Finance Ministry Takes Budget Reform Push to Five Counties This Week

Published: May 18, 2026

MONROVIA — The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning will dispatch teams to five counties beginning Monday to enforce fiscal decentralization rules and bring spending agencies into compliance with the county treasury framework the government has been building since last year.

The weeklong exercise, running May 18 to 22, covers Rivercess, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Bong and Nimba counties. Deputy Minister for Budget and Development Planning Tenneh G. Brunson will launch the tour in Rivercess before teams move through the remaining counties one per day, wrapping up in Nimba on Friday.

Sessions in each county will be chaired by the local superintendent and will include ministries, agencies and commissions, treasury officers and other local stakeholders. The focus will be on budget disaggregation, enforcement of the 2026 Fiscal Rules and how spending entities are processing financial transactions through county treasury structures.

Under those rules, all spending entities operating in Grand Bassa, Margibi, Bong and Nimba are required to run allotments and expenditure processes through their respective county treasury, rather than through centralized systems in Monrovia.

Fiscal Decentralization Unit Director Romeo D.N. Gbartea said the exercise is meant to ensure compliance with that mandate, which he tied directly to President Joseph Boakai’s directive that government financial operations increasingly be carried out at the local level.

Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan said the reforms align with Boakai’s decentralization policy, announced July 4, 2024, at an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Decentralization meeting.

Separately, Deputy Minister for Fiscal Affairs Anthony G. Myers and Comptroller and Accountant General Elwood Nettey said six additional county treasuries will be established in Sinoe, Grand Kru, Maryland, Grand Gedeh, Lofa and Bomi counties, expanding a framework that currently operates in four counties.

The county treasury system functions as a centralized point for budgetary allotments, expenditure management and financial administration at the local level. The ministry said the expansion is intended to improve transparency and efficiency in local government financial operations.

The engagements are part of the government’s broader push under the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development and the County Development Agenda, both of which prioritize stronger local governance and public financial accountability.