PHOTO: Harold Aidoo, Executive Director, the Integrity Watch Liberia
By Augustine Octavius, augustineoctavius@gmail.com
One of the leading civil society organizations in the transparency sector, the Integrity Watch Liberia has said assessment has shown that a large number of government ministries and agencies are undermining the fight to sustain transparency and accountability in the country.
The Executive Director of Integrity Watch Liberia, Harold Aidoo, named the institutions as the Ministries of Education, Agriculture, Health and the Independent National Commission of Human Rights of Liberia.
Mr. Aidoo made the disclosure at a year-end press conference held at the newly acquired offices of Integrity Watch-Liberia in the Virginia Township outside Monrovia Tuesday.
According to him, there are some 16 ministries and agencies linked to undermining the fight against transparency and accountability.
“Our findings revealed that 16 out of the 62 institutions did not provide reports of achievements under the FY2022 and planned objectives for FY202. The total aggregate budget estimates of all those institutions without achievements for FY2022 and planned objectives for FY2023 projected at US$156.7 million, representing 45.2% of the combined total of the six sectors budget of US$346.8 million,” the Integrity Watch Liberia director said.
Placing US$156.7 million at the disposal of these institutions without past performance reports and planned objectives undermines accountability and transparency, the Integrity Watch Liberia says.
The group’s Executive Director stated that this is clearly a violation of Regulation D.4(4) of the Amendment and Restatement of the PFM Act of 2009 which states “Spending agencies must submit their budget requests within the parameters, timeframe and format set forth in the budget call circular”.
“Additionally, considering the concept of ‘value for money and affordability’ as one of the principles of the PFM Law, these allocations pose huge risks to prudent fiscal management and undermines government’s efforts in fiscal transparency and accountability,” Mr. Aidoo added.
In line with the regulations, the Integrity Watch Liberia is recommending to the Legislative and Executive branches of government that punitive actions be taken against some ministries and agencies for failing to file performance reports of their allotments in the 2021 national budget.
Compel all non-compliant ministries and agencies
Mr. Aidoo is therefore, recommending that the government to compel all non-compliant institutions in respect of the omission of budget policy notes in the draft national budget 2023 to provide same, ahead of or during their respective budget hearings and mandate the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning to incorporate their budget policy notes in the approved national budget which will be published.
The Integrity watch Executive Director also recommended that government enshrine legislative provisions (prohibitions and sanctions) in the FY2023 Budget Law relating to the omission of complete budget policy notes for each spending entity of the government during the preparation and submission of subsequent Draft National Budgets to the Legislature, beginning FY2024
The CSO also prescribe sanctions for non-compliance affecting all spending entities, including the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning for any failure of enforcement of the law.
The Integrity Watch Liberia has also proposed that there is a need to promulgate supplementary regulations consistent with legislative enactments prohibiting non-compliance with the Budget Call Circular and indicating specific sanctions for non-compliant institutions regarding budgeting and budget planning.
According to the Integrity Watch Liberia, the research findings from the fact sheet of the Draft National Budget confirmed the Liberian government has expressed interest and commitment to implement some of the recommendations during pre-budget consultations under the government adopted public participation mechanism.
“We applaud the government for committing to implement 2 of 4 revenue options as recommended by the citizens through pre-budget consultations,” Executive Director Aidoo told Tuesday’s press conference.
“We also applaud the government for committing to implement 6 of 20 expenditure options as recommended by the citizens through pre-budget consultations.”
The Integrity watch Liberia is recommending a review of the tax exemptions list with the objective to suspend beneficiaries of executive orders and investment incentives which is expected to yield approximately US$15 million.
“While we recognize the effort and commitment of the government in the promotion of transparency and accountability, we would also in like manner like to recommend that the response of the government to the recommendations from citizens at the pre-budget consultations be included in the budget preface, in addition to the budget fact sheet.”