Monrovia — Last week, the Senate Public Account Committee released its investigative report on the General Auditing Commission's findings that US$7 million of the National Road Fund was diverted, the Committee put the blame for the diversion on the Senate while vindicating the Finance Minister who came under fire from the public and the media of any wrongdoing.
But the Public Account Committee report has even raised more eyebrows on the audacity of the Senate to blatantly violate the National Road Fund which was established by an Act of Legislature with a clearly defined and non-discretionary purpose.
What is ironic about the NRF saga is that before the Legislature came in to take responsibility for the diversion, the Minister of Finance, Samuel D. Tweah, Jr., had clarified that he had the authorization of development partners and the Legislature before diverting the fund.
"When you are faced with a crisis of that nature, you begin to look for ways to solve the crisis. We had a conversation with legislative leaders and development partners. The German Ambassador [then] said it was not bad to use US$6-7 million, but it should be a one-off thing," The Daily Observer quoted the Minister as saying.
With the exception of the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia, the development partners including the World Bank, the European Union released a coordinated statement indicating that their involvement was in the context of the Liberia South-Eastern Corridor Road Asset Management Project (SECRAMP).
"In response to your inquiry on the Government of the Republic of Liberia's use of its funds from the National Road Fund (NRF) to finance critical expenditures in the national budget, please be advised that the Government discussed the issue with the World Bank and three other donors (Germany, the UK, and the EU)," a joint statement from the EU and World Bank revealed.
"It was done in the context of the Liberia South-Eastern Corridor Road Asset Management Project (SECRAMP), co-financed by the Government of Liberia using the NRF, the World Bank's resources, the Liberia Reconstruction Trust Fund (LRTF) to which the three donors contribute, and the private sector. The Government assured the World Bank and the other donors that the NRF would accumulate adequate resources to be set aside as counterpart funding for the planned road project."
How The Recast Budget Came About
As part of its plans to transition from a Fiscal Year Budget to a Calendar Year Budget, the government decided to recast the FY 2020/2021 Budget to run from July 1, 2021 to December 31st 2021.
The Special Budget at US$347,908,000 or the equivalent of L$59,353,104,800. The amount is an increment of US$5,271,395 from the original figure.
The vote for the passage was overwhelming though a handful of Senators including Montserrado County Senator Darius Dillon were against the passage and rather demanded a budget performance report.
The Senate has constantly faced criticism for its failure to utilize the automated voting machines donated by the World Bank to the Legislature.
This has made it difficult for the public to know how their representatives and Senators vote on matters at the Legislature.
The Senate's overwhelming vote for the passage of the budget followed two hours of brief deliberations by plenary and was a result of the report by the Senate's joint committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Budget and the Public Accounts, which was mandated by Senate plenary to review the House of Representatives component of the budget passed at US$343,632,205.
Grand Cape Mount County Senator, Cllr H. Varney Sherman, proffered a motion calling on his colleagues to unanimously endorse the budget. He said, "Distinguished colleagues, given the level of deliberations that we have conveyed to the Ways, Means and Finance... for the necessary appropriations for the governance of our country for the period running from July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021; and in consideration of the fact that all of us have agreed to the necessary provision, I move that we vote unanimously to show that this is the desire of the Senate that is best for the Republic of Liberia."
What The Executive Submitted
For the FY2019/2020 draft budget, an appropriation of US$29,300,000 was submitted to the Legislature. However, the legislature in its passed budget reduced this appropriation to US$22.3 million - a difference of US$7 million taken by the legislature.
Again, in the draft budget for FY2020/2021, an appropriation of US$23.3 million was made, however, the legislature reduced that amount to US$12.8 million - a difference of US$14 million.
While the Finance Minister claimed to have held a discussion with development partners and the leadership of the Senate about the diversion of the fund, it is clear from the analysis of the budget that the Legislature acted on their own accord to divert the fund without regard to the Act to establishing the Fund.
FrontPageAfrica has not been able to verify the individual Senators who voted for the passage of the Budget that violated another law.
However, Senator Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence who was not in session to reject the Public Account Committee report on the approval of diversion questioned how the decision to reappropriate the fund was reached and termed the transaction was "illegal".
Senator Karnga-Lawrence stands criticized of often abstaining or being absent when crucial votes are to be taken.
"My distinguished colleagues, while in transit yesterday on my way out of Liberia, I was informed of the vote by the Senate to support the action of the Minister to redirect the funds. It is clear we must revisit our actions to take responsibility for this matter by calling on Minister Tweah to give us a complete report on the expenditures and if the reports are proven to be correct, the Ministry must be instructed to replenish the Road Fund from the Government revenue in the next Budget while the consequences of taking such unilateral actions are being considered," she stated.
She further stated that Minister Samuel Tweah's claims of receiving verbal authorization to spend money from the Road Fund is wrong because the Legislature does not give verbal authorization, and neither does the President Pro-Tempore of the Senate or the Speaker has such authority to do so.
She emphasized that such a decision must be made by the majority of the Plenary through a resolution.
What Makes the Legislature's Move Illegal
Speaking on the issue of the diversion, Mr. Eddie Jarwolo, the Executive Director of NAYMOTE Partners for Democratic Development questioned the difficulty of getting access to any document that informed the Legislature's decision to reappropriate the Road Fund.
"I think it was a violation of the law that established the road fund, the law clearly stated that the funds should be used for the management of roads and the action of the legislature was wrong. In fact, it's difficult to access any document that led to the action of the legislature to appropriate the fund," he said.
He added, "The authorization of the legislature is not available to the public, it's a cover-up to the GAC audit report on the management of the fund and undermines the fight on corruption in the country. In this same period the Finance Minister announced a budget surplus and US$25m was allocated for the stimulate package so how come we didn't hear anything about redirecting the road fund, it's sad."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Also, the Executive Director of CENTAL questioned the secret nature in which the Legislature operates, especially in financial matters like this.
In an interview with FrontPageAfrica, he said, "Without going through the legality aspect, why is that the Legislature never made this public until it came to light before they're now trying to provide explanations? The public has the right to know what has happened. If they failed to inform the public only for something to come up and then they come and say they take responsibility, then it raises some eyebrows. It's about effective communication. What stopped the Ministry of Finance from saying to the public what their intentions were?"
At the same time, a public finance expert who preferred anonymity termed the Legislature's action as "illegal".
According to the expert, "Road Tax" is defined by law - the NRF Act and cannot be reallocated without missing the definition.
The Finance expert said, "It is not like any other fund that does not have a label or definition at the point of collection. When you and I agree to pay 30 cents on each gallon, we are obeying an existing law called NRF Act. You can only redefine it by removing the label or definition at the point of collection. We should have been told that the 30 cents was no longer road tax."
The Public Finance expert further explained that in order for such reallocation to have taken place, the Legislature should have amended the NRF Act in the usual way for amending and/or repealing laws.
"They did not do that. The Budget Law is an annual appropriations law that is passed yearly to execute the Public Finance Management Act. The same PFM Act, it provides for separate legislation that will exclude them from a single treasury account. So, recasting only the budget projections - future revenue and future expenditure was the wrong process. They should have first amended the NRF Act, before recasting the budget."
