The International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranks Liberia as the eighth poorest country in the world, with a GDP of $1,882 per capita. Liberia also ranks ninth in Africa and sixth in West Africa out of 15 countries in terms of poverty. However, its leaders' desires for excessive luxuries are unimaginable.
Last week, the Liberian media was inundated with reports of the country's Commerce Minister allegedly purchasing a USD150,000 vehicle to ply a city road, not befitting the car itself due to deplorable conditions.
Although the Minister in question, Mr. Amin Modad, has argued that the total expenditure on the said vehicle is 98,000, not 150k, as reported in the local media, his party chairman says the subject cannot be swept under the carpet.
Mr. Modad is not the only Liberian official with luxury taste and probably may not be the last. Many, if not all, Liberian officials, both past and present, desire for excessive luxury exceeds their willingness to advance the country on the right trajectory for sustained growth and development.
In the previous regime, for instance, eyebrows also rose over the vehicle of the country's maritime commissioner, Mr. Hne Eugene Nagbe. He has been residing in Ghana since the Weah administration, during which he served as maritime commissioner, left office.
There were allegations that his vehicle was custom-made to his liking at the taxpayers' expense. Despite the public outcry, Mr. Nagbe walked away with his luxury vehicle at the end of his tenure at the Liberia Maritime Authority.
The taste for luxury cuts across all branches and sectors of the Liberian Government, and in most cases, it is the root cause of the country's endemic corruption, with officials collecting luxury vehicles and building luxury homes that don't match their salaries.
For example, at the National Legislature, which is now the shortest route to wealth acquisition in the country, lawmakers are given US45k every three years to purchase new vehicles, while schools and clinics in their constituencies lack basic services.
The services go beyond health and education, as access to clean water and sanitation is low. Although access to electricity is improving, it is also very limited, and the poor are less likely to have it.
Interestingly, Liberian officials do not pay electricity and water bills at the ministries and agencies they occupy and sometimes at their private residences, which has contributed to the country's high indebtedness to Ivory Coast for electricity supply.
At the same time, national poverty levels remain high. According to the United Nations Development Agency, Gender and income inequalities are still pronounced, and it is estimated that 57 percent of school-aged children stay out of school. On top of this, rising costs of commodities following the Russian invasion of Ukraine have added to the country's economic challenges.
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In addition, according to an IMF report, Liberia's economic mismanagement and the civil war from 1989 led to one of the fastest declines in GDP in history. Between 1989 and 1995, the Liberian GDP was reduced by 90%.
The African Development Bank reports that Liberia's poverty rate ($2.15 per person per day) declined from 35.4% in 2022 to 34.2% in 2023. Unemployment was estimated at 3.7% in 2023, unchanged from 2022. Growth is forecast at 5.2% in 2024 and 6.2% in 2025, driven by the expansion of services, agriculture, and existing mining projects.
With the above economic statistics, corruption within the Liberian government, driven by the desire for excessive luxury, remained unchanged. This has been reflected in transactions at every level.
For instance, just a few months after President Joseph Boakai signed the 2024 National Budget, reports emerged that the budget was altered, adding an unexplained US20 million. Whose pockets that money ended up in remained a mystery. The House of Representatives will have you believe it conducted an investigation, pointing fingers at its Deputy Chief Clerk but failing to say where the US20 million ended up.
As if that was not enough, the Government spent US15 million outside of budgeted items but has refused to pay local vendors, including struggling media institutions, under the guise that it has sent these claims to the General Auditing Commission and wouldn't want to risk being questioned. However, it has an explanation for spending outside the budget but lacks the same for local vendors.
