Monrovia – An audit aimed at creating awareness on Liberia’s coastal and marine management has been conducted by Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the General Auditing Commission.
Report by Bettie K. Johnson-Mbayo, [email protected]
The audit concluded that there is little monetary or inadequate enforcement of coastal and marine regulations in Liberia.
Both regulations of environmental laws and marine management laws are not adequately followed the audit shows.
Yusador Gaye, Auditor General of the General Auditor Commission (GAC), said her Commission is making sure public money is accounted for and people are being transparent in their dealings with public fund.
She spoke at a program aimed at creating awareness on coastal and marine management audit undertaken by the GAC.
It was held under the theme, “Enhancing the Achievements of the UN SDG (13, 14, and 15) by Ensuring a Sustainable Coastal and Marine Management.”
Madam Gaye stressed the urgency as nine of Liberia’s 15 political subdivisions, are on the coast.
“Years back people used to build far from the coast but now they are doing it closer to the coastal line, like in Buchanan. You see the beautiful beaches but with lots of feces; we are hoping that with the audit, Liberians can think for the future of their children,” the GAC boss stated.
She disclosed how Liberia has lost many structures due to less attention being placed on the effect of sea erosion.
“We are not just looking at misapplication of public funds; carry out your mandate; what effect does that have on the Liberian people. Audit helps everyone to lead better lives in the future and it also helps us change the society.”
She urged citizens, especially those living along the coast, to report anyone dumping wastes in the wetland which will help the improvement of environments.
The project is in collaboration with AFROSAI-E that promotes transparency.
According to Tassilo von Droste, a GIZ representative, Liberia is a member of AFROSAI-E and was the first country to accept the audit.
“Our support was basically supporting the audit institutions in the project to conduct it by international standard,” von Droste stated.
He encouraged more awareness to be done via the media so that each citizen can take responsibility of marine ecosystem.
According to the lead auditor, Theophilus Seeton, the audit was focused on major areas, including monetary and enforcement, climate change response policy issue, pollution and degradation.
They found out that there were risks and evaluation, thereby concluding that there are little monetary or inadequate enforcement of the regulations.
“There are issues that we raise to have marine surveillance and coastal inspectors, the cutting of mangrove leads to flooding,” Seeton stressed.
For Nathaniel Blama, Executive Director of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he disclosed that the agency has a national adaptation plan of action, but complained of low budgetary support in tackling coastal areas.
Daniel Tarr, Director for Marine Environment at the Liberia Maritime Authority (LMA), stated how proud he is that LMA is part