Good evening friends and followers:

Hon. Amara Konneh Writes:

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Tonight, I voted ‘YES’ for a $748,859,827 national budget envelope, a $46,451,000 increase over President Boakai’s budget proposals he submitted to the Legislature on March 28, 2024.

The budget the Senate voted on tonight reduced allocations in public administration by $19 million including the Legislature and increased funding to the following sectors by these figures:

1. Municipal Government = $7.4m

2. Transparency & Accountability = $$1.7m

3. Security & Rule of Law = $12.3m

4. Health = $4.4m

5. Education = $3.3m

6. Social Development = $15.5m

7. Energy & Environment = $$7.1m

8. Agriculture = $3.4m

9. Infrastructure & Basic Services = $8.9m

10. Industry & Commerce = $1.6m

My vote was contingent on the following to ensure a transparent budget execution and discourage unauthorized spending outside of the approved budget as reflected in the official fiscal outturn for FY2023, published by the former Comptroller General of the Republic of Liberia:

1. The final budget law reflects contingent revenues and contingent expenditures

2. That the Minister of Finance submits a reconciled first quarter balance of the Consolidated Account consistent with section 7 of the Revenue Code

3. In the interest of standardization and equity in compensation, the Minister of Finance and the DG of the CSA manage the Deficit Pool Fund transparently

4. The management of the County Funds is subject to banking rules and financial audits as provided by law. The final budget act should define authorized signatories on each county account and the withdrawal process

5. The Small Business Law Act reserves 25% of the Goods and Services for Liberian-owned businesses to be unscrupulously implemented competitively without any favoritism and with quarterly reporting

6. No funds shall be expended on any program projects or items of expenditures that were not included outside of the approved appropriations without Legislative approval.

7. The President didn't submit a proposal for domestic and external borrowing. Therefore, the Legislature shall approve a supplemental budget when it receives such a proposal consistent with Revenue performance, which is a function of economic performance.

In the meantime, GOL will contract no new domestic debts, will continue to service the interests on existing domestic debts, and service all external debts.

This is a far improvement that gives President Boakai more resources and spending authority to fund his Administration’s program.

The president got everything he asked for. However, the devil is always in the details, which we hope will be exactly what we voted on tonight and published for all to see, and implementation. Let this serve as a notice to those managing spending entities' budgets (DMAs and Comptrollers) that there will be no more illegal pass-throughs of unapproved resources. This is where Legislative oversight becomes relevant.

Good night!

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#OpenGovernment