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The House Committee has accused the Deputy Chief Clerk of transmitting the Executive Mansion, a document he believed to have come from the Senate Secretary, without consulting the Speaker or his Deputy.
Monrovia, September 9, 2024: A legislative investigation into alleged budget alteration has blamed the House of Representatives Deputy Chief Clerk for transmitting to the Executive Mansion a document he received from the Senate Secretary without consulting the Speaker or his Deputy.
On August 17, 2024, House Speaker J. Fonati Koffa, in consultation with the House Leadership, constituted a Specialized Committee to investigate claims that the 2024 National Budget had been altered.
The committee found that Bong County District #2 Representative James Kolleh had made a motion stating, “Each spending entity for which appropriations have been made in this budget shall submit a Quarterly Budget Performance Report to the National Legislature.”
The motion continued that the report should be made through a Specified Procedure and reporting template to be regulated by the Public Account Committee (PAC),” and the Plenary accepted the motion.
House, the committee found that this motion was altered to “Legislative Budget Office (LBO)” instead of the PAC.
The report added that the Act to approve the National Budget was passed on Monday, April 29, 2024, at 14:50GMT during the House’s extraordinary session.
On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, the Liberia Senate concurred with the House’s Engrossed Bill No. 2 at 18:48GMT.
The committee stated that Speaker Koffa and Senate President Pro-Tempore Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence met with President Joseph Nyuma Boakai.
In their meeting, the committee disclosed that President Boakai proposed that they consider key presidential priorities.
After the meeting with President Boakai, the committee said Speaker Koffa and Pro-Tempore Karnga-Lawrence requested the Joint Ways & Means chairmen to work on revision that could accommodate key presidential priorities.
On May 5, 2024, Speaker Koffa signed the Attestation to the Budget document, which Vice President Jeremiah Koung, the Senate Secretary, and the Chief Clerk of the House subsequently signed.
On the same date, the committee said Speaker Koffa departed the country for the United States.
On May 7, 2024, the Committee found that the Engrossing Clerk transmitted the approved budget to the Office of the President for signature and publication.
During its investigation and cross-examination, the committee found that the stenographer-engrossing clerk said, “The budget was sent to the Senate for concurrence.”
“The concurred Budget was sent back to the House for onward submission to the Executive Mansion,” the committee explained.
After the Executive Mansion received the National Budget, the committee noted that the engrossing clerk received a call from the engrossing clerk of the Senate, who informed her that his boss, the Secretary of the Senate, had requested that the budget be recalled from the Executive Mansion due to “errors.”
After the call was made, the Engrossing Clerk told the committee that “she was authorized by her boss (Deputy Chief Clerk) to withdraw the budget from the Executive Mansion.”
On the morning of May 8, 2024, the committee said the Engrossing Clerk advised the Deputy Chief Clerk that she had concerns about the unorthodox manner of recalling the Budget.
According to the committee, the Deputy Chief clerk acknowledged the concerns of the Engrossing Clerk.
On May 8, 2024, the Deputy Chief Clerk received from the Secretary of the Senate a document that he believed to be the replacement budget document.
“The Deputy Chief clerk did not check to verify the content of the document he received, nor did he inform the Chief Clerk or communicate with the Office of the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker who was Acting as Presiding in the absence of the Speaker,” the report said.
The Deputy Chief clerk allegedly transmitted the document received from the Secretary of the Senate to the Executive Mansion in May 2024.
The engrossing clerk retrieved the original budget on May 8, 2024, and filed it according to the procedure of the Chief clerk’s office.
When the inquiry began, the original budget document was missing from the file cabinet in which it was stored.
The committee indicated that the Deputy Chief clerk was unable to explain how the signature of Speaker, who was out of the country, signed the document on May 8, 2024.
“The Ministry of Finance Development Planning claimed to have realigned and classified eight
sectoral appropriations, which were noted by the committee investigations,” the report said.
The variances noted per the investigation were determined by reconciling the budget forwarded to the
President and endorsed with figures (amounts) reflected in the signed Hand Bill published by the Ministry of Finance Development Planning (MFDP).
As a result of this analysis, the committee said eight spending sector appropriations the President endorsed were decreased by the amounts reflected in the chart below.
In the committee’s investigation, MFDP further clarified the discrepancies noted were due to the wrongful classification by the Legislature, which indicated
the decrease and increase in the eight sectoral appropriations.
The Ministry clarified its actions, stating that US$638,830.00 was deducted from the Public Administration Sector and transferred to the Transparency and Accountability Sector, US$100,000.00 for the office of the Ombudsman based on its mandate and objectives.
Security and Rule of Law Sector, it transferred US$500,000.00 from the Executive Protection Service (EPS), indicating that the EPS had already transferred and allotted the funds to the entity’s depleted fuel and repairs budget line.
Thus, the deduction couldn’t be effected, which would have caused the books not to balance.
For the Municipal Government Sector, US$38,830.00 was also inputted.
A total of US$41,830.00 was added to the Municipal Government Sector due to The review of the MFDP classification or budget shifting, resulting in a typo error, thereby causing the overstatement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) in the tone of US$41,830.
