Monrovia – The chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and the Budget, Senator Prince Moye, has called for transparency and accountability to prevail in the ongoing investigation surrounding the alleged alteration of the US$738.8 National Budget for Fiscal Year 2024, with a vow to avert dubious financial transactions and the manipulation of the country’s fiscal envelope at the level of the Liberian Senate.
By Obediah Johnson, [email protected]
It can be recalled that few members of the House of Representatives and Senate claimed that the National Budget, which was passed by the 55th National Legislature, has been allegedly tampered with by unknown persons.
There have been claims and counter-claims between some members of the Executive and Legislature over the reported alteration of the budget.
Speaking to reporters at his Capitol Building office in Monrovia on Friday, August 30, Senator Moye disclosed that members of the Liberian Senate did not have any issue with the national budget after passing it in keeping with their rules and constitutional mandate.
He maintained that the relevant committee of the Senate deliberated along with their colleagues from the House of Representatives and thereafter submitted a joint report to their respective plenaries on the passage of the budget.
Plenary is the highest decision-making body of both Houses of the National Legislature.
He disclosed that the national budget was later signed by Vice President Jeremiah Koung and sent to the House of Representatives for similar action.
The Bong County senator noted that the House of Representatives, which is the body responsible to send the National Budget to the Executive, alarmed of an alleged alteration after it has already submitted to the Liberian leader.
“The budget emanates from the House of Representatives and so, it’s the House of Representatives that is supposed to transmit the budget to the Executive Mansion. Whatever we sent back (to them) if they had issue, it could have stayed right here for a conference committee and the Chief Clerk or whoever could not have signed to send it to the Executive Mansion for the President to sign. Nobody has pointed a finger and said it is the Senate or House of Representatives or the Executive, through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning that tampered with the budget and that’s what this investigation will show.”
A conference committee, composed of members from both the House of Representatives and Senate, is normally set up to amongst other things work on changes or amendments made to proposed legislations.
Submitting to investigation
Senator Moye disclosed that the Senate, through its Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Budget, has already submitted itself to the ongoing investigation launched by the House of Representatives, with a lengthy meeting held with him (Moye) and the Secretary of the Liberian Senate Nanborlor Singbeh.
He stressed the need for the committee to speedily probe the matter.
Senator Moye, however, expressed the hope that the probe will help erase doubts on the budget which serves as a tool to drive developments across the country.
“We provided our committee report that was signed by the majority of the Senators representing their various counties on the Ways, Means and Finance Committee. We just hope that the committee will be fast enough to come with her report for the public to clearly understand what happened.”
Senator Moye emphasized that the National Budget was thoroughly deliberated and acted upon at the Senate, adding that, “everything that happened here, happened so transparently.”
“If the House of Representatives had any issue about anything happening from the Senate side, they, through the Speaker, could have said “no, this is not what we sent to you people and we are not transmitting that.’ But it was transmitted and printed into a handbill and then brought back.”
He noted that few Senators who raised issues surrounding the alleged altering of the budget were amongst those who also voted for the passage of the financial instrument.
He maintained that though he does not intend to question the rationale behind the concerns being raised by his colleagues, the ongoing investigation would release findings that would inform the public whether or not the National Budget was altered.
Observations
Senator Moye disclosed that following the outbreak of news of the alleged tampering of the budget at the time the printed version of the document was not in the possession of the Liberian Senate, he and other members of the committee observed that there were movements of allocations by “folks from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.”
According to him, the Senate inquired and raised concerns over the situation with the relevant authorities at the MFDP at the time the lawmakers were on break.
He said authorities at the ministry admitted making realignments on the budget due to the wrong allotment of monies to governmental institutions which do not have the statutory mandates to execute specific tasks for which funds were allotted for by members of the National Legislature.
Senator Moye made specific reference to the allocation of funds to the Ministry of Education to execute the training of 10,000 young people in Information Technology (IT), instead of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
He pointed out that those misallocations made by the National Legislature were realigned to the specific institutions implementing various programs by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, a move prompting the submission of a recast budget to the Legislature.
He disclosed that the Ways, Means, Finance and Budget Committee promised to make public to its Plenary the realignments made by the executive, through the MFDP upon lawmakers return from break.
“If one or two of our colleagues said that the budget was altered based on the print that came out, that’s their right. Apparently, they did not understand what the MFDP did in terms of repositioning some of the figures that we positioned in the final budget that have been regarded as misplaced.”
Senator Moye stressed that the budget submitted was balanced with line ministries and agencies receiving the appropriate allocations, but a public hearing on the realignments made by the executive was necessary to inform the public.
Welcoming Speaker’s action
The House of Representatives, through its Speaker Fonati Koffa took a decision not to act on the recast budget before that August Body following the outcome of its investigation launched on the alleged altering of the budget.
Senator Moye welcomed the move made by the Speaker and his colleagues at the House of Representatives to cease work on the recast budget.
He observed that though the decision has stalled work on the recast budget (because; the Senate cannot act on the financial instrument alone,) the “bold step” taken by Speaker Koffa to promote transparency and accountability must be applauded by all.
“President Joseph Nyuma Boakai is fighting corruption and all of us that led the rescue mission should be seen following suit. Anti-corruption practices are not going to take anything away from us. In line with transparency and the fight against corruption, we have submitted ourselves to the investigation and we have presented documents. I welcome the Speaker’s decision and we in the Senate, we will not move (or act); the House has to move first and we are going to be waiting to ensure that the investigation is conducted and the findings are made public because we want to know where the alteration took place.”
“We want to welcome the investigation on the alleged alteration of the budget. We want to say thank you to the Speaker but we think on this side of the Legislature, the Senate headed by the President Pro Tempore, we did not have many issues because everything that we did was in line with our rules.”
Senator Moye, however, vowed to prevent dubious financial systems at the Liberian Senate.
“I want to clearly state that under my watch as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Budget, the Senate financial system will never remain the same. We will never recall any dubious activities in the Senate under my watch. I can speak clearly to the public that even the Senate’s budget to be tampered with in terms of passing through or whatever has been experienced.”
“I have also vowed to my colleagues in the Senate that we will not see anything that happened in the past to happen under our watch; whether it was allegedly done or just a rumour. We want to assure Liberians that no dubious activities will be tolerated under the watch of the Committee on Ways, Means and Finance.”
