Published: October 19, 2026
MONROVIA — Maryland County Sen. James P. Biney wants the 2027 national budget to guarantee each of Liberia’s 15 counties US$5 million a year for roads, bridges and schools. That is far more than counties receive now. He told colleagues Thursday that the Legislature has rubber-stamped every national budget since the era of former President William V.S. Tubman.
By Blamo N. Toe
Biney’s plan would set aside US$75 million a year, about 6% of the US$1.25 billion budget lawmakers approved for 2026. Montserrado County Sen. Abraham Darius Dillon joined him in criticizing the Legislature’s weak hold over national spending during a plenary session.
“What we have done since Tubman time till now is that the legislature has always rubberstamped the budget,” Biney told the Senate.
He said the Constitution gives lawmakers the power to appropriate, but in practice six or seven technicians in the Executive decide where the money goes. Lawmakers then present small adjustments as wins, he said.
“But to a larger extent, six to seven technicians at the level of the Executive determine what happens to the budget and we come and say we have been able to find additional ten 10 to 15 million and we appropriated $300,000 or $200,000; it doesn’t work that way,” he said.
The pattern he described played out in the current budget. When the House passed the 2026 spending plan in December, its budget committee reported finding US$38.8 million in additional revenue during its review of the Executive’s draft, FrontPageAfrica reported. The 2026 budget was the first in Liberia’s history to top US$1 billion.
Biney said US$5 million a year, sustained over six or seven years, would transform every county.
“If we continue this path of development, another 50 years will come and pass the villages will look the same; there will be no difference,” he said.
Counties now get a small fraction of that amount. A study commissioned by Naymote Partners for Democratic Development and released in June found that Bong, Grand Bassa and Margibi counties together received about US$2.29 million in fiscal 2025. That money came through the County Development Fund, the Social Development Fund and county service centers. Residents’ priority projects in those three counties were valued at about US$25.9 million, a shortfall of about 85%, the study found. It projected a cumulative county financing gap of about US$179.4 million by 2029 if current trends continue, the Liberian Observer reported.
Under Biney’s proposal, lawmakers would not handle the money themselves. County legislative caucuses would pick priority projects and pass them to the Executive to carry out.
As things stand, he said, lawmakers are reduced to pleading with ministers for small sums to fix collapsed bridges and run-down schools.
“What we have done since Tubman time till now is that the legislature has always rubberstamped the budget.”
Senator James Biney, Maryland County
“As it is now, we, lawmakers can be begging the minister, please send $50,000 here, please $75,000 here, please do this whereas those people are the ones who should be coming to us as the appropriation power; we’re not going to change this country if we cannot change the process,” Biney said.
He said the Legislature has not broken with the habits of the Tubman years. “We just rubberstamp the budget then we go home believing that we have appropriated the money,” he said. “So how are we appropriating the money?”
Dillon, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, laid the blame on lawmakers themselves. He said they fail to scrutinize budgets closely or to hold officials accountable for how money is spent.
He questioned why government institutions keep receiving large allocations while citizens complain of shortages of basic medicines, poorly equipped security forces and weak public services. He said constituents still believe lawmakers serve only themselves.
Dillon urged the Senate to use the 2027 budget to tighten oversight and insist on measurable results.
“We have an opportunity to do it differently and better,” he said.
He pointed to work by the Legislature that he said is often credited to the Executive. He cited the Western Cluster road project and lawmakers’ move to redirect petroleum-related charges toward community development and road maintenance.
The senators spoke as the Executive prepares to submit its proposed 2027 budget to the Legislature.
Discussion about this post