MONROVIA – The General Auditing Commission audit of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning Special Accounts at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) for the fiscal periods 2012/2013 to 2017/2018 released to the National Legislature December 31, 2020 shows that millions of United States and Liberian dollars were deposited in the special accounts established by Government to serve as Macroeconomic intervention tools for settlement of Government’s outstanding commitments, and the fiscal stabilization of the Liberian Economy was withdrawn at different time intervals without supporting documents.
The main objective of the audit was to gather sufficient appropriate audit evidence to conclude whether the activities and financial information provided by the Management of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on the Government of Liberia Special Accounts held at the CBL for the period July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2018 are in compliance, in all material respects with policies, procedures, applicable laws, regulations, and are free of material errors.
The GAC observed that on November 8, 2012, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning opened the Fiscal Stabilization Account at the Central Bank of Liberia as a macroeconomic account. According to the audit report, copies of returned checks totaling US$2,512,847.14 were withdrawn from the Fiscal Stabilization US Dollar bank account during FY2014/2015. The Report says requests to the Central Bank of Liberia for the bank statements were without success. The Central Bank could not provide bank statements before January 2016, said the audit report. Further, the report says the Management of Ministry of Finance and Development Planning after repeated request, could not provide the documents such as payment vouchers and invoices to support the payments.
In addition, samples of transactions extracted from the Fiscal Stabilization bank account for FY 2016/2017 shows that the MFDP Management authorized payments of large sums totaling US$379,175.00 and L$25,966,169.83 respectively to several businesses, individuals, counties and organizations without evidence of supporting documents to validate the transactions.
The audit further revealed that during the fiscal periods 2015/2016 and 2016/2017, the Ministry of Finance and development Planning Management maintained an Obligation Escrow Account at the Central Bank of Liberia for the payment of the Government of Liberia commitments. The report states that samples of transactions extracted from the Obligation Escrow bank account shows that the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning Management made large payments from the account to several business entities which includes RED TRUCK PROFESSIONAL, PARKER and SWIFT MOVERS, INC US$957,262.82; PRIMAG Inc., US$244,800.00 and US$41,799.00 to other business entities respectively without providing supporting document to validate the payments.
The report notes that during the fiscal periods 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2018, the Ministry of Finance and development Planning Management opened the Liberia Macroeconomic Policy Analysis Account. samples of transactions extracted from the Macroeconomic Policy Analysis bank statements shows that payments totaling L$1,439,124.85 were made to several individuals and entities with no evidence of supporting documents to validate the transactions.
Further, the audit observed that during the periods under audit, the Management of Ministry of Finance and Development Planning established the Enhance Government of Liberia Capacity Development Effect Account at the Central Bank of Liberia. The GAC further observed from sample of transactions on the Enhance GoL Capacity Development Effect bank statements that payments totaling US$116,125.00 were made to several individuals and businesses from the Account without supporting documents to authenticate the payments.
The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning Management says in response to the GAC findings that it has “exhausted all available resources and effort in locating the requested documents but came up empty. It is also notable to mention that due to reform, relocation and renovation carried out at the Ministry, there were several movements of documents, and offices. It is unfortunate and management will continue the process of relocating and rearranging achieves documents as a means of addressing the challenge”.
The GAC says that given the irregularity of these payments, it refers the transactions without support to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission for further investigation and calls on the National Legislature to consider the matter with urgency.