Mr. President, it seems you have forgotten so early your promise that your government would have reduced public spending in favor of your “Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development” (PAPD).
Ordinary Liberians, including even some of your diehard supporters, were taken aback when your Finance and Development Planning Minister, Samuel Tweah, announced on public radio that you are awarded US$2000 a day throughout the six to eight weeks you are scheduled to stay out of the country on this leg of your trip outside the country.
Mathematically, this means the total amount you are expected to receive in 60 days (two months) is US$120,000, but yet civil servants, who are feeling the pinch of the prevailing economic hardship remained under-paid and, in some cases, do not get their salaries on time after working for two or three months or more.
While Minister Tweah did not also disclose the amount each member of your delegation gets daily throughout your visit abroad, our best guess is that they, too, are receiving fabulous per diems.
You know that those per diems are not part of you and your entourage’s other incidentals, including hotel bills.
Mr. President, isn’t this an irony after you had promised that your government would have reduced public spending in favor of your pro-poor agenda?
Have you forgotten so early?
Apart from that, Mr. President, according to part four, No. 13 & 14 of the Liberia Foreign Policy manual, the total number of days that should be spent on a foreign trip by the President shall not exceed seven days when that trip is to be funded by the Government.
There you are, spending nearly eight weeks out of the country with taxpayers’ money. Isn’t this wasteful spending contrary to your earlier promise? This is a complete deception, Mr. President, because as the head of state, the Liberian people expect you to be a man of your word and to live by example.
Accepted that you attended some high-profile meetings and had discussions with some world leaders, going to Qatar purposely to see your son plays for the United States in the pending World Cup is not a priority to the suffering people of this country. What matters to them is for your government to tackle head-on the problems of joblessness, insecurity, rampant corruption and impunity in the society.
Do you think civil servants care about your son playing in the World Cup when they have not taken pay or being under paid? Do you think parents care or are interested in your son playing in the World Cup when they can’t afford to pay their children’s school fees or have been thrown out of school because they can’t afford to pay their tuitions when according to your finance minister, you are being rewarded US$2000 a day throughout your 8-week stay abroad?
Have you forgotten so early your government’s pro-poor agenda for prosperity, Mr. President?
