MONROVIA – Senate Pro-Tempore Albert Chie has admitted to what he called “economy sluggishness” which has made it difficult to pay salaries in time.
According to Chie, an elite member of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) since the 2023 National Budget was enacted into law, the Senate has observed “signs of a bit of sluggishness” in the economy leading to challenges that include depreciation in the exchange rate, resulting to struggles in completing payment of salaries on time to agencies and institutions.
By Henry Karmo [email protected]
“In view of the above challenges, we discussed these economic matters with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and the recent mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It has been noted that the Liberia Revenue Authority has not been meeting their quarterly targets,” he said.
He also said, the IMF has also indicated that revenue from Customs is not performing, despite the increase in the volumes of imports into the country. However, he said, slowness in the economy is not strange in an election year in developing countries due to many factors associated with elections, including the laissez faire attitude of taxpayers.
He told journalists that the Executive and Legislative branches of government are working together to remedy the economic challenges and hopefully by the end of July, significant progress will be made.
Some of the measures that may have to be taken quickly are to cancel some of the incentive agreements which have been entered into between the Government and some private entities, most especially the ones without legislative ratification; and the cancellation of certain duty-free privileges, especially on fuel, he said.
Because of the sluggishness, he said there is a forecast of a finance gap in the 2023 National Budget in the tone of approximately 44 million US Dollars, and there are plans to prepare and enact a Recast Budget in order to cut spending.
Recently, the Legislature voted to approve Fiscal Year 2023 draft national budget in the tone of US$794,532,682, an excess of US$16.5 to the version submitted by the Executive.
The decision followed a recommendation by the House’s Committee on Ways, Means and Finance after it collaborated with its Senate counterparts for a three-week public hearing into the draft national budget.
The committee said the figure was derived following hearings which were characterized by rigorous budget debates. In these debates, the committee reported that ministries and agencies were given the opportunity to defend their draft proposals.
In cases where there were doubts and insufficient information, the committee said it divided itself into sub-committees to ensure that the hearing intently look at the programs in details, so as to ensure value for money.
Major revenue generating agencies that were grilled were State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) including the Liberia Telecommunication Authority, Liberia Maritime Authority, National Port Authority, Liberia Petroleum Refining Company, and other revenue generating ministries, agencies and commissions.