By: Winston Blyden

IPNews-Monrovia: Members of the National Legislature joint committee on ways means Finance and Development Planning Monday begins public hearing on the draft 2020 National Budget.

Speaking at the Budget review  opening,  the chairman of the committee Montserrado county district #5 representative Thomas Fallah said that members of the legislature will review revenue within several weeks with government ministries and agencies.

Rep. Fallah said the committee will also look at the expenditure portion of the national budget few days after the conclusion of the revenue component.

Delivering a statement on behalf of finance Minister  Samuel Tweah, Deputy Minister for Fiscal Affairs Samoway Wolokollie told the legislature that the budget was crafted with the intent of getting along with the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development.

According to Min. Tweah, the US$535,446,000 budget is expected to perform in what he calls “optimal way” for the country’s operations.

It may be recalled, At long last, President George Weah has submitted the Fiscal Year 2020/2021 national budget to the Legislature in the tone of US$535,452,000.

By submitting the budget, which is US$9 million more than the previous budget (US$526 million), the President fulfilled his promised to the Legislature when he requested for additional time to submit the budget by July 15, 2020.

Presenting the financial envelope to House Speaker Bhofal Chambers on Wednesday, July 15, on behalf of the President, the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel Tweah said one of the major reasons behind the increase in the budget was the ‘meticulous’ work carried on by the government, in collaboration with its partners, especially the  International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“One of the major reasons for the jump is on account of a bond situation that we took time to structure along with the International monetary Fund and stabilize our financial sector,” Tweah said.

“Mr. speaker, On behalf of the President of the republic of Liberia, whose ambition is to ensure that we correct the challenges we have to our budget, we again submit another significant instrument, which is working in process on the whole reform of the budget process.”

Despite the shocks created by COVID-19, Tweah predicted that this fiscal year’s budget will perform better than the last budget 2019/2020 owing to the measures put in place, and just as 2019/2020 budget year performed better than 2018/2019.

He said despite the two recasts made last budget year, the budget ended with a surplus and the total surplus will be known by September this year.

With several fiscal policies and reforms, he noted the budget will perform in the succeeding years to come.

“Given the fiscal regime we now have, the liquidity management instrument, the ‘no borrowing’ from Central Bank policy, all of those things, we can say that we are in a position to execute this budget even better than we did last year. This means the close of this budget will mirror the close we saw last budget, June 30, 2020.”

Receiving the document, Speaker Chambers thanked the President for living up to his promise and announced that the House of Representatives, along with the Senate will coordinate with the Executive to make rightful appropriations that will impact the lives of all Liberians.

The Speaker said Liberia is endowed with abundant resources and has always been counted as a rich country, but ironically, its citizens continue to live in abject poverty owing to the bad concessions and wrong decisions taken over the years.

And it was time to review some of the laws regulating the major sectors including forestry and mining.

“We feel that we will depart from those things that put us in shackles. We have forest laws that we think we have to undo because they do not satisfy the conditions of the reality today.  We have mining laws that need to be looked at critically. And we should be thinking about enhancing the values of our currency,” he said.

“Liberia is endowed by those things that God has provided us. So, this House has decided to come with a post COVID-19 economic reconstruction strategy to help Government. And we do know that with the coordination, we can live up to the values that others will like to emulate.”

The submission of the budget has been delayed for nearly three months. According to session 11 of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Law of Liberia, “The President shall submit the Proposed Budget and accompanying documents to the Legislature no later than two months before the start of the fiscal year.”

However, President Weah, in a communication requesting for ample time to submit the budget said the formulation of fiscal year 2020/2021 national budget was marred by ‘exceptional constraints’ in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The formulation of the national budget remains exceptionally constrained. The ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing expenditure demands that necessitate the formulation of a budget which addresses critical public expenditure priorities in the midst of uncertainties the country faces as the result of the pandemic,” The President Wrote in his communication to the House at the beginning of July 2020.