— As Gov’t Spending Agencies Boycott Exercise But……
The ongoing budget hearing at the Capitol is taking a usual stage which has created uneasiness for some members of the August body.
The Joint Committee on Ways, Means, Finance, and Budget of the House of Representatives and Senate have taken aback the majority of spending agencies to boycott the ongoing budget hearing process.
At last Wednesday, February 15, 2023 session, members of the joint Legislative budget committees described as “disrespectful and unacceptable” the refusal of the Ministries of Commerce and Industry, Gender Children and Social Protection, as well as the Liberia Business Registry to honor the public hearing over various draft National Budget submitted to it.
The draft 2023 National Budget is currently undergoing intensive scrutiny by the Joint Committee on Ways, Means, Finance, and Development Planning.
The three spending entities were on Wednesday expected to appear before the joint committee to defend their respective expenditure components in the draft budget but, based on the refusal of the three entities to appear, the committee was left with no other alternative but to prematurely adjourn the sitting.
The Presiding Officer, Representative Francis Dopoh of River Gee County, told journalists that the three government institutions that failed to appear will be reprimanded for their disrespectful actions.
“Those institutions of government that failed to appear today will feel the full weight of the law,” Rep. Dopoh said, terming the action of those institutions as “disrespectful” to the Joint Committee.
Representative Dopoh warned that such action is unacceptable and that the Joint Committee will seriously take the necessary actions, though he fell short of indicating any specific action.
Even though Representative Dopoh, did not specify what he meant by the ‘full weight of the law’, of late, the Joint Budget Committees have had difficulties having several spending institutions come forward to defend their various draft budgets.
It may be recalled last week; the joint committee again deferred the appearances of five spending entities over the lack of a budget performance report for the 2022 fiscal year.
Those reprimanded were the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, the Ministry of Health, and the Liberia Revenue Authority. The rests are John F. Kennedy Medical Center and the National Public Health Institute of Liberia.
Again, the joint Committee issued warnings to spending institutions and called on them to make their fiscal budget reports for 2022 during the scheduled hearing which is yet to be announced. The Committee’s decision came a few weeks after the Senate had instructed its members to guarantee that the Ministry of Finance and others provide budget performance reports before looking at their allocations.
Other areas of concern include conclusions on issues on government domestic debt, considering that the proposed budget also allocated US$91.6 million or 11.8 percent of the total budget for public debt servicing, which includes interest and principal payments to domestic and external creditors.
Total domestic creditors account for US$35.1 million, or 38.3 percent, of the total debt service, projected, while external creditors account for US$56.5 million, or 61.7 percent. Domestic creditors include the Central Bank of Liberia, commercial banks, and other businesses.
