Published: November 17, 2025
On November 9, Liberian political activist, Martin K N. Kollie claimed in a Facebook post that US$41.3 million was spent on the Liberian Legislature in 2025, and that the government has increased this amount to US$51.7 million in the proposed 2026 budget.
Kollie made this claim following the Ministry of Finance’s submission of the 2026 draft National Budget, which totals a little over US$1.2 billion.
The Claim
Excerpt containing the exact claim from Kollie’s post: “US$41.3 million was spent on the Legislature in 2025. You have increased it to US$51.7 million. But we should celebrate he budget for reaching 1.2 billion.”
Claim #1: “US$41.3 million was spent on the Legislature in 2025.
Rating Justifications
To fact-check whether US$41.3 million was actually spent on the Legislature in 2025, we reviewed the proposed FY2026 budget on the Ministry of Finance website.
According to the first version of the proposed 2026 national budget published by the MFDP, which also includes figures on the 2025 budget outturn, a total of US$41.3 million was spent on the national Legislature.
In the first version of the 2026 draft budget, an estimated outturn of a total of US$41.3 million was spent on the Legislature
In budgeting, an Estimated Outturn is a prediction of how much money is expected to be spent or collected by the end of a given period (month, quarter, or fiscal year).
It is important to mention that about five days after the submission of the 2026 draft national budget, it was later taken down by the ministry and updated on or November 11.
The updated version, under the “YTD AS AT OCT 31ST, 2025,” which is the cumulative figure calculated from January 1, 2025, up to October 31, 2025, shows that so far US$39.6 million has been spent by the Legislature.
The updated budget under the “YTD AS AT OCT 31ST, 2025,” later shows that 39.6 million was spent on the Legislature
Conclusion
Based on the review of the draft budget for 2026, we conclude that Mr. Kollie claim is incorrect. He relied on figures in the earlier edition of the draft 2026 budget, which was an “estimated outturn.” However, this US$41.3M figure, which was an estimate, is now put at US$39.6M as the exact amount spent as of October 31, 2025.
It is important to note that the US$39.6 Million spent so far this 2025 may increase at the end of the year, considering that the Legislature still has to spend for November and December 2025.
Claim #2: You [Liberian Government] have increased it [Legislature budget] to US$51.7 million
Rating Justification
To verify if the government has increase the legislature budget to 51.7 million, we also reviewed the updated 2026 draft national budget as published by the Ministry of Finance. In the updated version of the budget under the “YTD AS AT OCT 31ST, 2025,” the legislature’s budget increase from US$41.3M figure, which was an estimate, but now put at US$39.6M as the exact amount spent as of October 31, 2025 to US$51.7 million.
The money to be spent on the Legislature increased to US$51.7 million in the proposed 2026 draft budget
Conclusion
Based on these findings, we conclude that the claim made by Martin Kollie that the government of Liberia has increased the legislature’s budget to US$51.7 million is correct. In the 2026 updated draft national budget, US$51.7 million is indeed allocated to the Liberian Legislature.
Editor’s Note:
This fact check was produced by Local Voices Liberia with support from the European Union through the Liberia Media Empowerment Program (LMEP). The funder had no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this fact-check report. Read the original fact-check report here.
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