The Ministry of Finance has defended a previous position that US$13 million European Union money provided to the Government of Liberia via its direct budget support was not squandered.

The Ministry says report about the amount being squandered was a myth. The Finance Ministry's position is based on emerging information and data that have been released to the public by a local consultancy group.

There has been a barrage of reports that there exists no information relative to the accountability of the fund.

"This half truth surrounding the status of the money created a standoff between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare," a release from the consultancy group is quoted as saying.

But the situation seems to have been settled given the latest information which has been made public on the matter.

Official financial documents and statistics from the Finance Ministry revealed that the Health Sector spent US$45 million in the FY11/12 budget. Of this amount, the French Government provided US$1 million while the USAID provided US$4.4 million as part of the FARA program. With this revelation, the nation's treasury chief, Amara Konneh, pointed out that it clearly shows that the Government of Liberia's contribution to the Health Sector was US$40 million during FY 11/12.

In FY12/13 approved Budget, Health Sector got an appropriation of US$71 million. Looking at Government's contribution to Health Sector in FY11/12, this is an increase of US$31 million.

A top Finance Ministry official identified the source of the US$31 million as follows: US$14 million from USAID: even though USAID, under the FARA program, was reimbursing us only US$8 million, the Government agreed to add US$14 million to Health Sector budget US$1 million -French Government. This represents debt repayment that the French Government has agreed to give to the Health Sector. The US$13 million from EU as sector budget support is intended to be used on the Health Sector for specific purposes.

According to the release, from USAID, EU and the French Government, there is a total contribution of US$28 million. This means that Government of Liberia added an additional US$3 million over what was spent on Health in FY11/12.

"This is how the Health Sector budget came to be US$71 million in the FY12/13 approved National Budget," the release indicated.

The release added that this detailed information does not indicate that the US13 million was misapplied by the Finance Ministry

Some observers now conclude that the controversy that beclouded the European Union money can be blamed on communication problem between the agencies concerned.

Under Minister Amara Konneh, several reforms such as the open budget initiative aimed at enhancing government transparency and accountability has been established to provide easy access to public financial information.