Monrovia — Mr. McCarthy Weh, the man who heads the Legislative Information Service, has written to the Senate Committee Chairman on Ways, Means, Finance, and Development Planning, Sen. Morris Saytumah (UP-Bomi County), expressing his disappointment in how Saytumah managed funds intended for his department's internet services.
In a very detailed letter dated March 24, 2023, Mr. Weh claimed that Sen. Saytumah's handling of budgetary appropriations/allotments for the Legislative Information Service (LIS) between 2018 and the current year has practically plunged the LIS into a moribund state.
Mr. Weh said, "From the day the legislature resumed its 6th Session on Monday, January 16, leading to Friday, March 17, 2023 (nine weeks), when it closed for its first of three constituency breaks, the knowledge-based information center, which is the Legislative Information Service (LIS), has been without vital supplies for its service delivery to lawmakers, staff, and the public. As I pen this communication, the information center lacks internet, its current affairs DS-tv service, local dailies, ink, cartridges, etc. Mr. Chairman, there is absolutely no reason why the Legislature will encounter such embarrassment, as funding was made available for the department through the budget."
According to Mr. Weh, the information center, with support from Liberia's international partners, mainly USAID, is established in such a way that it must never be without things such as electricity and internet.
"That means the legislature must at all times (working days) be prompt in providing information services. That is why on April 27th, 2011, when turning the LIS over to the legislature, a 39kva generator was part of the turnover package. Sadly, during the construction of the Chinese annexes, a lawmaker drove on the grounds of the Capitol and stole the generator. That has been the tragedy - some lawmakers, in addition to refusing to provide adequate support to their departments, will even steal from the already struggling department(s). As the legislature currently does not have a standby generator, legislative information seekers are denied services whenever the national electricity supply goes off."
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The LIS director, in his communication, further claimed that US$50,000.00 (Fifty Thousand United States Dollars) was appropriated for the Joint Service Department, and out of this amount, the Finance department pulled out US$25,000.00 (Twenty-Five Thousand United States Dollars) into the Senate's Central Bank's Account from which US$15,000.00 (Ten Thousand United States Dollars) was received.
"We were hoping to expend the balance of US$10,000.00 (Ten Thousand United States Dollars) for payments toward subscriptions for internet, DS-tv, local dailies, cartridges, and other vital supplies. To this very date, the department is yet to take delivery of the amount. As a consequence, the department has virtually been in a state of moribund. Mr. Chairman, I can state for certain that had the funds been placed into the UBA accounts of the department, we could not have been discussing such a discomfiting issue today. This is because as technicians, we know the utmost importance, essence, and relevance of the knowledge-based information center and how critically its importance is to the workings of the legislature and to the public users - students, institutions, organizations, foreign visitors who have all been benefiting from the services of the information center since 2011."
