MONROVIA — A joint task force, consisting of the Ministry of Public Works (MPW), the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC), the Liberia National Police (LNP), and the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC), was announced on Tuesday.

By Henry Karmo | hery.karmo@frontpageafricaonline.com

The objective of the task force is to enforce and implement programs and policies intended to keep the city of Monrovia and other adjacent cities green and clean. The joint effort will also address the many challenges faced by the cities, including disorganized market structures and street cleaning.

This effort also supports measures to combat climate change and build resilience. It is expected to be an inclusive project that will empower people to take the lead in initiatives to promote a clean city.

In opening remarks at the launch of the task force, the new Monrovia City Mayor, Mr. John Charuk Siafa, stated that the project is part of President Boakai’s hundred-day deliverables. The success of this task force will require the involvement of everyone, including residents and businesses.

He said, “As part of our community engagement strategy, we are starting today to engage with the media. We have met with the Liberia Marketing Association and the Motorcycle and Tricycles Unions. This will be a sustained exercise until we achieve our goals. We are currently working on a policy for street vendors.”

Deputy Police Director for Traffic, representing the Deputy Police Director for Operations, expressed honor in working with the task force as law enforcement officers to ensure clean cities.

Public Works Minister, Mr. Roland Lafayette Giddings, also spoke, emphasizing that the cleanliness of the city should be everyone’s concern. The task force will work to ensure President Joseph Boakai’s vision of a clean city becomes a reality.

The work of the task force will include the removal of makeshift structures, ensuring access to communities, and identifying areas for markets or selling.

“We understand that resources are limited, but we want to start working with what we have to achieve our vision for the city. This project will also involve the media.”

Monrovia – Over a protracted period of time, the issue relating to budget and funding has been a major challenge for the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector of Liberia.

Several Civil Society WASH Advocacy Groups have over the years called on government to ensure increased budget allocation for WASH, something that is yet to fully happen and Advocacy is still ongoing.

As part of efforts to gather information concerning funding to the WASH sector and how the funds were used, the Liberia NGOs Network (LINNK) has embarked on a process to ensure that accountability and fairness are practiced in the WASH sector.

LINNK, as part of its activities sponsored by WaterAid has carried out Budget Tracking on the 2016/2017 National Budget on how allocation was made to WASH, and how funds were used.

The Chairman of the Liberia NGOs Network, George Karyah said in the 2016/2017 national budget, the amount of 1,000,000 United States dollars was allocated for WASH as a result of advocacy and campaign carried out by WASH civil society organizations in the country.

Mr. Karyah pointed out that according to reports gathered by LINNK, the Ministry of Public Works received from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning the amount of 350,000 United States dollars for WASH. 

He said Public Works informed LINNK that the money was allegedly used to buy a pick-up and a bole hole machine which are yet to be seen.

He stressed that Public Works Ministry also allegedly spent $11,000 to buy assorted materials while $9,400 was spent to pay a so-called contractor who allegedly worked for the Ministry in 2013 in Grand Kru County.

LIKKN argues that if this is true, why it took so long to pay the contractor? 

“Why there is no hand pump built under this budget period? How can we trust the government?”, Mr. Karyah wondered.

He said WASH CSOs in Liberia have advocated and continue to advocate for the establishment of the WASH Commission to avoid duplication of functions in the WASH sector and serve the Liberian people adequately.

According to him, the purpose of the WASH Commission is to serve as a regulatory arm in the WASH sector and service delivery and implementation, noting that the Liberian people deserve better social services to prevent infant mortality and other water-borne diseases.

Owing to the huge discrepancies in the alleged use of the funds disbursed to the Ministry of Public works, LINNK is calling on the National Legislature to invite for clarification regarding such use of funds, the Minister of Public Works, Gyude Moore to give reasons why he cannot be held liable for his failure during the just ended budget period to provide WASH services for which the Legislature allocated One Million United States Dollars.

When contacted, the Public Works Ministry termed the assertions by LINNK as far from the truth.

Assistant Public Works Minister for Community Services, George Yarngo admitted that from the approved one million United States Dollars for WASH, three hundred and fifty thousand was made available.

But Assistant Minister Yarngo disclosed that from said amount allocated, three hundred and twenty eight thousand one hundred and eighty dollars was set aside to purchase a rig and accessories.

He also said eleven thousand out of the money was paid to a contractor who worked for the Ministry in Grand Kru County.

Assistant Minister Yarngo noted that Warners Engineering Construction was contacted to construct one of two water Kiosh and repair hand pumps in the ELWA Community with nine thousand four hundred United States dollars.

According to him, a cent has not been spent from the approved amount in question, describing LINNK’s assertion as a premature one.

Assistant Minister Yarngo said it was unfortunate for LINNK to come up with such a report in the absence of activity report.

He said, it would have been prudent for LINNK to await the purchase of said items before requesting for information about how the three hundred and fifty thousand was spent by the Ministry of Public Works.

It is hoped that the Ministry of Public Works will as soon as possible provide report on the full implementation of the WASH funding, as the 2016/17 budget period has already ended and new 2017/18 budget period has started. 

Monrovia – The quality of infrastructures in Liberia have been described as the worse in quality compared to other countries in West Africa and among the lowest rank in the world, a survey conducted by the World Economic Forum indicates.

Report by Lennart Dodoo – ldodoo@frontpageafricaonline.com

The survey results implied that the quality of infrastructure in the health and education sectors, in which there had been little recent investment, was low.

The quality of road infrastructure in Liberia was also perceived as much worse than the average of ECOWAS member countries, and is ranked as one of the lowest in the world.

Excepts of the document contained in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2016 Report on Liberia show that Liberia’s scores on the perceived quality of capital infrastructure, including social infrastructure, was below the average of ECOWAS member countries.

The survey results implied that the quality of infrastructure in the health and education sectors, in which there had been little recent investment, was low.

The quality of road infrastructure in Liberia was also perceived as much worse than the average of ECOWAS member countries, and is ranked as one of the lowest in the world.

Measures of the quality of infrastructure indicators were derived from the indices included in the annual Global Competitiveness Reports published by the WEF.

These indices were based on the WEF’s Executive Opinion Survey which was a survey of a representative sample of business leaders in various countries.

The report also indicated that Liberia’s public capital per capita was still the lowest in the region, despite much investment in public spending through donor-funding.

Though the capital stock as a ratio of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) now approximates the average of Sub-Saharan Africa countries, the country’s per capita stock remained the lowest among the ECOWAS member countries.

This calculation, according to the IMF, reinforces the country’s need for increasing public investment efficiency in order to improve the delivery of key public services and achieve the country’s medium- and long-term development goals and sustained economic growth.

According to the report, limited fiscal space for capital spending was a constraint on efforts to increase the stock of infrastructure and other productive investment.

When Liberia reached the completion point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in June 2010, according to the report, the gross debt of the general government had been reduced to 30 percent of GDP, but the widened fiscal deficit during the Ebola outbreak increased public debt to 36 percent of GDP in FY2015.

There was also a large stock of proposals for external loans on which negotiations between the Government of Liberia and the donors had not yet been completed.

If approved and fully disbursed, these loans could potentially create additional public debt up to 40 percent of GDP.

The report: “High levels of recurrent spending in the budget limits the amount of fiscal space that is available for public investment.

The ratio of recurrent spending to total central government expenditure is estimated at 82 percent in FY2016, higher than peer countries (for example, around 75 percent in Ghana and 65 percent in Sierra Leone), and among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Public investment through the budget is also highly volatile.”

Over the last three years, the execution rates for GoL funded capital expenditure has varied widely, ranging from 41 percent to 102 percent of the original budget, partly because appropriations for Public Sector Investment Program capital projects are often revised significantly during the fiscal year.

As a result, Liberia’s public investment financed through the budget has been more volatile than in peer countries in recent years, and budget allocations for public investment have been unpredictable and uncertain.

In addition, the actual disbursements to externally-financed public investment projects are only around 40 percent of the projected level.

This large deviation further contributes to the uncertainty of resources available for capital spending.”

The IMF report further indicated that about 80 percent of public investment was financed through external sources that were not appropriated in the budget.

This pattern, according to the report, had not changed since the formation of the current government. Over the last three years, public investment financed by external loans represented about 22 percent of total investment.

“All outstanding external loans are concessional and provided by multilateral and bilateral donors.

The share of externally financed public investment is higher than in peer countries (for example, around 50 percent in Ghana and 60 percent in Sierra Leone in recent years).  

The functional allocation of public investment in Liberia had focused on economic infrastructure in recent years, as planned in the Agenda for Transformation.

“Between FY2014 and FY2016, the share of capital investment in such infrastructure was substantially higher than in other Sub-Saharan African countries.

Investment in economic infrastructure mainly comprises energy and road projects implemented by the Ministry of Lands, Mines, and Energy (MLME), the MPW, and the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), in order to address the significant infrastructure gap in these sectors.”

In contrast, capital investment in social projects, in particular the health and education sectors, was considerably lower than in other Sub-Saharan African countries.

At the same time, a majority of non-capital externally-financed projects were allocated to the health and education sectors.

This implies that Liberia has relatively good access to health and education services which are operating, however, without the support of adequate capital infrastructure.