Monrovia – Two opposition lawmakers have provided conflicting accounts surrounding the alleged alteration of the country’s National Budget for Fiscal Year 2024.
By Obediah Johnson, [email protected]
It can be recalled, the Chairpersons of the Joint Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Legislature Representative Clarence Gahr of District #5, Margibi County, and Senator Amara Konneh have complained of possible alterations of the National Budget approved by the Legislature.
The Legislature approved the country’s National Budget of US$738,859,827 in May 2024, but a 6.7% increment (reportedly amounting to around US$20M) and some discrepancies have been noticed in the printed copy submitted by the Executive branch, through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning by the chairpersons and some members of the Joint Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Addressing a news conference at the Capitol Building in Monrovia on Thursday, August 15, Margibi County Senator Nathaniel McGill and Representative Musa Hassan Bility of Nimba’s seventh district failed to provide substantive evidence or specific allocations made in the National Budget that were different from the ones appropriated by the National Legislature to clearly show that the budget was altered by the Executive.
The two lawmakers are executives of the opposition Liberty Party and Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) respectively.
However, they justified that their decision to call for a probe into the matter was based on statements made by those heading the PAC of the National Legislature.
Senator McGill claimed that the budget being implemented by the Executive is not the one that was passed by the 55th National Legislature, a situation he claims raises a serious concern.
“The 2024 budget was altered; by whom? We don’t know. We call for a full scale investigation to be conducted to determine what is actually happening to the 2024 budget. Our call did not accuse members of the Legislature or the Executive, but the two branches were involved in crafting the budget. The Legislature has the authority to appropriate and not the executive; and when it is now determined, assumed, alleged or claimed by somebody that members of the executive had assumed unto themselves the authority to appropriate, that is a crime; it is budget manipulation. On the basis of this, we ask for an investigation.”
Accusing executive
He stressed that it is more troubling for some members of the Legislature to be claiming that the executive “tempered” with the budget.
Senator McGill said investigation must be the premise for the conduct of any hearing or discussion on the national budget.
“We cannot proceed to do budget discussion on the basis that we can’t understand what is happening. You want us to come and recast or discuss the 2025 budget and if we don’t know what happened to the 2024 budget, how do we proceed? This is a serious matter and we need to make sure that the right things are done.”
He emphasized that the alleged alteration or manipulation of the national budget is synonymous to corruption, and as such, a probe should be launched to clearly establish whether the budget was altered and by whom.
Senator McGill claimed that monies were appropriated by the National Legislature to some institutions, but transferred to another institution without the acquiescence of lawmakers.
He noted that the Executive should have resubmitted the National Budget to the Legislature if it established that a “mistake” was made during its passage, instead of carrying out what he termed as “budget realignment.”
He said the leadership of the Senate and its membership should establish the need to conduct a probe through its Plenary by returning from break to hold discussion on the matter.
Boakai off the hook?
The CDC lawmaker stressed that the continuous trading of allegations between some members of the Executive and Legislature over the alleged alteration of the National Budget is not good for the image of Liberia.
Senator McGill, however, vowed to ensure that the matter is not swept under the carpet, despite criticisms and attacks on his character by his political opponents and critics.
“People want to politicize this thing. This is a matter between the executive, especially the Ministry of Finance and the Legislature. The President has nothing to do with this. We are not accusing the President.”
“Honorable Bility and I are not on the budget committee. But people on the budget committee are saying that the budget was tempered with. So, they know what happened to the budget and there is a need for investigation.”
Alteration started from the Legislature
Also speaking, Representative Musa Hassan Bility claimed that the alleged manipulation of the national budget started from the National Legislature.
“I agreed with the Senator 70%. The other 30%, in my mind, the alteration started in the Legislature. I am a member of the House of Representatives; it was my first time to hear about cow power in the budget last night. If the budget moves from one House to another (in the Legislature) and changes without the expressed consent of the other House and it is submitted, there is a crime. ”
He pointed out that the National Legislature has “no moral rectitude or capacity” to investigate this issue.
Representative Bility called for the matter to be investigated by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) or the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) instead of the Legislature.
Downplaying investigations
According to him, the National Legislature has no history of acting upon issues sent to its respective committees for investigation.
He observed that most often issues sent to the various committees do not return for legislative deliberations and actions, noting that, “if they want to kill it (issue) that’s the place they can send it.”
Representative Bility claimed that there are attempts by others (who he did not name) to prevent the investigation from being conducted.
“For us to sit here and send our hand way to the Executive, let’s ask first, what was submitted to the Executive? The Executive is not hiding what it received? So, who gave it to them and under what condition?
He stressed that if Liberians must be treated fairly and based on the principle of fairness; the National Legislature should not launch a probe into the matter.
“As I have always said to myself and everybody, if we must fix this country, the first place to fix is this building. As long as the Legislature is what it is, this country is not going anywhere. This matter cannot be investigated by us. We have institutions by law that look at financial misappropriation and therefore, we should give it to them.”
Representative Bility maintained that the matter should be investigated by anti-graft institutions before lawmakers hold any discussion on the recasting of the budget on grounds that the National Legislature does not have a statutory mandate to investigate a crime.
He added that lawmakers would not be impartial to call for the prosecution of any of their colleagues linked to the alleged alteration of the national budget if the body is made to conduct the probe.
“There are allegations and counter allegations on the actual amount that was passed; everybody is claiming different figures. If we don’t investigate this thing, we are inept, unprofessional and we are guilty of the crime.”
“There is something in the budget now that the House of Representatives did not put there and the executive is saying that’s how they got it; than me, I am pointing to the Senate.”
But Senator McGill rejected the claim made by Representative Bility that the Senate may have tampered with or placed “cow power” in the National Budget.
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