By Frank Sainworla, Jr. fsainworla@yahoo.com
The marathon renovation of the Executive Mansion has lasted the same number of years Liberians took to destroy their country through mayhem and destruction—14 years.
And current President George Manneh Weah, referred to by his supporters as “Country Giant”, has this week made a promise that the renovation will be completed in the first half of 2021, after his CDC government has pumped close to US$7 million into the cash cow project
The Executive Mansion, official seat of the Liberian Presidency, was gutted by fire in on July 26, 2006, months after former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took office after winning the October 2005 election.
By the time she had left office on January 22, 2018, the renovation works had still not been completed, although her government had pumped nearly many millions of US dollars into the cash cow project.
No one held accountable
On September 18, 2019, a 7-member Special Investigative Committee of the House of Representatives released findings from a probe into the marathon renovation of the Mansion, disclosing that it had confirmed that, despite enormous sums of money (US$33,492,101) spent on the renovation project over a 13-year period, the Executive Mansion remains in a state of disuse.
“No one has been held accountable for his or her conduct in the misapplication of the national resources expended, to date for the 13-year-old ongoing project of the Executive Mansion,” the House special committee said.
The Committee chaired by Grand Gedeh County District #2 Representative George S. Boley, also included representatives Jimmy Smith, J. Fonati Koffa, Robert F. Womba, Rosana Schaack, Acarous Gray and Tibelrosa Tarponweh.
With President Weah’s order that this long-running renovation of the Executive Mansion be completed by mid-next year, it has been going on three years into his regime since he took office on January 22, 2018, with some seven million US dollars put into it through budgetary appropriations.
In the current 2020/2021 national fiscal budget, his CDC government has allotted US$5.5 million for the cash cow project. This is in addition to the earlier few millions allocated to this same never-ending project in the 2018/2019 budget.
In fact, the CDC government has projected a further one million US dollars for the same Mansion renovation for the 2021/2022 budget year.
Adding Weah’s first year in office to the period after the fire outbreak under former President Sielraf, FY-2008/09 and FY-2018/19, a total of US$ 33,492,101 was budgeted by the government of Liberia for this marathon renovation, says the House of Representatives Specialized Committee set up to probe this controversial project.
GAC Audits on discrepancies
Yet still the renovation is yet to be completed, as previous audits by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) from the Sirleaf’s era pointing to discrepancies.
“Going forward,” the GAC recommended that, “the managements of the MOS and MFDP should ensure that all payments made from the escrow account are made for the project activities.” https://www.gac.gov.lr/auditDoc/AGs%20Report%20on%20the%20Renovation%20of%20the%20Executive%20Mansion%20By%20the%20MOS.pdf
Whether the renovation of the Executive Mansion will indeed be completed in the middle of 2021 or not, the reality has certainly show that the marathon renovation project has turned out to be a cash cow, with tens of millions of tax payers dollars being spent on one renovation in so long a period.
As Grand Bassa County District #4 Representative, Vincent Willie said in the House Plenary back in August 2019: “We can consider it as political dragon that is eating the Liberian people’s money.”