According to the World Health Organization, Liberia’s under-five, infant, and newborn mortality rates stand at 93, 63, and 37 per 1,000 live births, respectively – among the highest globally.
This public health emergency is compounded by the fact that 37% of deaths in children under five are due to preventable and treatable diseases like pneumonia and diarrhea, which are directly linked to inadequate access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene.
The devastating impact of this crisis is further underscored by the World Bank’s 2020 report, which estimates Liberia’s national poverty rate for 2021 at a staggering 52.1%.
The 2019-2020 Liberia Demographic and Health Survey paints an even grimmer picture, revealing that 30% of children under five suffer from stunting, 3% from wasting, and 11% from underweight – all alarming indicators of the country’s food insecurity and malnutrition epidemic.
This narrative can change based on the responsible management of the country’s finances and resources. Corruption in Liberia starts and ends with the national budget.
If managed properly, given the size of Liberia’s natural riches, the country will be less aid reliant.
When taking office on September 16, Finance Minister Augustine Ngafuan, emphasized the culture of disciplain amongst public officials, calling for improved efficiency within the government bureaucracy and the creation of a credible budget based on realistic revenue sources.
“It is our duty to serve as an instrument to fulfill the ambition of our people,” he said, warning that the consequences of not doing the job well could have dire consequences. “In this case, we become murderers without knowing we have committed murder.” This is true!
The people of Liberia have long suffered from the brazen misuse and theft of the nation’s public funds, and the time has come to put an end to this egregious abuse of power.
Year after year, reports have emerged of lawmakers and government officials pilfering millions of dollars from the national budget, depriving the country’s impoverished citizens of vital resources and services.
This systemic corruption is enabled by a complete lack of transparency, accountability, and discipline in the budget appropriation process. Shadowy backroom deals and opaque accounting obscure the true origins and destinations of Liberia’s public revenues, which are estimated to total nearly $1 billion annually from tax collections alone.
Meanwhile, the country’s natural resource wealth remains shrouded in mystery, with little public accounting for the income generated.
The recent promise by Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan to bring credibility and transparency to the budget process is a welcome development, but it will require real courage and determination to break up the entrenched budget fraud criminal enterprise.
This will entail identifying suspicious budget line items and excising them promptly, no matter the political consequences.
Disturbingly, when lawmakers recently raised alarms about significant alterations to the current 2024 budget proposal, their calls for an external investigation by credible bodies like the General Auditing Commission were summarily ignored.
This shameful act of bad governance demonstrates the legislature’s complicity in the ongoing cover-up of budget-related crimes.
The GAC and the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission, tasked with investigating financial misdeeds, have proven woefully ineffective, choosing to remain silent even in the face of clear evidence of forgery, as alleged in the House of Representatives’ own internal probe.
The legislature’s refusal to submit to outside scrutiny is a damning indictment of its role in perpetuating this corrupt system.
The people of Liberia deserve better. Their hard-earned tax dollars and natural resource wealth must be safeguarded and used for the betterment of the nation, not siphoned off to line the pockets of unscrupulous officials.
The criminalization of the national budget must end, and the legislature must demonstrate the courage to open itself up to a thorough, independent investigation to uncover the truth and hold the culprits accountable. Anything less is a betrayal of the public trust and a grave injustice against the Liberian people.
