Liberian Lawmakers Duplicate Positions To Create Employment For Supporters

Monrovia – In Liberia, the government is the highest employer with half of its annual budget spent on wage bill.

Report by Henry Karmo [email protected]

And with a new government still taking time to form amid economic constraints, there are lingering concerns and its ramifications about the duplication of jobs to appease allies and supporters of politicians. 

There are concerns that government is carrying a huge burden because some ministries and agencies of government are being over staffed. 

At the legislature, many persons are being employed straightly on family or political a connection, which is resulting into the duplication of functions – leaving several staffs to perform the same task.

This paper investigation has discovered that lawmakers and people in leadership positions at the Legislature are making recommendations for employment based on political reasons, mainly as an appeasement for the support they received during the campaign. 

According to the Legislature Standing Rule, lawmakers are allowed to employ at most 16 office staffs, but they are also influencing the employment of several others in central administration. 

Some sources have disclosed that current staffs that served in the 53^rd Legislature as civil servants are still receiving regular salary and benefits for jobs such as operator of an elevator that no longer exists. 

Although the elevator at the Capitol Building is no longer functional, there are over four persons employed as operators. 

There are also 132 people employed only as janitors for the House of Representatives, and another 155 at the Senate. 

The number of staff at the account, public affairs, human resource, and legal departments is unknown.

These departments fall directly under central administration, which automatically makes these employees civil servants. 

A former lawmaker, who spoke to FPA on the basis of anonymity, alleged that employment at the Legislature is being done on family line. 

“You have people who are deceased being replaced by family members, people who have passed 60 years with more than 37 years of service at the legislature.

This is resulting to the overcrowding of the personnel listing,” the source said. 

New lawmakers are already recommending names for employment in central administration amid the crowded personnel lists. 

There have been frequent concerns of faulty budgeting process, and economists say the situation springs out of inaccurate budgeting decisions, prompting concerns that the budgeting process is often based on guesswork due to series of budgetary shortfalls in recent years. 

Previous explanations from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) to the National Legislature for the numerous budget shortfalls point to poor revenue collections.