-Meets Lawmakers
Liberian President George Manneh Weah on Tuesday paid a visit to the Capitol Building–seat of the Legislature, where he has been holding talks with Lawmakers on some economic austerity measures to address the current economic slump.
Senate Press Director, Mr. Jalawah Tonpo said the meeting was held behind closed doors.
The President’s meeting with the Senate was presided over by the President of the Senate, Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor. Other report said the President later met with the leaderships of both Houses–the Senate and House of Representatives.
According to www.newspublictrust.com Reporter, who is at the Capitol, the meeting started approximately around 10 am GMT and was continuing by 129pm GMT.. The detail of the meeting has not been disclosed.
The meeting with the Liberian Senate comes just a day after US Embassy strong wordily statement which spoke on national issues. In the US statement, they mentioned the names of two members of the Liberian Legislature( Senator Prince Johnson and Rep. Kolubah.
Meanwhile, at a news conference held on Tuesday, Deputy Presidential Press Secretary, Mr. Smith Toby said a wide range of issues are on President Weah’s agenda, including salary cut, putting in place some austerity measures and standardizing salaries and compensations in government.
Some 4,140 government staffers in the upper category will be affected by pay cut. They include officials such as Cabinet Ministers and their deputies and heads of government agencies, heads of public corporations and their deputies.
They are those who are earning US$5,700.00 and above.
Mr. Toby said other categories of lower government workers making a monthly income of US$1,000 and above will also see their pay sliced.
The Deputy Press Secretary however said, the ordinary civil servant will not be affected by any reduction in salaries.
Since the coming into office of the CDC government, the government wage bill has swollen. During the former Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration, the number of civil servants was hovering around 40,000-44,000.
Mr. Toby has said the total number of civil servants currently stands at 71,000 plus.
Recently, President Weah sent a communication to the Legislature requesting that an extra month be given in submitting the draft national fiscal budget, as some adjustments are being made to reflect the current economic realities in the country.
“Given these developments, we have embarked on the process of deriving reasonable and attainable FY2019/2020 revenue estimates based on the current underlying macroeconomic fundamentals. This process requires time and resulting challenges in reaching a credible fiscal position has impacted our ability to have the draft budget submitted on time as per law,” President Weah said.
The Liberian leader further said: “Our revised preliminary estimate for the FY2019/2020 National Budget is a total resource envelope of US$497m. in line with prudent forecasting, the FY2019/2020 revenue forecast driving the budget preparation is based off the forecasted outturn of the US$476m, actual performance for FY 2018/2019 rather than the approved budget of US$570m.” Report by Frank Sainworla, Jr. and Mark Mengonfia