Monrovia – The plenary of the House of Representatives has mandated its Public Accounts and Expenditure Committee (PAC) to look into a concern raised by Grand Bassa County District #5 Representative, Thomas Goshua, who called for audit of the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE) over the unfinished Legislative projects across the country.
The House plenary reached the decision in chamber on Tuesday, February 20, 2018 during the 12th day sitting of the first sitting of the Honorable House of Representatives of the 54th Legislature.
“I humbly request this plenary to commission a forensic audit on the activities of LACE with the 53rd Legislature with the aim of determining as to whether the construction companies hired to do these projects defaulted on the contractual agreements entered into with LACE, or whether there were kick-backs received by LACE that ultimately posed a financial challenge to the companies for which they could not complete the projects,” the lawmaker wrote.
According to him, the audit is intended to expose corruption and reclaim the monies from the perpetrators and place a ban on companies that received full disbursement but deliberately abandoned the projects.
By doing this, Representative Goshua believes it would serve as deterrence and an instrument that will avoid recurrence of the mass abandonment of Legislative projects under the 54th Legislature by LACE and companies hired through its terms and conditions.
The committee is expected to report to plenary within two weeks.