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Senate Sets Up Committee to Investigate Budget Tampering

by Blamo N. Toe
September 6, 2024
in Featured
Reading Time: 3 mins read
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Front view of the Liberian Capitol Building, where lawmakers passed the National Food Assistance Agency Act to address hunger and food insecurity nationwide.

MONROVIA – The President Pro Tempore of the Liberian Senate, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, has announced the formation of a six-member ad-hoc committee to investigate alleged alterations to the approved 2024 National Budget. Senator Debah Varpilah will head the committee, with other key members, including Senators Thomas Yaya Nimely, Numene T. H. Bartekwa, James Biney, Momo T. Cyrus, and Cllr. Augustine Chea. The committee is tasked with providing a full report by next Thursday, detailing its findings and recommendations to the plenary for further legislative actions.

Members of the Legislature have been pointing accusing fingers at each other since the alteration of the budget was flagged by Representative Clarence Gahr, Chairman of the House’s Public Accounts and Expenditure Committee, who demanded a recall of the 2024 National Budget.

Margibi County Senator Nathaniel McGill alleged that the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning was responsible for the alteration. Senator McGill expressed his refusal to participate in discussions on the recast budget submitted by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, stating that any such talks should be postponed until the allegations are fully investigated. Central to the allegations is the inclusion of a US$600,000 allocation to Karpower, an energy company that has been operating in Liberia since former President George Weah’s administration. This allocation, according to Sen. McGill, was not part of the original budget passed by the Legislature.

Nimba County Representative Musa Hassan Bility added fuel to the fire by accusing the Senate itself of being involved in the alterations. He called for Liberia’s integrity institutions, rather than the Legislature, to investigate the matter, expressing doubts about the legislative body’s moral authority to conduct a fair inquiry.

Amid these accusations, Acting Minister of Finance and Development Planning Anthony G. Myers confirmed the US$600,000 allocation for Karpower in the approved budget during an interview with Spoon FM/TV. Myers denied any involvement in the budget alterations, noting that the ministry only worked with the budget received from the President and suggested that the disagreement between the two Houses be resolved internally.

In her bid to resolve the matter, Senator Karnga-Lawrence has mandated that the committee hold public hearings with Minister Myers. Additionally, the committee is expected to conduct a comparative analysis of the printed version of the approved budget with the one signed by Vice President and Senate President Jeremiah Kpan Koung and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa.

Sen. Karnga-Lawrence’s call for an investigation comes on the heels of a report from the House of Representatives’ specialized committee, which confirmed unauthorized alterations to the 2024 National Budget. The House Plenary endorsed this report on Tuesday, yet no culprit was named and no punitive measure was instituted. The committee’s investigation, initiated after Rep. Gahr raised concerns about discrepancies, revealed that certain budget performance reports had been improperly redirected from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to the Legislative Budget Office (LBO) without plenary approval. The investigation also found that the original budget document had been recalled by the Senate’s Secretary and subsequently lost, raising further suspicions about procedural irregularities.

Tags: 2024 National BudgetBudget TamperingLiberian Senate
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Blamo N. Toe

Blamo N. Toe

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