Liberia's Information Minister, Ledgerhood Rennie, has defended the move to seek help from the US government on investigations into the deaths of civil servants.

The minister told the BBC's Newsday that the government wanted a transparent investigation involving the best experts.
"Ourselves as government do not know what happened that is why we have launched a full scale investigation," he said.

Mr Rennie said a preliminary report would determine if a criminal or non-criminal investigation is needed.
"People will come out with conspiracy theories and speculation about things when they happen. So we want to be clear and open so that tomorrow when the conclusions are made they can be convinced that whatever conclusions that are derived as a result of these investigations will be accepted by the public," he said.

Mr Rennie said the investigation will involve the families of the deceased civil servants.
The officials who died include the head of the Internal Audit Agency, Emmanuel Nyeswua, and three other officials who worked for the Liberia Revenue Authority.