Liberia: 2022 National Budget Passage May Delay until February 2022

MONROVIA – Some members of the House of Representatives Committee on Ways Means, Finance and Budget have hinted FrontPageAfrica that they don’t see the possibility of passing the 2022 Draft Budget by the end of December 2021 and the likelihood passing it in late January of 2022 is high.

“Even if we are in a hurry and want to do it fast, it is not possible to get it done before December 18 which is the day of our closure. And if we don’t align budget line items properly it could cost the Senate more time which could lead to a conference committee to finalise. So, maybe by February we will be done,” the source said.

The Legislature is currently conducting expenditure hearing into the 2022 draft National budget.

The Legislature is expected to resume its annual break by December 18, 2021. The Legislature cut short its break in October to ratify several legislations and the Budget was on the top list of its priorities. 

In keeping with constitutional requirements, the Legislature is to resume every third working Monday the following year having gone on break in August.  By this, it means the Legislature will begin serious business early February.

In many countries, the government shutdown in the absence of a National Budget which could also happen here if the Legislature failed to passed the Budget two months into the Budget Year. However, the Constitution also allows the Executive branch of government to use one third of the proposed Budget for the running of government operations.

In November of 2021, President George Weah through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), submitted the Draft National Budget of US$785,587,340 for 2022.

Despite a month-long delay in the submission of the budget, President Weah, in a communication accompanying the budget, called on the Legislature to pass it in time owing to the ‘significant’ programs earmarked to be funded during the impending fiscal year.

Submitting the budget on behalf of the President to House Speaker Dr. Bhofal Chambers at the Capitol on Thursday, the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel D. Tweah, Jr. said it is inarguably the highest budget envelope in post war Liberia.

Minister Tweah named eleven sectors as “significant priority” areas, to include health, education, agriculture, energy and environment, industry and Commerce, infrastructure and basic services, security and Rule of Law, Public Administration and transparency and accountability.

The submission of the budget is in-line with section 65 of the amendment and restatement of the PFM act of 2009, which provides for the change in the fiscal year and for the formulation of a special national budget of six months to pave the way for transition to the new fiscal year, which begins in 2022.

The special budget year which began in July ends this December, and in line with the PFM law, the President should have submitted the draft national budget to the Legislature two months prior to the dawn of the new budget year.