Buchanan, Grand Bassa County – After nearly 200 years of total centralization, Liberia is now moving into a new direction of decentralization; hence, the Deputy Minister for Fiscal Affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), Anthony G. Myers, wants journalists’ involvement in the process.
By Emmanuel Weedee-Conway
Deputy Minister Myers challenged journalists to take the lead in tracking public spending and exposing misuse of county resources as the government shifts power, money and decision-making to Liberia’s 15 counties.
The top MFDP official spoke Thursday, September 10 at the start of a training program for journalists titled: “Strengthening Community Radio Journalism for Effective Reporting on Fiscal Decentralization in Liberia”.
The training program is taking place in the port city of Buchanan, Grand Bassa County.
“For over 170 years or 200 years, if we go back to 1822, everything about our national institutions has been concentrated in Monrovia,” Deputy Minister Myers told journalists.
“This is not only restricted to services provided by government, businesses and international institutions, even the media has been unwittingly a party to the culture of over centralization.”
According to Deputy Minister Myers, the history has produced ” two parallel Liberia,” a one in Monrovia with greater access to information about government and national affairs and another in the counties with little.
He pointed out that fiscal decentralization provides an opportunity to bridge that gap, but only if journalists move beyond Monrovia-centered reporting.
He urged the media to pay greater attention to county budgets, public contracts, development projects, service delivery and local government operations.
To make that work, Deputy Minister Myers called for stronger partnerships between community radio and national media outlets. He also asked government to formally recognize citizen journalism on the heel of new media – the social media.
“There is now the emergence of the informal or citizen journalism on Facebook and other forms of social media. These people need to be recognized that they also have their own audience who don’t have time for television or radio neither newspaper.’’
“In that way, those issues that are in hard-to-reach place or places that appear to be not too familiar to us in Monrovia, issues from there can quickly be lifted up at the level of national decision makers,” he added.
In an effort to achieve total fiscal decentralization, the MFDP official put the responsibility on MFDP to ensure transparency.
He called for wider dissemination of County Development Agendas so citizens and journalists can monitor priorities in all 15 counties.
“The onus is on us at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to ensure that there is sufficient public dissemination of both hard and soft copies of the content development agenda for the 15 counties,” he said.
Comptroller and Accountant General Elwood T. Nettey backed the call by Deputy Minister Myers as he also urged journalists to follow the money.
This, he believes, is only possible by understanding budgeting and procurement. “We said we have built 10 clinics this month, there must be a question of: “Where are those clinics? Somebody has to answer where the resources went,” CG Nettey told the gathering.
In remarks, PUL President Julius Kullie Kanubah asserted that community radio is a bridge between national fiscal policies and local realities” but cited poor equipment, weak connectivity and lack of budget literacy as key challenges.
Deputy Information Minister for Technical Services Nat Bayjay and Deputy Local Government Minister Edward Mulbah also spoke at the occasion.
A Reminder To The Media
Deputy Minister Bajay, who spoke on behalf of his boss, Information Minister Jerolinmek Matthew Piah, indicated that the media serves as the critical bridge between policy formulation and public ownership in implementing Liberia’s National Policy on Decentralization and Local Governance.
“As Liberia accelerates its fiscal decentralization program, the role of journalists, especially locally based ones, is very important. The thought of carrying the media along in this process goes beyond just being participants. This is a reminder that the media serves as the critical bridge between policy formulation and public ownership in implementing Liberia’s National Policy on Decentralization and Local Governance.”
The ongoing four-day training workshop is organized by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government.
For his part, Deputy Minister Mulbah warned that without media oversight, decentralization risks reality.
Without media overnight, he claimed this would just be moving civil servants from Monrovia without real power or resources.
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