MONROVIA — The government of Liberia paid a Chinese road contractor more than $1.15 million for airport highway construction work without the required completion certificate and cannot reconcile nearly $578,000 in payments across three separate government agencies, according to a damning compliance audit released by the General Auditing Commission in March 2026.
The audit, covering the Roberts International Airport Road Project from April 2021 to April 2025, found pervasive violations of the contract between the Ministry of Public Works and East International Group Inc., the contractor building the 44-kilometer highway connecting Roberts International Airport to ELWA Junction. Auditor General P. Garswa Jackson issued an adverse conclusion, stating that the project is not in material compliance with its governing contract, the Liberia Public Financial Management Act, or the Public Procurement and Concessions Act.
The $116 million project, financed primarily through a pre-financing agreement ratified by the National Legislature and backed by loans from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development and Afreximbank, remained only about 64 percent complete as of the audit period, with the completion deadline already pushed from April 30, 2024, to April 30, 2027.
The $1.15 Million Payment Without Paperwork
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The audit revealed that the government disbursed $1.15 million to East International from a National Road Fund loan account at United Bank for Africa without submitting a certificate of completion to the National Road Fund for validation, as required by Section 44.2 of the road contract. That section mandates that every payment to the contractor be pegged to a completed road milestone of at least 5 kilometers, certified by the Ministry of Public Works.
The Ministry of Public Works, in its response, denied authorizing the payment. The ministry said the National Road Fund director had flagged the transaction as a breach of the NRF Act, which requires such disbursements to carry ARMEP approval and certified documentation, and suggested the GAC investigate the United Bank of Africa to determine who authorized the payment.
The Auditor General rejected that response as inadequate. The ministry provided no evidence of a completion certificate for the work the $1.15 million was meant to cover, the report states, and the GAC is maintaining its finding.
Nearly $578,000 Cannot Be Reconciled
Separate from that payment dispute, the audit found a variance of $577,808 between what the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning and the Ministry of Public Works reported paying East International and what the contractor reported receiving. According to the audit's payment tables, MFDP reported disbursing $100.43 million in total payments to the project across all funding sources, while MPW's records show $100.28 million, and East International's own records reflect receiving only $99.65 million.
The most significant single discrepancy is in the government's own GoL budget payments, where MFDP records show $19.28 million disbursed, MPW shows $19.08 million, and East International records show receiving only $18.5 million, a gap of $777,015 between the government's own figures and the contractor's. Subsequent documentation submitted by MFDP after the audit narrowed the MFDP-to-MPW variance on those GoL payments to $10, but the gap between what the government remitted and what East International received remains unresolved.
The audit also found that vouchers, check copies, and supporting documents for payments processed through MFDP were withheld from auditors, making it impossible to independently verify completeness, occurrence, and accuracy of those transactions.
No Traffic Signs, No Guardrails, No Street Lights
Field inspections by GAC auditors found no evidence of road furniture anywhere along the completed portions of the RIA corridor, including guardrails, traffic lights, street lights, marker posts, kilometer posts, yield signs at crosswalks and school zones, and road geometry signs at curves and hills. The only structures the audit confirmed as erected were two project billboards at the start and end of the construction site.
This, despite management telling auditors that 91.68 percent of Section 1 civil works, covering the stretch from kilometer 3 to kilometer 13, had been completed. The contract's Bill of Quantities No. 9 allocates $2,286,539.77 for road furniture in Section 1 alone, representing the value of work the audit found entirely unperformed on completed road sections.
The Ministry of Public Works responded that road furniture installation is part of the project's final completion phase and that East International has been directed to prioritize those works. The Auditor General rejected that explanation, stating the contract requires furniture installation at the completion of each section, not at final project closeout, and maintained the finding.
Road Already Showing Structural Defects
Physical inspections documented multiple active structural deficiencies along completed sections. Auditors photographed and cataloged erosion undermining soil around box culverts and reinforced concrete pipes at multiple locations in the 3-to-13 kilometer corridor, with no riprap or gabion protection and no slope protection or guardrails installed. Overgrown vegetation was blocking drainage at several culvert locations in Section 1.
Along the Section 2 corridor from kilometer 29 to 44, auditors found cracks and cuts in the recently laid asphalt binding course at six documented locations between the 30-kilometer and 36-kilometer marks. Pavement depressions and settlement around culverts were observed at the 6-kilometer and 33.7-kilometer points and had not been repaired consistent with contract specifications.
The Ministry of Public Works acknowledged those observations and said remedial work, including drainage reinforcement, edge protection, and resurfacing, had commenced under the consultant's supervision and would be completed before final handover. The GAC acknowledged management's acceptance of the findings and said it would follow up during a subsequent audit.
A 1-Kilometer Shortfall Worth $2.58 Million
The audit found that the actual road corridor measures 44 kilometers, not the 45 kilometers specified in the contract and the RIA Road Amended Act of 2020, creating a length discrepancy of 1 kilometer valued at $2,577,778 at the contract's per-kilometer rate. MPW argued the difference results from how chainage divisions are calculated at the two ends of the project, with 0.4 kilometers extending toward Firestone and 0.6 kilometers toward the airport, and insisted total project coverage remains 45 kilometers as contracted.
The Auditor General said management's response did not provide documentary evidence of the ratified addendum incorporating the 0.4-kilometer Firestone extension into the contract or confirmation that outstanding funds have been adjusted accordingly, and maintained the finding.
Contract Expanded Without Legislative Ratification or Price Increase
A 2024 addendum to the road contract expanded the project's scope significantly, adding pedestrian overhead bridges at four intersections including SKD Stadium, ELWA Hospital, AFL Barracks, and Marshall Junction, extending the road zero point 600 meters toward the airport, upgrading street lights from an on-grade system to solar or hybrid, installing conduits at major intersections, and permitting East International to designate a subcontractor for certain sections. The addendum was executed without any corresponding increase to the original $116 million contract price.
The audit also found no evidence the addendum was submitted to the National Legislature for approval, as required by Article 7, Section 7.7 of the Pre-Financing Agreement Act. MPW said the additional activities were offset within the approved budget with no fiscal exposure to government and that the addendum was negotiated and signed in 2024. The GAC acknowledged those assertions but said it will follow up to ensure any amended contract within the required threshold receives legislative ratification.
No Governance Mechanisms in Place
The contract requires both a Dispute Review Board of three experienced construction professionals and a Dispute Review Expert to be appointed at the outset of the project. The GAC found no evidence either had been established or appointed at any point during the four-year audit period.
MPW said neither mechanism had been activated because no contractual disputes had arisen requiring them. The GAC rejected that interpretation, saying the contract's language requires the board to be constituted in advance of disputes, not in response to them, and that management may be in breach of Sections 6.1.1, 6.1.2, and 6.5.2 of the road contract. The ministry said it would constitute the Dispute Review Board on an ad hoc basis in collaboration with East International and MFDP if disputes arise.
No Automated Accounting, No Environmental Cleanup
The audit found East International operating without a certified automated financial management system, contrary to Section 3.1(v) of the pre-financing agreement, which explicitly requires the contractor to maintain a financial management system that produces statements auditable to GAC standards. MPW said it would press the contractor to establish an automated system with real-time transaction tracking.
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Field inspectors also found no evidence of environmental restoration at the quarry site used for road construction, with bitumen drums and overburden material left on the ground, construction wastewater discharging directly into surface water from the quarry, batching, and asphalt plants, liquid storage containment areas draining directly to surface water, and no oil and grease interceptors fitted in the drainage system. No disposal license for liquid waste was produced. MPW said environmental restoration activities would be undertaken in collaboration with East International and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Project Camp in Disrepair
Auditors conducting field verification at the project consultant camp in Margibi County found the facility in poor condition, with building leakages, non-functioning air conditioning, overgrown grass and bushes throughout the compound, and no evidence of internet service for staff housing. Laboratory equipment that the contract requires to be placed at the consultant's camp was found instead at the contractor's camp.
The audit's fixed assets review found no fixed asset management policy, no fixed asset register, vehicles supplied by the contractor that did not conform to contract specifications, and six of 12 required pickup trucks that could not be physically verified.
Money Spent, Road Unfinished
As of the audit period, $99.65 million of the $116 million contract value had been disbursed to East International. Of that, $15.78 million was applied to loan financing costs and collateral and $12.27 million was directed to the Clay to DC Clarke Road and neighborhood road projects not part of the original RIA contract scope, leaving $71.8 million actually expended on RIA road construction. With $16.35 million of the contract value remaining undisbursed, the project faces completing 16.2 kilometers of road and bridge work by April 2027.
The transmittal letter, signed by Auditor General Jackson and addressed to Speaker Richard Nagbe Koon and Senate President Pro Tempore, urged the Legislature to treat implementation of the report's recommendations with urgency.
The Ministry of Public Works and East International Group Inc. did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
