Justice Minister Oswald Tweh has apologized to members of the Liberian Senate for his decision to institute criminal lawsuit against that August Body.
The Ministry of Justice earlier filed a subpoena seeking financial records from the Liberian Senate as part of a probe into discrepancies flagged in a Senate financial audit. The case stemmed from alleged "unexplained gaps" in the Senate's accounting based on a General Auditing Commission (GAC) report, which if substantiated could point to misuse of public funds.
The audit reportedly identified roughly US US$26 million in questionable spending or unaccounted funds, prompting the Justice Ministry to seek access to Senate accounting documents to investigate potential mismanagement or corruption.
The subpoena was issued to compel the Senate to turn over key financial records, a rare and politically sensitive legal step given the Legislature's constitutional independence.
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Barely few hours after the subpoena was filed, the Ministry of Justice withdrew its request and the court reportedly quashed the subpoena order. The move has reportedly stalled portion of the investigation and raised questions about procedural, legal, and political dynamics behind the push for Senate records.
The Senate Plenary cited Minister Tweh on Thursday, February 26 baed upon a complaint filed by Senators Amara Konneh, Abraham Darius Dillon, Gbenzohngar Findley and Edwin Snowe of Gbarpolu, Montserrado, Grand Bassa and Bomi counties respectively.
In the communication, the Senators disclosed that the sequence of events surrounding the case raises serious procedural and institutional concerns that demand the Senate's immediate attention and a clear explanation from the Minister of Justice, despite the Senate's acceptance of the withdrawal.
According to them, the Ministry of Justice misidentified the responsible institution as the Auditor General's Report on the System Review of the Financial Management System and Accounting Processes of the Liberian Senate (Period Ended March 31, 2024) explicitly states: "Financial operations processed by MFDP rather than the Senate Finance Department."
They maintained that this finding definitively shows that the Senate does not disburse funds, handle payments, oversee IFMIS, and produce fiscal outturns.
They pointed out that under the Public Financial Management Act, only the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) has authority over cash releases, allotments, IFMIS transactions, fiscal outturn reporting, and expenditure execution.
They claimed that many of the discrepancies cited in the Ministry of Justice's withdrawn petition to Criminal Court "A"--including the differences between MFDP outturns and IFMIS ledger entries--are clearly within MFDP's operational jurisdiction, not the Senate's.
The Senators emphasized that the Ministry's action was procedurally improper and demonstrated blatant disregard for institutional protocols.
"The Ministry of Justice initiated criminal court proceedings against a coequal branch of government without prior engagement, flagrantly bypassing established interbranch procedures. This approach: a) falsely labeled MFDP-controlled financial variances as Senate actions, b) demanded documents from an institution that does not oversee the relevant systems, and c) dangerously threatened the constitutional separation of powers," they noted.
But appearing before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, Claims and Petition during a Senate hearing on Wednesday March 4, Minister Tweh pointed out that the Subpoena prayed for by the government, through the ministry, was not intended to cause disrepute or infringe upon the rights of members of the Liberian Senate.
He said the move was not also intended to disregard the Senate, but to ensure that the relevant documents were submitted to pursue the case in the best interest of the country.
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Minister Tweh described the ministry action as an inadvertent legal misstep that would not be repeated.
According to him, government's lawyers failed to follow the established inter-branch protocols to carry out their action.
He claimed that the legal action was unintentionally taken by government lawyers without his authorization.
Minister Tweh attributed the situation to the over-zealousness of members of his legal team-a move which prompted the withdrawal of the subpoena from the court.
He added that stringent operational measures are being taken avert the re-occurrence of the situation..
Minister Tweh, however, assured that government would continue to persuade criminal cases, including audit and investigative reports released by the General Auditing Commission (GC) in keeping with the Penal Code and other laws of the country, while at the same time closely observing the statute of limitations.
