Monrovia July 7, 2014 – Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, former Prime Minister of Niger and Chief Executive Officer of the NEPAD Agency, was on Friday, July 4th, 2014 installed as Interim Chief Executive Officer of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Secretariat, succeeding Mr. Assefa Shifa who held the post ad interim since 2008.

Presiding over the handover ceremony was Hon. Amara M. Konneh, Liberia’s Acting Minister of Finance and Development Planning and Chair of the Committee of APRM Focal Points, which directs the administration of the Mechanism.

Minister Amara Konneh maintains that Liberia continues to make progress in improving the educational sector but that such feat remains slow and expenditure in the sector poorly prioritized. He warns: “We need to change that.”

According to Minister Konneh, the share of total spending on education in the national budget is low, at around 12%, although donors provide over half of spending in the sector.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is calling on the Board of Governors of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) to open up capital portfolio to non-regional members and other institutional investors in the face of the slow payments of capital by regional members.

“The admission of non-regional members will enable EBID to contribute to the economic and social development of Member States through low interest loans,” the Liberian leader suggested adding, “With a larger membership, the Bank will be endowed with greater expertise, and the credibility of its partners would allow it to have access to the markets of non-regional Member States.”

Finance Ministers from the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS are converging on Monrovia for the convening of the 12th Ordinary Meeting of the Board of Governors of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development.

The one day summit, expected to attract fifteen Ministers of Finance or the proxies will take place on Monday, June 16th at the Royal Hotel in Sinkor, Monrovia.

The Ministry of Finance is gravely concerned and disappointed with the New Republic Newspaper’s Tuesday, May 27, 2014 publication captioned: ‘’Liberia’s is doomed”, in which the paper attributed its story to Finance Minister Amara Konneh, suggesting that the Liberian economy was doomed.

The Ministry wants to state emphatically that at no time did Finance Minister Amara Konneh make such statement to the effect that the country was doomed due to the absence of new economic policy that will rescue the perishing and vulnerable economy in the country.

The Ministry of Finance has noted that some Ministries and Agencies may be committing the Government in Contractual obligations which are in excess of the appropriations authorized by the Legislature or without proper observation of the established procurement process, in contravention of the law.

Dispatch from Washington DC

Finance Minister Amara Konneh and delegation at the ongoing Spring Meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have held constructive country-level discussions with the Bank’s Vice President for Africa Maktar Diop on support for the Liberia’s development agenda, the Agenda for Transformation (AfT). 

The meeting with Mr. Diop, former Finance and Economy Minister of Senegal, centered on addressing bottlenecks affecting Liberia’s portfolio performance and disbursement rate under the International Development Association (IDA) financing arrangement on key projects, including support to the health sector, direct budget support and financing of the Red Light to Ganta-Guinea Border Road Project.

Monrovia, April 6, 2014: Finance Minister Amara Konneh will lead Liberia’s delegation to this year’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) in Washington DC, USA.

Among the primary events covering the preparation of the FY2014-2015 National Budget is the budget hearings, where the Ministries, Agencies and Commissions (MACs) present and justify their budget requests at the Ministry of Finance.

The MFDP is headed by a Minister, appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate. As administrative head of the MFDP, the Minister provides broad strategic and policy direction for the running of the institution. The Minister is further charged with formulating, institutionalizing and administering economic, development planning, fiscal and tax policies.

The office of the Minister also oversees a number of core administrative units including Legal and Internal Audit. In addition, the office also has oversight over some specialized units including the Public Finance Management Reform Unit, the EU Authorizing Office and the ECOWAS National Unit.

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To be a dynamic and efficiently managed institution of public finance, economic management and development planning to achieve sustainable economic growth and transformation.

MISSIONThe Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) is established to promote inclusive, sustainable growth and development through:• Efficient resource allocation• Equitable wealth distribution• Prudent financial management• Integrated development planning• Well coordinated economic management• Formulation and implementation of sound fiscal and economic policies

The Department of Budget and Development Planning is responsible for preparing, framing and implementing the annual budget, as well as undertaking fiscal consolidation, monitoring the budgetary position and engaging with the Legislative Budget Office (LBO) for legislative approval of the Budget.

The Department also assists with preparing development plans and providing guidance to all government agencies for preparing development programs and projects, as well as implementation and monitoring.

The Department is also responsible to advise on the allocation of resources to line ministries and agencies for the implementation of development programs and projects. It has oversight for monitoring and evaluating government’s overall development agenda and liaising with Ministries and Agencies (M&As) as well as donor partners to maximize adherence to development plans. Working with sector agencies, the Department is also responsible to appraise and approve all public investment proposals of the line ministries. In short, the Department is effectively the voice of development within government.

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The MFDP is headed by a Minister, appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate. As administrative head of the MFDP, the Minister provides broad strategic and policy direction for the running of the institution. The Minister is further charged with formulating, institutionalizing and administering economic, development planning, fiscal and tax policies.

The office of the Minister also oversees a number of core administrative units including Legal and Internal Audit. In addition, the office also has oversight over some specialized units including the Public Finance Management Reform Unit, the EU Authorizing Office and the ECOWAS National Unit.

The MFDP is headed by a Minister, appointed by the President, with the consent of the Senate. As administrative head of the MFDP, the Minister provides broad strategic and policy direction for the running of the institution. The Minister is further charged with formulating, institutionalizing and administering economic, development planning, fiscal and tax policies.

The office of the Minister also oversees a number of core administrative units including Legal and Internal Audit. In addition, the office also has oversight over some specialized units including the Public Finance Management Reform Unit, the EU Authorizing Office and the ECOWAS National Unit.

President Sirleaf's Policy Statement on Corruption

The Government of Liberia has made it clear that any action instituted in its fight against corruption will be done in keeping with the law. In a radio address Thursday on corruption,