Capitol Hill, Monrovia – The appearance of Finance and Development Planning Minster Samuel Tweah at the House of Representatives on Thursday was marred by controversy when several lawmakers walked out of session in protest of Plenary’s decision to host Minister Tweah in a secret session.
Mr. Tweah was invited by Plenary along with his principal deputies to discuss the performance of Fiscal Year 2019/2020 budget and to submit the delayed quarterly financial reports as mandated by the Public Financial management Law (PFM) of Liberia.
The decision to summon the Minster was triggered by a communication from Representative Dixon Seboe (District #16, Montserrado County). He called on the Minister to appear with his deputies to discuss the performance of the budget amid speculations of a possible recast.
But during the discussion of Rep. Seboe’s communication, several lawmakers expressed dismay over the Minister’s flagrant violations of the PFM Law since he took over as Minister of Finance and Development Planning.
The lawmakers said the Minister, for the last two quarters, has failed to make quarterly budget performance report in line with the PFM Law, something he did during the 2018/2019 budget where the recast was made without the Legislature’s approval.
To stop this from happening, the lawmakers, in a motion proffered by Rep. Mariamu Fofana, called on the Minister to appear with copies of the overdue budget performance reports and copies of the 2019/2020 budget as passed by the Legislature and approved by the President.
“This is about the Liberian people. If there are other issues that have to exclusively be done with the House, we can discuss it behind closed doors, but not to secretly receive the Liberian people’s report.”
– Rep. Francis Nyumalin, (District #1, Lofa County)
So, during the House’s ninth-day sitting in its ongoing third session, Plenary, following series of amendments, adopted a motion filed by Rep. Seboe to host the Minister behind closed doors.
This resulted to a heated commotion on the floor as several lawmakers were totally against an executive session.
One of the aggrieved lawmakers, Rep. Francis Nyumalin (District #1, Lofa County) threatened to walk out if session was not open to the public, and he did when Minister Tweah and his entourage walked in.
Speaking to journalists in the corridors of the Capitol Building, Rep. Nyumalin said his colleagues’ decision was “puzzling and appalling” as there was nothing to hide from the public.
“This is about the Liberian people. If there are other issues that have to exclusively be done with the House, we can discuss it behind closed doors, but not to secretly receive the Liberian people’s report,” he denounced.
“This report supposed to even be on the website of the Ministry of Finance. I haven’t seen it there. We should have received it days before but I haven’t. Then today you are telling me to receive it behind closed doors.”
Rep. Nyumalin further stated that plenary mandated the Minister to make copies of the two quarterly reports available to each member of the House at least three days before his appearance to allow them to peruse properly.
But to his dismay, the Minister only submitted copies of the second quarter report, leaving out the first quarter, something he said was unacceptable.
He said: “Plenary took a decision that the Minister should submit to us, the first and second quarter reports prior to this hearing. We said we needed the reports prior to the hearing to peruse but we did not get the report until this morning. Unfortunately this morning, we had the copies of the second quarter report. How do you submit the second quarter reports when you have not submitted first quarter?”
Meanwhile, the media has not been informed of what happened during the meeting as lawmakers remain mum.