River Gee County – Forty-five delegates at this year’s River Gee County sitting have decided on completion of unfinished projects earmarked during the 2015 Webbo Resolution.
Report by Lisa T. Diasay, FPA Contributor
Since 2015, the major stakeholders of the county have not held any County Sittings, which contravenes the Budget Law of Liberia, in relation to the implementation of the County Social Development Funds (CSDF).
According to Section 9 of the Budget Law on the CSDF, every county must ensure the holding of a sitting, which will allow the discussion and decision on the implementation of monies allocated to the county for development.
The amount of US$200,000 was given to each county for CSDF; but the 2018/2019 allocation shows a reduction of 25 percent of the amount from each county’s monies. The counties are not allocated US$ 175,000 for CSDF in the national budget.
Since the Government of Liberia began the appropriation of the CSDF, there have been reports of misapplications and misappropriation. Citizens of those counties have also complained of alienation from the management process.
In August 2018, the 54th Legislature approved five of 17amendments to the 2018/2019 Budget Law that seeks to improve accountability and give citizens greater voice in the management of the CSDF. The proposed amendments were initiated through the Natural Resource Management (NRM), a conglomeration of CSOs working on the budget and CSDF reforms to enable citizens actually own the CSDF.
In keeping with the Budget Law, River Gee County held its sitting after three years with the full participation of citizens comprising elders, women, youth and students represented from the three political districts of the county. The sitting was held in Fish Town, the capital of the county. The sitting was presided over by the county’s Legislative Caucus Chair, Rep. Francis Dopoh, of District #3.
During the sitting, according to Rep. Dopoh, citizens expressed commitment to foster their county development. River Gee is one the least developed southeastern counties of Liberia. Currently, the counties and others in the Southeast are challenged with good roads connectivity, quality health care and improved education as well as unemployment for young people.
“The Webbo Resolution of 2015 was not implemented and checkmated due to the irregular sitting by county authorities in which developments were stalled,” Dopoh disclosed, assuring that they are now poised to make impact in the county following this year’s resolution.
Under the Webbo Resolution of 2015, approved projects for implementation included the construction of the Presidential Palace, rehabilitation of the city hall, and improved road connectivity, among others.
Among other things, the 2018 delegates identified the need to support agriculture, the purchase of tool, chemicals and seeds to help farmers, support county-based students with financial aid as a means of building their capacities.
The expansion of the Fish Town City with the construction of a bridge to link new Fish Town, the renovation of a youth center, construction of clinics and purchase of needed road equipment were among other developmental needs discussed and agreed upon for implementation.
According to a five-count 2018 resolution of the Sitting, citizens decided to strongly complete the unfinished projects decided since 2015 in ensuring that development is achieved.
In the resolution, the group said in order to ensure proper accountability and that projects funded by the Project Management Committee (PMC) were in line with the county 2015 resolution, the PMC be audited for the period 2015-2018, and that anyone, who will be found to have gone contrary, be brought to book for any act of fraud or financial management.
The changes approved by the Legislature in relation to the Budget Law call for full accountability of previous amounts consistent with the Public Procurement and Concessions Commission (PPCC) and PFM Law.
This means, the county will not receive new funds, if it cannot provide a report of how it spent previous funds. Under the previous law, the Minister of Finance and Development and Planning (MFDP) was authorized to issue allotment based on the resolution of each county council against the amount appropriated in the budget for CSDF of each county.
“The MFDP Minister ‘shall not make the payment to a county unless previous disbursements have been fully accounted for and financial reports duly made and certified by the County Legislative Caucus,’’ the budget amendment states.
During the county sitting, there were controversies over both the PMC and Superintendent making reports to the body, which prompted the body to order that copy of both reports to be issued to the county caucus for perusal and special committee for investigation.
“It seemed that the offices of the PMC and Superintendent had not been coordinating and there were conflicting statements from both reports so the group decided a committee probes the report to ensure accountability,” Rep. Dopoh stated.
They had also agreed in their resolution that, “PMC report be reviewed, analyzed, simplified by an independent committee and produce findings and recommendations within 30 days from the sitting day.”
The new Budget law requires the election of a 5-member PMC, once every three years. The members must comprise a treasurer and a comptroller. The council must decide the criteria for qualifications based on professional training and work experience in accounting.
Additionally, the project chair must have a minimum of three-year experience in project management and must have resided in the county before taking the position or be willing to relocate to the county.
This is intended to guard against having the PMC members living in Monrovia or somewhere else, making them unable to provide oversight.
The previous law required the election of a three-member PMC team once every three years. The new law would create more checks and balances on the three PMC leaders and promote competence in terms of electing a chair rather than appointing someone with political influence. Previously, PMC members were appointed based on political interests.
However, under the new law, only 10 percent of the CSDF allocation is spent on PMC’s operations; the essence is to spend more on projects that will benefit the community instead on administration.
In furtherance, the resolution focused on the coordination of the county caucus and central government in ensuring the payment of all arrears, which the delegates believe will speed up development in the county. “The central government owes us money from companies’ payments to the Social Development Funds and citizens have said the government should pay said money because there’s no concession company in our county so we are now left to do work by ourselves,” Rep. Dopoh indicated.
Additionally, the delegates noted in the resolution that policies be drafted within 30 days for the transferring of ownership to citizens of local stations. They think that this will promote peaceful co-existence and ensure the proper use of the CDF. “Failure on the part of any of the stations to present such policy document will oblige said station to refund funds received form the CDF/SDF accounts,” the resolution averred.
Rep. Dopoh, however, clarified that no lawmaker from the county was given sitting fee as it was done in the past, noting that the process must be citizens-focused. “As the Caucus Chair, we ensured that no one member of our caucus received a dime for sitting fee because already we don’t have money and that has been a burden on the county in time past. It is time that we focus on the developmental needs of the county and people.”
The County’s Superintendent, Mr. Philip Nyenoh, expressed satisfaction over the coordination of ideas by delegates at the sitting. He called for stronger partnership with county leadership in order to foster development. “This is the first county sitting that was conducted without any problem and our development projects from previous years will be completed,” he stated.
Supt. Nyenoh lauded the County’s Legislative Caucus Chair and delegates for fruitful deliberations in the interest of the people of River Gee County and promised further commitment to ensure growth at all levels of the county.
Under the new law, withdrawals from the CSDF account must be done in accordance with the PFM Law and all general accounting principles in accordance with guidelines set by the Legislature and Executive Branches. Previously, withdrawals required two principal signatories or their representatives.
President George M. Weah signed the new budget law on July 14, 2018. The NRM said it was pushing for a standalone CSDF law that would take the Legislature out of the management of the CSDF and turn it over to citizens, but the Legislature rejected that proposal. The group, however, vowed to press for continuous work on CSDF reforms in collaboration with civil society and the media.