Published: August 19, 2026
MONROVIA — Three local governments near Monrovia say the Monrovia City Corporation has failed for about a year and a half to pay them their share of the taxes it collects in their communities, leaving sanitation workers unpaid, garbage piling up on streets and their offices unable to run programs.
Congo Town Township, Garwolon Township and the Borough of Kru Town put the shortfall in the tens of thousands of United States dollars and the millions of Liberian dollars, according to correspondence they sent to Monrovia City Mayor John-Charuk Siafa. Under the municipal collaborative agreement between the City and the local authorities, MCC collects business and municipal taxes inside the three jurisdictions and returns a share to each.
Congo Town Commissioner Edward H. Lahai, Garwolon Commissioner Rudolph S. Buima and Kru Town Borough Governor Robert B. Teah signed a June 30, 2026 letter to Siafa listing seven complaints: delayed revenue-sharing payments, no access to the City’s digital revenue platforms, no joint municipal review meetings, delayed logistical supplies, delayed payments to sanitation workers, waste-management failures and the City’s refusal to put the townships’ and borough’s names on the bills issued in their areas. They asked for a full review and correction of the agreement by July 3.
“We cannot allow resources generated from our township to not impact the lives of our people,” Lahai said.
MCC City Manager Jones N. Williams said the local officials had taken a dispute to the press that belonged in a meeting, and that the delays reflect the City’s own financial strain rather than any refusal to pay what is owed. He said MCC absorbs costs inside the three jurisdictions that the local authorities do not carry, including garbage collection and City Police salaries.
“They have no patience. The government is challenged. The sanitation issue is the main issue. We spend thousands of dollars to collect garbage in their areas. We pay City Police who are also working in their areas of control. They do not pay for all these,” Williams said. He urged the commissioners to come to MCC headquarters for consultation rather than issue what he called political statements.
The size of the share owed is itself disputed in the documents. Lahai said the arrangement requires MCC to remit 45% of municipal taxes collected in Congo Town to the township. The June 30 joint letter, however, says the three local authorities have not received “the 5% revenue share” from collections in their areas for roughly 18 months. The two figures cannot be reconciled from the correspondence.
The clearest accounting of what Congo Town says it is owed appears in a Jan. 9, 2026 letter from Lahai to Siafa. A review of the City’s Ewallie revenue platform conducted Nov. 13, 2025 showed total collections of US$53,762.76 and L$801,500, Lahai wrote. Congo Town’s calculated share was US$24,193.24 and L$360,675, exactly 45% of both totals. The township had received US$4,000 and L$340,000.
In the same letter, Lahai put the outstanding balance at US$20,000 and L$10,000. Subtracting what he said was received from what he said was owed leaves US$20,193.24 and L$20,675.
Lahai also wrote in that letter that data on the Ewallie platform was erased at the end of 2025 without a final review and analysis, and that revenue collected after Nov. 13 was never reflected in the information available to the township. He recommended an annual joint review of the platform so that final figures, payments and balances can be established and tracked.
In a June 1, 2026 letter, Lahai said a joint City-township inspection team dispatched May 12 found that only 143 of 846 billed businesses had paid. After 14 days of engagement, he said, the number rose to 278, which he cited as evidence that local officials improve collection when they are involved in it. On the money, the letter said: “On the issue of revenue sharing, we have received a total remittance in the tune of $9,463.00 USD for the last 1 year and 6 months.”
Lahai said in the June letter that the shortfall had left township staff responsible for certain operations unpaid for March, April and May, driving turnover and cutting productivity.
The June 30 letter attached figures the local authorities said came from the municipal revenue portal. For 2026, it listed 1,019 invoices for the Borough of Kru Town, 180 paid and 812 pending; 1,224 for Garwolon Township, 287 paid and 933 pending; and 965 for Congo Town, 294 paid and 767 pending. The paid-and-pending counts do not add up to the stated totals in any of the three cases, and in Congo Town’s case exceed the total by 96.
The letter listed the amounts due to each jurisdiction as US$15,298 and L$486,907.50 for Kru Town, US$41,655.66 and L$880,200 for Garwolon, and US$31,053.24 and L$1,627,900 for Congo Town. It did not state what percentage those amounts represent or what gross collections they were drawn from. For 2025, the letter listed 857 invoices for Kru Town, 1,142 for Garwolon and 747 for Congo Town, with substantial portions marked pending.
On sanitation, the three officials said delayed payments to workers had broken workforce consistency and cut productivity, that two tricycles supplied for waste collection have sat unusable, and that garbage truck availability has been erratic since April. Sanitation workers in some cases hired private waste-management groups to clear accumulated garbage, they said, and MCC’s delays in removing large stockpiles of waste caused what they called “serious embarrassment” for the collaboration.
The officials also demanded joint access and signatory rights to the City’s Ewallie platform, mobile money accounts and bank accounts, which they said the agreement provides for and which they said they need to verify collections and support monthly and annual audits. They said no joint municipal sitting has been held since the agreement was signed, despite a provision for quarterly review meetings, and that desktop computers, printers, desks, chairs and stationery due to their offices were never delivered. Putting the townships’ and borough’s names on municipal bills, they argued, would show businesses and development partners that collection is a joint undertaking.
The June 30 letter said the officials tried and failed to meet Siafa in person before putting their complaints in writing.
Lahai has since taken the argument abroad. On an official visit to China, where he has toured Litong District in Wuzhong and Ningxin Community, he said Liberia’s decentralization agenda transfers responsibilities to local governments without the money to carry them out.
“True decentralization must go beyond policy discussions,” Lahai said. “It must give local authorities the financial power, systems and capacity to make decisions and invest directly in the development of their people.”
He said the national government should empower townships to collect, manage and invest revenue generated in their own communities, and cited Congo Town programs he said were financed through internally generated resources and outside support, among them national-examination and career preparation for students, vocational training for women and girls, job-creation schemes, school support, disaster response, drug-awareness work and fire-safety education. He welcomed President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s stated support for decentralization but said local officials must press harder for their communities.
The review the three local authorities demanded was due July 3.
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