No Violation of Travel Ordinance on Finance Minister’s Official Trip To China

Monrovia, Liberia - The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning has clarified that it has in no way violated the Revised Travel Ordinance of 2016/2017 on the Finance Minister’s official trip to China as reported in the Thursday, September 6, 2018 edition of the FrontPage Africa Newspaper under the caption “Liberia: ‘Pro-Poor Gov’t Minister Pays US$16K to Upgrade from Business to First Class for Beijing”.

According to the Ministry’s Release, the purchase of the Minister’s ticket to Beijing, China was in accordance with the Government of Liberia Revised Travel Ordinance of 2016/2017 which changed the traveling class of the Minister of Finance and Development Planning as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs from economy to business class.

The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning in its release has also clarified that officials or employees of government traveling on official government business abroad are free at their own will and expense to upgrade their ticket with absolutely no financial burden to the government.

Furthermore, the Ministry says it has no knowledge of the purported ticket published by FrontPage Africa that the paper claims belongs to Minister Tweah and was purchased from Worldwide Air Service in Osu, Ghana.

However, the Finance Ministry has said that contrary to this deliberate falsehood being peddled by the FrontPage Africa, the authentic ticket purchased by the Ministry for Hon. Samuel D. Tweah’s trip to China was purchased from Jos Travels and Tours, Inc. in Monrovia.

The Ministry also adds that contrary to the concerns raised by the FPA’s story about adherence to the Procurement Policy, all procurement compliance requirements were met.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning added that under the stewardship of Hon. Samuel D. Tweah, Jr., the Ministry will vigorously drive the Pro-poor Agenda of the government and is committed to ensuring the upholding of financial standards and regulations that guide against waste and abuse of public resources with the ultimate goal of effectively utilizing public resources in order to narrow the gap between the rich and poor.