Minister Tweah Challenges IAA to Take Public Financial Management to a New Level

Monrovia, Liberia - Finance and Development Planning Minister, Honorable Samuel D. Tweah Jr., has challenged the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) to take Public Financial Management and transparency to a new level. He described the new level as PFM 2.0. He said ‘’ most of what government has been doing in the past (15) fifteen years was to restructure, re-orient, and re-organize”.

Minister was speaking on Friday, July 28 at the IAA’s Transparency and Integrity Collaborative Forum held under the theme “Taking IAA to the People” at the Monrovia City Hall. The forum brought together participants from various anti-graft institutions, as well as, representatives from Ministries, Agencies, Commissions, Public Corporations, Civil Society Organizations and development partners for the purpose ofconsulting on strengthening of collaboration in support of the IAA’s mandate and core functions to foster transparency and accountability of public funds.

Minister Tweah emphasized the need to clean up all the other systems before the 2022 calendar year’s budget. He named the GAC, PPCC, LACC and IAA as anti-graft institutions that need to be seriously looked at due to their critical roles in ensuring transparency and accountability in public financial management.

He admonished the IAA to be more meticulous and robust in theexecution of its mandate and cautioned the IAA that it does not work for Ministers of government. The Minister said that the issue of funding should not be a concern for the IAA since it can generate sufficient financial resources through efficient execution of the PFM Law which would enable it attract financial support on its own by building public trust in expending public finances.

The Minister also stressed that the IAA is the first line of defense in the chain of public financial management system of accountability and preventing fraud which means that compliance checks done by IAA should be impeccable. He said the lack of optimal performance by the IAA to ensure impeccability of compliance checks puts additional burden on the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.