Monrovia -The House of Representatives has mandated all government’s agencies that receive financial appropriations from the national budget to adhere by the Public Financial Management Law of 2009 which includes submitting a quarterly budgetary performance report to that august body.
Report by Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
The House’s decision stems from a communication to plenary by Rep. Samuel Kogar (Nimba District #5) reminding his colleagues that the agencies have not submitted their quarterly performance report to the Legislature for over five budget quarters.
Rep. Kogar, who chairs the House Standing Committee on Commerce and Industries, said the agencies’ action violates section seven of the Public Financial Management Law of 2009.
Section 7: “Each spending entity for which appropriations have been made in the budget shall submit a quarterly budget performance report to the House of Representatives and Senate with explanatory notes of the quantitative and qualitative results for spending the appropriations herein provided the reports are due 15 days after the end of each quarter.”
In addition, Rep. Kogar noted that Section 7(d) of the law mandates the Liberia Revenue Authority to provide regular updates to the Ways, Means and Finance Committee of both Houses on the performance of state-owned enterprises with respect to their contribution to the national budget.
He then called on his colleagues to reject what he terms as gross violation and ensure they don’t go unchecked, adding that it was in line with the principles of transparency and accountability that these safeguards were instituted by them (Legislators) so as to ensure that public resources are properly accounted for.
He said the situation contravenes the budget law, undermines transparency and has the propensity of impeding the oversight responsibility of the Legislature.
Said Rep Kogar: “It is therefore my submission colleagues that these entities be made to show reason why such blatant violations of the Public Financial Management Law, and let me wherefore pray Plenary’s indulgence to institute some administrative reprimands as required in section 7 (b) which states that upon failure of a spending entity’s timely report to the National Legislature, the President is directed to take appropriate actions that may lead to the loss of pay for the head of the defaulting entity…”
Following Rep. Kogar’s plead, the Plenary unanimously agreed to Rep. Acarous Gray’s motion to make all spending entities submit their quarterly budget performance report to the Legislature within two weeks.