Bomi County District 3 Representative Sam Peter Jallah has disclosed that Liberia is not benefiting from the extractive industries as it should, speaking at a Liberia Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (LEITI) engagement in Ganta.
He stated that while mining companies extract vast resources, the revenue accruing to the government remains very minimal.
According to him, only about 3% equity of revenue gains from concession companies goes to the government as benefit.
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Giving an example, he said it was recently discovered by Vice President Jeremiah Koung that Bea Mountain was generating over US$1.6 billion, yet only about 3% of the revenue goes to the government.
"We should be graduating from loyalty and be talking about profit sharing," he said.
"The 3% equity the Liberian law talks about is not fair--we are not getting the full value of our resources," he added.
"If we got Liberia from 1847 and we are endowed with huge resources, then our country should not be like this," he said.
Rep. Jallah explained that he is engaging his colleagues in the Legislature to ensure Liberia receives a more equitable share of revenues from extractive activities.
He further questioned why Liberia continues to struggle despite its resource wealth, comparing the country's situation to Lagos, Nigeria.
"If you look at the population of Lagos alone in Nigeria, it triples the population of Liberia. Then why should we still be suffering? Liberia should be a place where people are rushing for jobs rather than Liberians seeking better opportunities elsewhere," he asserted.
He blamed past leadership for lacking the managerial capacity to effectively harness national resources and noted that Liberians often assume they know everything instead of seeking expert advice.
He therefore recommended that major national development policies should first be developed by technicians and technocrats before being reviewed by politicians.
"Every development policy should start with technicians, and once completed, it can go to politicians for their input, to avoid excessive political interference and influence," he noted.
He also argued that LEITI should not be in a position of requesting data from extractive companies but rather should have systems in place to independently access and verify data, supported by strong government monitoring mechanisms.
"The Vice President was astonished when Bea Mountain disclosed the quantities of gold extracted annually and the revenue generated, indicating that the government often lacks full knowledge of what is being extracted," he explained.
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"It is the company that decides what to tell the government, and this is not fair," he maintained.
In an overview of the retreat, the Head of Secretariat of LEITI, Hon. Jeffrey Yates, outlined that the Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) will review the validation module and last validation results, discuss and approve the 16th report summary, and approve the LEITI 2026 dissemination plan and Production Monitoring Committee (PMC) targets for 2026.
Other activities include the presentation of samples from LEITI's data visualization work, a review of progress and challenges in EITI implementation in 2026, and presentation of the MSG draft secretariat report, among others.
The two-day retreat, running from May 28-29, 2026, aims to review and approve key documents and generate a unified multi-stakeholder response to the International Secretariat's draft validation report.
The retreat will also assess progress made, identify challenges, and propose a way forward to strengthen EITI implementation in Liberia.
