Capitol Hill – Commerce Minister Wilson Tarpeh has presented to the Liberian senate a working plan for the distribution of the government’s food distribution. In that plan, the minister told the Senate plenary the amount for the entire process is now US$30 million and US$9 million of that amount will go to administrative and operational cost.
Report by Henry Karmo, [email protected]
Said the minister: “The two amounts have been disbursed and the process is on the way to get it into the account of the World Food Program (WFP) head office in Liberia.
According to the Minister who chairs the COVID-19 national taskforce on food distribution, the previously-proposed USD$35 million budget for the project has been reduced to US$ 30 million, and of that amount, the World Bank is contributing US$5 million.
WFP is being contracted to do the distribution base on their expertise in that area.
Minister Tarpeh explained that of the USD$30 million, USD$20 million will go to food cost while USD$9 million will go toward the operational cost. “This is the plan and distribution will begin this weekend. WFP has informed this committee that because of the road condition they will use sea transport to get to the southeast.”
Minister Tarpeh, in response to a question about what economic impact the USD$30 million will have on the economy, said: “Only five million will be spent locally for the purchase of local produce food that is expected to form part of the package which include; locally produced red oil, rice, and others.
In reaction to the Minister’s presentation, many senators expressed disappointment in the procedure and process even though they are signatories to the State of Emergency (SOE) which gave birth to the stimulus package component.
Senator Varney Sherman (UP-Grand Cape Mount County) and Senator Daniel Naathen (ANC-Gbapolu County) called for the cancellation and rethinking of the plans and procedure leading to the distribution of the food and that of the money approved only five million will be used to impact the Country’s economy.
Senator Naathen said: “We made a serious mistake to have told the Liberian people that we will used US$ 25 Million of needed resources to buy food. Now, the food basket is suggested both imported and locally produce food. But right now, the producers of rice in Liberia are replanting what they produce the last season they don’t have sufficient to eat or sell. We don’t have storage for locally produce rice. It is raining season, it not possible to produce red palm oil. The planning for the food basket was poorly decided this is a waste of resource.”
Thus, the Senator averred: “We should revert our decision and decide what impact nine million will have on the country because there is no rationale in spending USD$9 million to spend USD$20 million.”
Like Senator Naathen, Senator Sherman also raised issues about the economic impact spending the money will have on the country’s economy. “I would have tthought this money would be used to impact our economy by providing food in the most inexpensive way.”
Sen. Sherman’s idea as expressed, is that the government should subsidize the price of rice and other commodities making up the package and provide coupons to citizens in the category of most needed to go to every rice store and submit their coupons and pay a little amount on what is need to get a bag of rice.
“I tthought this money could have been expended in the most efficient way but what I see here minister is the most inefficient and inappropriate use of resources and I ask you to reconsider because it is not too late.”