The government has announced that it is about to overspend on the payroll line of the fiscal budget by US$11.2 million.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the
amount is linked to corruption on the government’s payroll. The
announcement comes just four months to the end of fiscal year 2011/2012.
The forecast of Liberia’s budget deficit for the fiscal year is in the amount of about US$27 million.
Fiscal analysts had attributed this
prospective shortfall to failure on the part of the government to sign
an oil exploration agreement with a foreign company (name withheld).
But the Ministry of Finance has linked more
than 41% of the deficit to corruption on government’s payroll. It cited
the padding of its payroll using ghost names as a major cause for what
it called “the growing, looming, and potentially catastrophic budget
deficit.”
Finance Minister Amara Konneh told a news
conference in Monrovia Friday that the country’s public financial
management system is under attack by corrupt officials. Minister Konneh
disclosed that government’s payroll, especially that of the Ministry of
Education, is compounded with “ghost names, dead persons, and even some
living individuals signing for salaries up to seven times within a pay
period.”
Konneh observed that the government’s wage
bill is overspent due to what he called “a combination of factors:
systemic failings, lack of proper control, lack of proper supervision,
and in some cases criminal collusion.”
He disclosed that 63 dead teachers have
remained on the Ministry of Education’s payroll more than three years
after their deaths, while more than 100 teachers falsified their
credentials in order to be placed in higher income categories.
He then called for tougher and radical decisions to be taken to rid the system of corrupt officials.
“Our public financial management is under
attack; and unless we make tough and radical decisions, we risk losing
our collective integrity and surrendering the public treasury to a few
unethical and unpatriotic Liberians,” he warned.
An Education Ministry source told the Daily
Observer over the weekend that at least two amounts (one for over US$1M
and two for over US$600k) were unaccounted for and paid out to
individuals in the ministry.
Konneh also told the news conference that
government has agreed to set up a wage bill management team (WBMT) with a
clear mandate to review the entire payroll system for “failings and
compromises.”
The team, which comprises the ministries of
Finance, Education and Justice, the Civil Service Agency (CSA), the
General Auditing Commission (GAC), the U.S. Agency for International
Development (USAID), and the Liberia National Police (LNP), will
recommend actions to the government to safeguard the payroll system.
The Minister noted that investigation by the
WBMT into the payrolls of ministries and agencies would be “unnecessary
and unwarranted if those on the payrolls were legitimately employed by
the government...”
However, he pointed out that if the increase
in the wage bill is due to criminal exploitation of the system by a few
people at the peril of the national good, then the investigation is
necessary and warranted.
Recurrent expenditures - salaries, goods and services - account for roughly 75% of Liberia’s fiscal budget.
Liberia's Foreign Minister Ngafuan
Foreign
Minister Augustine Ngafuan announced over the weekend that ECOWAS plans
to deploy over 3,000 ECOWAS standby troops to restore peace to Mali.
The decision by ECOWAS came four days after
Captain Amadou Sanogo (the coup leader who overthrew Malian President
Amadou Toumani Toure on March 22, 2012) found his regime check-mated by
economic and diplomatic sanctions and was forced to step down, turning
power over to civilian rule.
But of late, Capt. Sanogo and his band of
coup-makers are the least of ECOWAS’s worries. With Mali divided in
favor of the Tuareg rebels who have declared the independence of Azawad
(a territory comprising roughly two-thirds of the country), it remains
unclear when the troops, under the name, ECOWAS Mission in Mali
(MICEMA), will be deployed.
Addressing a news conference over the weekend,
Minister Ngafuan, who recently led a Liberian delegation to the
Extraordinary Session of the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council,
condemned the Tuareg rebellion and the recognition of any so-called
independent territory in the north of Mali. He said Mali is on its way
to constitutional rule and democracy.
The Foreign Minister said Liberia was poised
to play an advisory role. “We are not going to contribute military
forces,” he said. “Learning from our past experience, we are committed
to playing an advisory role relative to the situation in Mali,” he
noted.
He disclosed that already, Speaker Dioncounda
Traore of the Assembly in Mali has been officially sworn into office in
line with the Malian constitution, and that an election is scheduled to
take place within 40 days.
ECOWAS, the Foreign Minister said, is
committed to the rebels’ withdrawing from all occupied territories as a
precondition for negotiation as well as non-negotiation with terrorist
organizations and their affiliates.
As for Captain Amadou Sanogo and his
colleagues who ousted the sitting president, Ngafuan answered a
definitive “No” to the question of prosecution against the men. He said
a general amnesty would be issued for those linked to the coup, and
that a process leading to a truth and reconciliation process would be
introduced shortly.
At Bo-Waterside: AFL Officer Arrested with Drugs
The compressed marijuana and other dangerous drugs seized from AFL Private Kalifa Stevens at the Bo-Waterside Customs Post
Bo-Waterside,
a town bordering Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone, was the scene of
an intense scuffle last Friday when an Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL)
soldier was caught with narcotic substances, including marijuana, in his
possession.
Customs officers at the border post in Grand
Cape Mount County discovered the drugs during a search of the AFL
officer’s belongings as he was returning to Liberia from Sierra Leone.
AFL private first class (Pfc), Kalifa Stevens,
27, however resisted his arrest. The tussle that ensued between him and
the arresting officers soon escalated, resulting in the disruption of
normal commercial activities in the border town. It took officers of the
Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA) to bring the situation under control by
securing the arrest of Private Stevens.
The AFL soldier told the DEA that he is
assigned at the 23rd Infantry Brigade Headquarters at the Edward Beyan
Kesselly (EBK) Barracks, near Schefflin, Margibi County. He admitted,
during questioning, that he was en route to Monrovia with the drugs for
use at the barracks.
Dressed in his newly issued military
camouflage, Private Stevens did not mince words when he told DEA agents
that “This is what soldiers live on during training sessions. So no one
has the right to arrest me.” Having said this, Stevens refused to
surrender his identity tag and other particulars.
Grand Cape Mount County DEA Commander, Major
Kula Dennis, informed the Daily Observer in Bo-Waterside that the
soldier would be turned over to the relevant authorities in Monrovia for
further probe into the matter. She did not elaborate.
When contacted, Deputy Defense Minister for
Public Affairs, David K. Dahn, said the Ministry was yet to receive any
report regarding the incident at the Bo-Waterside.
He indicated, however, that there are strict
regulations prohibiting the abuse of drugs by men in uniform. In the new
army, he said, if any soldier engages in such a trade, that solider
will have to face the full weight of military justice.
“This is unacceptable; we do not condone such.
This is why during the recruitment exercise, applicants had to undergo a
series of drug-related tests; and the results have to be negative
before being recruited into the new army,” Mr. Dahn explained.
Findley Gives Bassa Markets LD$600, 000, As Senate
Confirms 153 Nominees
Pro-Tempore Findley
Fulfilling his pledge to
make available LD$1.4 million in micro-loan to markets in Grand Bassa
County, the president Pro-Tempore of the Senate and Grand Bassa County
Senior Senator, Gbehzohngar Findley, has made the first presentation of
LD$600,000.00 to six markets in Buchanan City.
Each of the markets received a check of $100,000.00.
Making
the presentation on last Friday in Buchanan, Senator Findley said other
markets across the county will receive their money as soon as they set
up structures to manage the funds. He said the loan, which is a
revolving fund, targets mainly local marketers who are required to pay
not more than three percent (3%) interest on monies borrowed from the
fund.
“The
interests you pay go back into the fund and not to me. I have nothing
to do with this money because it is for you. You will decide how to use
it. The better you manage it, the better it will be for you”, Pro-Temp
Findley added.
Senator
Findley said the amount could be increased to LD$3 million based on the
performance of beneficiaries in terms of repayments.
The
Grand Bassa County Senior Senator said the intent of the micro-loan
scheme was to empower business people in the county, mostly women, who
cannot borrow from the banks due to high interest rates and other
stringent requirements.
Senator
Findley added that the micro-loan will increase the purchasing power of
business people and help them improve their businesses to take care of
basic family needs amidst high unemployment in Grand Bassa County.
Meanwhile,
Pro Tempore Findley has said that some 153 nominees have so far been
confirmed, following confirmation hearings by various committees. He
made the disclosure at his bi-monthly Press briefing over the weekend.
Pro
Tempore Gbezhongar Findley told journalists that confirmation hearings
will continue immediately after the resumption of activities on Tuesday,
April 17, at the Capitol.
Sports: Adelaide sign refugee Kamara
Liberian refugee Teeboy Kamara has signed a three-year contract with Adelaide United, a week after the 15-year-old made his debut in the first-team.
Kamara, who fled war-torn Liberia with his family to Australia
as a six-year-old, became the youngest player to play in the A-League
against Gold Coast United last Friday. The club said due to his age and
the contractual conditions of Football Federation Australia (FFA), Kamara's contract will only officially begin on 18 May next year when he turns 16.
"According
to FFA regulations a professional contract cannot start until the
player is at a school-leaving age of the state in which he resides,"
Adelaide United Football Director Michael Petrillo said. "In the
meantime he will be a National Youth League contracted player before he
makes the transition to a senior contract on May 18 next year."
Attacking
midfielder Kamara, who is an Australian citizen, was part of the
Australian squad at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico earlier this year.
"The last eight months have been eight months of joy with what has
happened with my football, but I’m definitely not going to get ahead of
myself," Kamara said.
"So many people have
supported me, family, friends. I’m very grateful and I just hope I can
be a role model for other young African people to follow their dreams
and never stop believing that they can achieve them."
Business
Politics
Read more;
http://www.liberianobserver.com/
Top Headlines-Sierra Leone
1. The Shears-Moses Commission of Inquiry into incidence
of political violence and intolerance occurring in Gendema, Freetown and
Kenema was established by His Excellency Dr.
Continue Reading »
By David Awe, Chief Political Correspondent in Freetown (18/08/11)
State House in Freetown press release (18/08/11)
