IPNEWS: Contrary to concerns by the public over the passage of the amended public financial law, by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, September 13, 2022, Deputy House Speaker, Cllr. Fonati Koffa has refuted claims that the law was secretly passed without public participation.

Deputy House Speaker stated that the amended law now solidifies the prospect for development across the fifteen political subdivisions through revenue sharing and there is no need to panic. 

He underscored that prior to the passage of the new PFM amended law, the House of Representatives held consultative meetings with various groupings including civil society organizations, members of the trail governors, and members of the international community in building a firm reliance.

The Liberian legal luminary and chairman of the house Judiciary committee stated that since the passage of the local government Act in 2018, there have mounting concerns from both indigenous communities and Liberia’s development partners on the implementation of the local government Act passed since 2018. 

The Grand Kru County, District No. 2 lawmaker raised optimism that the passage of the amended law awaiting concurrence by the Liberian Senate will accelerate tangible development across rural Liberia which continues to advocate for much-needed infrastructural development. 

On the issue of revenue sharing enshrined in the Local Government Act, Deputy Speaker Fonati Koffa, stated that the Liberia Revenue Authority will continue to collect revenues for the period of 10 years until local government authorities were better enabled to collect their own revenues, and wondered why there was uncomfortable appraisal about the amended PFM law. 

Koffa further mentioned that inasmuch as all taxes collected by the Liberia Revenue Authority for Central Government, there will be a co-ownership by Local Governments authorities to ensure fair share, transparency, and accountability, by respecting the various roles and responsibilities of governance.

Additionally, the Legislative floor-fighter stated that the new PFM Law as enshrined in the 2019 revised PFM of various types of revenues still remains enforced and is applicable except that the new amendment provides a path where the local government will now share in the national cake for development in the various political subdivision. 

Chapter 4, Article 3, 4 & 5, states that within the context of the above, revenues collected shall be shared at the following levels and among the following functionaries: between the Central Government and Local Governments; between all fifteen (15) Local Governments; and among sub-units (municipalities) of each Local Governments. Article 4: There shall be two (2) types of revenues that shall be shared. The first type shall be all revenues that are generated and collected from non-natural resource sources such as real estate taxes, income taxes, licenses, permits, professional fees, and leases of government assets, while Article 5 states that the second type shall be natural resource-based revenues collected from the operations of concessionaires and companies covering areas such as forestry, iron ore, gold and diamonds, and oil and gas.

On Tuesday, September 13, 2022, the House of Representatives amended the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act of 2019, to enhance the country’s decentralization program and to share revenues with local governments for the development of the country.

“The new PFM Law, when concurred by the Senate, will show the country’s commitment to implementing the local government act of 2018 in accordance with the Revenue Sharing Bill.”

“The law is one of the financial instruments of the Local Government Act (LGA) of 2018, which is intended to ensure that fiscal resources, functions, powers, and responsibilities are transferred from the Central Government to the county governments to encourage greater participation of citizens.”

“The Revenue-sharing bill which has been passed by the legislature provides equity in revenues annually transferred by the central government to local governments for undertaking development activities as well as for implementing devolved and delegated functions in furtherance of decentralization.” Deputy Speaker, Fonati Koffa clarified