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Monrovia - Liberia's president on Wednesday warned government ministers and other senior officials she would clamp down on corrupt conduct, after suspending the education minister and firing an energy manager.

"You have to be expecting more dismissals," President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf said on state radio.

She said she would take decisions when they needed to be taken.

"I don't do it because the market says I must do it. I do it when I have enough information to act and justify my action," she said, in a veiled reference to possible political pressure that led to recent sanctions.

Johnson-Sirleaf became Africa's first female head of state in the 2005 election and pledged to make the fight against corruption in her war-ravaged country a top priority.
On Tuesday, she suspended Education Minister Joseph Korto and three of his deputies for a week after seeing for herself that a state school on the outskirts of Monrovia was in an advanced state of dereliction despite government and World Bank funding.

The ceiling at Jonathan Goodridge high school had holes and the building was pockmarked by bullets and shells, obvious damage from the 1989-2003 civil war, an AFP correspondent saw during a visit.

"You had three months to inspect these schools before the opening, you did not do that," the president told the minister.

"Now look how dirty is this school, (there are) no chairs, the building is in a very bad condition. What kind of irresponsible behaviour is that," she added.

The government announced on Monday that the head of the national oil refinery, Harry Greaves, had been sacked on suspicion of embezzlement.

Greaves, whom the Liberian media have dubbed "The Untouchable", signed a deal in May on behalf of the Liberian government with international group Zakhem for the $24.8-million refurbishment of Monrovia's oil terminal.

The contract with the international construction, engineering and investment group, founded in Lebanon in 1963, invalidated an earlier deal between the transitional government and a British company worth 15 million dollars.

The financial gap between the two deals raised allegations of corruption in the media.

Source: Sapa-AFP