MONROVIA – Public Works Minister Madman Ruth Coker-Collins has been accused of selectively paying contractors who have worked for the Liberian government. Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe (IND-Bomi County), chair of the Senate Committee on Public Works and Rural Development, made the accusation on Thursday during the appearance of the Minister of Public Works before the Senate plenary committee.
By Henry Karmo, [email protected]
Senator Snowe’s allegation was in response to a revelation made by the Public Works Minister that she had payment certificates for contractors who had worked for the government of Liberia.
He claimed that the Ministry of Public Works and the National Road Fund were cherry-picking which contractors to pay and accused the minister of deciding which contractors to prioritize.
The Public Works Minister claimed to have recalled more than 20 payment certificates from the National Road Fund Authority because they had overstayed and the request for payment was only made if there was money in the account of the National Road Fund. She explained that a payment certificate was generated for contractors only if the administrator of the Road Fund confirmed that there was money available.
In response to the Public Works Minister’s claims, Mr. Boniface D. Satu, CEO of the National Road Fund of Liberia, denied that payment requests had been sent to the Road Fund and not paid to contractors. He stated that once a payment request reached them, it was paid and that there was no such thing as no money.
On Thursday, February 16, 2023, the Senate Committee on Public Works and Rural Development conducted a public hearing on three proposed Acts, including the Engineering Society of Liberia Act of 2021, the Liberia Institute of Architecture Act of 2022, and the Association of Liberia Construction Contractors Act of 2022. The hearing aimed to bring together authorities of the Ministry of Public Works, the Engineering Society of Liberia, construction contractors, and other stakeholders in the construction sector.
Meanwhile, it can be recalled that an audit of the National Road Fund conducted by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) for two fiscal years from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2020, revealed that millions of dollars of fuel levies paid by motorists for the maintenance and rehabilitation of roads in Liberia were either not being remitted to the road fund account as required by the Road Fund Act or expended for unintended purposes. The GAC report showed that the Liberia Revenue Authority deposited $53,018,871.54 in the Consolidated Fund Account instead of the National Road Fund Account. Of this amount, $28,152,231 was remitted to the National Road Fund, leaving a difference of $24,866,637.54 that was not remitted.