Monrovia – The 55th Legislature’s efforts to uncover who altered the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 budget continues to face setbacks after a revelation by Rep. Dixon W. Seboe, Chair of the House Ways, Means, and Finance Committee. Rep. Seboe disclosed the House of Representatives did not concur with the Liberian Senate on the FY 2024 national budget before it was submitted to the Executive Mansion.
By Gerald C. Koinyeneh, [email protected]
Responding to FrontPage Africa inquiry, Rep. Seboe explained: “The fact is that our side of the committee did not know that a budget was sent in the first place, not to talk about recall. As far as we were concerned, we were still working on the budget, and when we finished, the secretarial should have done what is appropriate in transmission. The speaker should have reviewed, called plenary, back to session for passage before sending it to the executive. Our working papers should have been transmitted using the procedure.”
For months, Capitol Hill has been rocked by allegations of budget alterations, with both chambers of the Legislature raising concerns about unauthorized changes to the FY2024 national budget. Speaker J. Fonati Koffa constituted a specialized committee to investigate these claims. The committee’s findings indicated that the Senate initiated the recall of the budget after the office of Senate Secretary J. Nanborlor F. Singbeh, Sr. contacted the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives, citing errors that needed correction.
The House Investigation’s Findings
The committee’s report revealed that the stenographer-engrossing clerk confirmed the budget had been sent to the Senate for concurrence. However, after the budget was returned and forwarded to the Executive, the Senate’s engrossing clerk called the House’s engrossing clerk to recall the budget. This request was made without proper verification, and the Deputy Chief Clerk authorized the recall without informing the Chief Clerk or the Speaker’s Office.
The investigation confirmed alterations were made to the budget after its recall, though no individuals were held specifically accountable.
Rep. Seboe Denies Committee’s Knowledge of Budget Submission
Following the release of the committee’s findings, calls have mounted from lawmakers and the public for a full-scale investigation into the budget alteration scandal. Responding to FrontPage Africa’s inquiry, Rep. Seboe insisted that his committee was unaware of the budget’s submission to the Executive and was equally uninformed of its recall.
“As far as we were concerned, we were still working on the budget. Our expectation was that after completing our work, the budget would be presented to the Speaker, and plenary would be recalled for passage before sending it to the Executive,” he stated.
Rep. Seboe’s remarks cast further doubt on the sincerity and commitment of the Legislature in managing the national budget, especially in light of mounting public scrutiny.
President Boakai’s Eleventh-Hour Request
Speaking before the Senate panel investigating the budget alteration claim on Tuesday, acting Finance Minister Anthony Myers revealed that while the Joint Ways and Means Committee initially agreed to reduce the domestic debt payment budget from US$69.2 million by US$20 million, President Boakai later requested an additional US$40 million reduction, reallocating funds to key entities. Minister Myers stated he was unaware of this new request from the President, which was relayed through Senate President Pro Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence.
Key Reallocation Proposals
President Boakai’s additional US$40 million request included reallocations of US$1.5 million each for Monrovia City Corporation and Paynesville City Corporation, US$9 million for Roberts International Airport, US$6.1 million for Karpower (electricity), US$ 5.5 Million for Referral Hospitals, US$3 Million for Fire Service (Trucks, etc), US$5 Million for Education and US$3.4 Million for Agriculture Programs.
Rep. Moye’s testimony
In his testimony to the Senate panel led By Senator Dabah Varpilah of Grand Cape Mount County, Sen. Moye said on April 2, 2024, the Plenary of the Liberian Senate voted that the National Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 be conducted by a Joint Legislative Committee comprising of the Ways, Means, and Finance Committees of both the Liberian Senate and the House of Representative, with an amendment to include the Public Account Committee of the Liberian Senate.
Consistent with the decision of Plenary, the Joint Committee of the Legislature conducted a vigorous and thorough scrutiny of the Draft Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 for a period of one month. The joint Committee reviewed the Revenue Proposal as presented by the President of Liberia to derive additional fiscal space for appropriation.
At the conclusion of its public hearings, he said the Joint Committee met on April 28, 2024, with the Ministry of Finance and Development planning. In this meeting, a team previously formed by the Legislature to negotiate with the Banker Association, for the roll-over of the domestic debt, presented a briefing to the Joint committee. In his briefing, the lead negotiator, Sen. Amara Konneh indicated that the IMF and the Bankers Association were inclined to roll over the domestic debt principal payments of US$40.0million dollars to FY-2025. However, the MFDP was reasonable only to US$20.0million. Due to this contrary view of the MFDP, the Joint Committee requested that the debt negotiation team should further engage with the Executive and the Liberia Bankers Association for a final amount.
Meanwhile, because the Legislature has two days left to its break and given that the total budget envelope will remain at US$738.8million whatever the debt deduction will be, the Joint Committee concluded that the House of Representatives should proceed with its passage on April 29, 2024, using the US$20.0million deduction from the domestic debt, pending a final decision from the negotiating team.
The President of Liberia met with the Speaker and the Pro Tempore to consider moving US$40.0million from the domestic debt to other priorities. On April 29, 2024, the Joint Committee received a proposal from the Office of the President as a result of this meeting, the Office of the President through the Senate Pro-tempore submitted a list of priorities to the Joint Committee for considerations. These requests were included in the Joint Committee’s adjustments and forwarded to the Senate for deliberation and passage.
On April 30, 2024, the Liberian Senate (in Session), concurred with the House of Representatives Budget number of US$738.8million, considering an additional fiscal space of US$97,021 million of which US$46.45million was additional revenue, and US$50.57million from internal shifting from Public Administration and Rule of Law, to increase Education, Health, Social developments, and other sectors.
The Joint Committee upon completion of the final Budget Working Papers signed by the Chairpersons of the House’s Committee (Hon. Dixon W. Seboe) and the Senate’s Committee (Sen. Prince K. Moye) in the presence of the Senate Public Accounts Committee, submitted it to the Joint Chairs for the approval of both Houses’ Leadership and for onward transmission to the Executive through the required procedure.
The Budget Act and its Working Papers were transmitted to the President’s Office by the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives on May 7, 2024, and was signed by the President of Liberia on May 8, 2024.
Upon the publication of the National Budget, the Senate Committee received a report from Sen. Francis Dopoh indicating that there were differences between the Working Papers of the Joint Committee and the printed budget by the MFDP. Upon receiving this analysis on July 2, 2024, the Committee requested a response from the MFDP. In its response, the MFDP presented a matrix indicating that these changes were because of reclassification and prior budget execution before the passage of the budget.