Published: October 30, 2026
MONROVIA — The House of Representatives has concluded its inquiry into how the Ministry of Agriculture spent US$800,000 intended for fertilizer, seeds and other supplies for farmers. It adopted a committee report finding no evidence of fraud or financial impropriety, over the objection of the lawmaker who raised the allegations.
By Gibson Gee
Nimba County District 5 Rep. Kortor Kwagrue called the report “criminal” and said questions about where the money went remain unanswered.
“That’s not a Report; money has been allocated for our women parents; a few handful of people are eating it,” Kwagrue said.
He said he was disappointed in the speaker and his colleagues.
The House Committee on Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in its report that “the allegations as presented and examined during the hearing have not been substantiated by the evidence before it.” It found “no evidence sufficient to establish misconduct, administrative impropriety, or financial impropriety on the part of the Ministry of Agriculture administration,” and recommended that the plenary dismiss the allegations and close the matter. The House adopted the report.
According to the report, the government allocated US$997,080 under budget line 25, code 22107, for agricultural supplies. The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning disbursed US$800,000 of that for NPK 15-15-15 fertilizer, urea, agricultural chemicals, rice seeds and related supplies.
The spending came under scrutiny over allegations that there was too little physical evidence of the goods, no verified warehouse inventory, no clearly identified counties of delivery, no traceable offices for the vendors and too few official receipts to match the reported spending. Kwagrue had demanded documents showing where the supplies went, which farmers received them, how much land they farmed and how they were selected. He had also questioned vendor selection and pricing.
At an Oct. 8 hearing, Agriculture Ministry officials submitted documents and were questioned on procurement, beneficiaries, quantities and delivery locations, warehouse records and the criteria used to select farmers. The committee said it weighed that evidence and the officials’ explanations in reaching its finding.
Agriculture Minister J. Alexander Nuetah has called the allegations false and misleading and defended the ministry’s procurement. The ministry said the fertilizer prices critics cited were per metric ton, not per 50-kilogram bag, which it said works out to about US$38 a bag for NPK and US$35 for urea. Nuetah has said the documents Kwagrue presented were genuine but lacked the context needed to support his conclusions.
Discussion about this post