Published: November 11, 2026
CAPITOL HILL, Monrovia — President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s US$1.54 billion draft budget has no money to raise public workers’ salaries but sets aside millions for the National Security Agency and the offices of the president, vice president and House speaker, Rep. Josiah Marvin Cole of Bong County District 3 said, calling the spending plan a “fiasco.”
“So strange. Because this government ran a campaign on rescuing the people. They are rescuing themselves rather than the ordinary Liberians,” Cole said during a discussion of the draft fiscal plan.
Cole put the NSA’s allocation at about US$30 million and said the Office of the President has more than US$20 million, the Office of the Vice President more than US$4.5 million and the Office of the Speaker about US$2 million.
“We’re talking about 30 million. Go to the president’s office. You got more than 20 million assigned to the president. Go to the vice president’s office. More than 4.5 million dollars on our budget. Even the speaker is now running a 2 million dollar budget,” he said.
“I will submit that there is no money for the increment of the salary,” Cole said.
He said workers were promised salary increments under the earlier US$1.2 billion budget that never came. “No increment took place. That is a lie,” he said.
Cole said the headline figure will not improve conditions for ordinary citizens. “It’s a fiasco budget,” he said, adding that “that number is not going to impact the ordinary people.”
“This is against the will of the Liberian people,” he said.
The draft budget is before the Legislature, where lawmakers are expected to scrutinize its revenue projections, spending priorities and allocations for public services.
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