By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
Just days after the General Auditing Commission (GAC) released a report discovering flaws in the disbursement of the US$25 million mop up exercise and other disrepancies, CBL Executive Governor, Nathaniel Patray has been speaking on efforts to stabilize the escalating exchange rate in Liberia.
He pointed out that efforts are being made to stabilize the exchange rate and introduce prudent monetary and fiscal policies as well as measures to increase domestic food production.
Governor Patray was speaking on in Monrovia on Monday at the opening of a five-day regional training on economic and financial market analysis organized by the West Africa Institute for Financial and Economic Management.
In its report, the GAC said the Standard Operating Procedures developed to guide the conduct of the US$25 duties Million Mop-up Exercise did not address the issues of monitoring, segregation of, etc, according to the GAC findings.
There was a variance of US$ 1,466,783.00 between the summary list of beneficiaries and the detailed report per beneficiaries prepared and submitted by the CBL, the GAC report said.
The GAC report also said “Except for three (3) beneficiaries with a total amount of US$2,507,380.00 listed in the table below, no receipts were issued to the total number of beneficiaries contacted and interviewed during our field verification. Inquiry of past procedures for mopping up of excess liquidity conducted by CBL showed that instruments (receipts) were produced during sale of United States dollars for Liberian dollars.”
Speaking on Monday, the CBL Executive Governor said for Liberia to achieve positive outlook this year, there will have to be modest growth in agriculture, fisheries and services.
In line with the determination of the government to revamp the economy, the CBL Executive Governor went on, “Structural reforms are being implemented towards accelerated, inclusive and sustainable development.”
“These include among others, infrastructural development, increasing access to affordable energy, water and sanitation, skills development, especially of youths is geared towards boosting employment and wealth creation.”
According to Governor Patray, there are risks of debt distress which could go from moderate to high if borrowing to meet huge public investment needs increase, while the output of key exports declines.
Moreover, he explained that dependence on exports of primary commodities in the face of importation of food and fuel has rendered the Liberian economy vulnerable to external shocks.
“The structural reforms hitherto mentioned, prompt and proper diagnosis of macroeconomic challenges coupled with sound macroeconomic management to achieve increased revenue collection, improvement in the expenditure efficiency and prudent debt policy and management are intended to check these risks.”
Commenting on economic situation in the West African sub region, the CBL Executive Governor made it clear that the financial markets in most countries in this region are at rudimentary stages of development and therefore , small in size and weak.
“ A ready example is the post-conflict Liberia where various administrations have made efforts at financial system reconstruction.
Unfortunately, he furthered:”the country’s financial infrastructure is still rudimentary, culminating to high demand for mobile money services in view of cost and risk in keeping cash at home.”
“These modern financial products and services are not without risk,” he said; add:” these include cyber-crime and insecurity , money laundering and financing of terrorism among others.”
In a speech delivered by Emmanuel Owusu-Afriyie, Director Macroeconomic Department, WAIFEM, on behalf of Director General of WAIFEM, Dr. Baba Musa, said the main objective of this five-day training is to equip participants with an excellent practical overview and insight into economic and financial markets.
“It is also intended to update the knowledge and upgrade the skills of financial analysts in economic and financial policies with a strong emphasis on economic and financial analysis and performance monitoring.”
The training brought financial and economic experts from Nigeria, Ghana, the Gambia, Sierra Leone , and Liberia
The training covered a number of topics including Review of Basic Macroeconomic Model; Designing Monetary and Fiscal Policies; Tools of Monetary and Fiscal Policies .
Other topics are Coordination of Monetary and Fiscal Policies; Interrelationships among the Macroeconomic sectors, Hand-o Analysis and Reporting on a Budget Speech, Sources of Financial and Economic Statistics among others
WAIFEM was established by the central banks of the Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone in 1996.
The principal mandate of the institute is to strengthen capacity for improved macroeconomic and financial management in the constituent member countries.
Since its inception in 1997, WAIFEM has successfully executed 700 courses, seminars, workshops and have benefitted 18, 722 participants from the sub-region and beyond.
WAIFEM has also introduced courses and training for French speaking countries in West Africa because the Anglophone cannot do without their counterparts
The institute collaborates with reputable institutions such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Common Wealth Secretariat , and the African Capacity Building Foundation