, it could not have cleared McGill of all corruption allegations, as Doe claimed.
It is also worth noting that the U.S. Sanctions remain in force, as they were imposed for a broad range of corruption allegations that are entirely separate from the commission's payroll investigation.
