-Documents Show GOL Owes US$30.5M to Domestic, External Vendors and ‘Hanging Commitments’; As IPNEWS Has Seen That Cash Brought Forward from 2023 in the Consolidated Account Is US$17,487,050.90 Not US$40M
The Independent Probe newspaper has exclusively obtained an unquestionable document that validates claims by supporters of the present Liberian Government that the Administration of former President George Manneh Weah did indeed leave Liberia in both domestic and external messes that President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s Administration has to expertly navigate through in order to rescue the state.
The document, which is a Summary of Commitment/Approved Expenditures vs Checks Issues for Payment for the period: January 1st to December 31st, 2023, emanates from the Office of the Comptroller and Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP). A source within the Finance Ministry confirms the validity of the document.
In the document, the Liberian Government owes US$30,524,033.77 in deficit to be financed to both local and external vendors and also ‘hanging commitments’. “This is just for 2023! And some of these debts could be a brought forward from previous years. But this is near impossible based on our financial laws, which validate a Government of Liberia’s check for only six months,” a Central Bank of Liberia Economist, who is a friend of this newspaper disclosed.
This Economist, who asked not to be named, however, added: “Even though GOL check expires after six months of issuance, it doesn’t mean that the holder of the check can’t or won’t get the value for the check(s). So, if the holder of the check doesn’t get his or her payment within six months for the alleged service(s) that were performed, that person can bring the check back and it can be re-issued. When a check expires after six months, it doesn’t free the government of that responsibility of payment.”
Our Finance Ministry’s source said from what they have seen so far, there may be more than 20 million GOL checks that the Weah-led Administration left in the hands of vendors. “My brother, this is scary! This is one of the reasons why civil servants’ pay delayed; because the government is under obligation to also pay these people who have legitimate checks, too, at the same time while it needs money to pay civil servants.”
The Ministry of Finance and Development PlanningThe document further refutes President Weah’s claim that he left US$40,440,365.90 in the Liberian Government’s Consolidated Account. “Brought forward cash from 2023 in the Consolidated Account [is] US$17,487,050.90,” the document shows.
This Finance Ministry’s document also shows that former Pres. Weah and former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah left as “hanging commitments in the system” the amount of US$16.5 million. “Some of these commitments are to international organizations like the African Union, ECOWAS, etc, that we are committed/obligated to financially,” another source stated.
One of the local entities that former Finance Minister Tweah did take money from and whose name is reflected on the document is the National Social Security and Welfare Corporation (NASSCORP). The document shows that President Boakai now has the burden of paying back more than US$277,000 to the account of the corporation that was setup for the welfare of employees in both the public and private economic sector.
One important function of the Corporation is the implementation of the Employment Injury Scheme (or EIS), which provides medical benefits for insured employees who sustain job-related injuries or contract occupational diseases. A second vital function is the National Pension Scheme (or NPS), that provides pension benefits to insured employees. But when the entity’s money is borrowed and not paid back, retirees or those who are to legally benefit, won’t get what is rightfully theirs.
The revelation of this Finance Ministry document comes on the heel of the World Bank disclosing that roughly one million Liberians are living in extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations as “a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information.”
Making this disclosure at the launch of its Liberia Poverty Assessment Report 2023: Pathways Towards Economic Security, the World Bank Liberia Office Country Manager, Ms. Georgia Wallen, said in addition to this grimed revelation, 2.5 million people, which are nearly half of this West African nation’s population, live in ‘absolute poverty.’
“The report finds that nearly six out of every 10 Liberians live in poverty based on the national poverty line. And in the context of multiple crisis, the plight of the poor has worsened, and the number of people in poverty have increased. Roughly 1,000,000 Liberians live in extreme poverty and 2.5 million in absolute poverty. The large numbers can sometimes be hard to grasp. But behind the numbers are individuals,” she said.
Ms. Wallen further stated that the Bank’s Poverty Assessment shows that the face of poverty in Liberia is a young face. She added: “It is more likely to be a female. And it is much more likely to come from a rural area. It is the face of someone who has had little or no access to education, healthcare, and basic services like water and sanitation.”
This World Bank obtained the data for this report during the regime of former President Weah.
