Liberia, March 25 -- In August, the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, hoping to encourage Liberians to call out what experts say is rampant corruption at every level of government, began placing whistleblower boxes across key government ministries, agencies, and police stations. They hoped people, particularly officials of government, would quietly report corruption and other illegal acts by putting the allegations on slips of paper and depositing them anonymously in the boxes.

But months later, the Commission says, the approach is not working. It has opened the boxes twice and found just three complaints in total. Experts say people are too afraid to be seen to be blowing the whistle on corruption for fear of losing jobs, in a market ...