The Finance Minister speaking at the regular Press Briefing at the Ministry of Information Culture Affairs and Tourism Friday, March 16, said he had communicated the President’s mandate to the Comptroller and Accountant General and instructed him to set into place an effective mechanism that will ensure that civil servants receive their pay on or before the 25th of every month in accordance with the President’s mandate. He said that the process will provide a deadline for submissions of payrolls by various government entities in order to address the delays that have often attended the salaries payment process.
Minister Tweah warned that according to the new salaries payment plan, any entity that does not submit an hour after the deadline will be flagged in a publication in cabinet circle and identified as entity that is lagging behind in meeting up with the President’s salary payments deadline mandate.
The country’s Finance Boss disclosed that the adherence to the directive of the President relative to the payment of civil servants’ salaries not later than the 25th will begin to take full effect this month (March).
Meanwhile, Finance and Development Planning Minister Hon. Samuel D. Tweah has disclosed that the government has been able to generate about US$9 million in savings from the recast FY17/18 budget. He said the recast was done with the deliberate focus of cutting waste and effectively directing the fiscal space to the people of the country. Minister Tweah said while it is true that the government of President Weah inherited a very difficult economic situation, the focus of the government has been on stabilizing the fiscal space something he said they have been successful in doing so far and through that the government is able to pay salaries and engage in meaningful activities to directly impact the lives of people who are not even earning pay checks. He further said that working with the leadership of both Houses of the National Legislature, the President has reallocated the US$9 million saving arising primarily from huge cuts to salaries and spending on goods and services among others to financing pro-poor projects that would benefit the lives of the people of the country.
Some of the pro-poor projects in the recast budget and their respective budgetary allocations are: the payment of WASSCE fees for all 12th Graders in public and private schools across the country (US$1.9 million); maintenance of traffic and street lights and construction of new street lights in Monrovia and the RIA Highway (US$600,000); providing digital registration system for the University of Liberia and the provision of WiFi in key locations on the main campus of the University(US$300,000); equipment and facilities upgrade of the J.F.K Medical Center in Monrovia (US$500,000); government-backed credit line to stimulate private sector development (US$1 million); road maintenance (US$2million); professional skills development to increase the number of local Liberian experts (US$500,000), among others.
Meanwhile, with respect to the US$3.9 million budget proposed by the National Elections Commission for the conduct of two senatorial by-elections in Montserrado and Bong Counties to fill the vacant seats of former Senators George M. Weah and Jewel Howard-Taylor, respectively, Minister Tweah asserted that budget experts at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning have meticulously determined that the by-elections can be conducted at a more realistic cost between US$1.2 million to US$1.5 million. He said similar stringent reviews of budgetary proposals by spending entities will be applied to ensure that quality service deliveries are provided at the most minimum and reasonable cost so that savings can be redirected to other major needs like health, education and roads infrastructure.
