By Festus Poquie
The opposition Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) has called on Liberia’s Legislature and the Speaker of the House to send the Government’s Draft FY2026 budget back to the Executive for revision. CDC said the proposed US$1.211 billion spending envelope rests on speculative revenues and creates substantial fiscal and execution risks.
In a detailed assessment released Monday, the CDC’s Budget Review Committee said core domestic revenue without a US$200 million contingent AML signature bonus would stand at about US$940 million — only US$135 million more than FY2025 collections and dependent on aggressive tax administration to be achieved.
The party argued that the signature bonus and other one-off inflows are uncertain and should be excluded from the budget baseline until legally certified.
The party flagged the Public Sector Investment Program (PSIP) — budgeted at US$281 million as particularly vulnerable.
CDC analysts said most PSIP allocations hinge on the anticipated AML payment and lack project readiness details such as designs, procurement plans and implementation timelines, increasing the risk that capital projects will stall if the windfall fails to materialize.
Wage and debt concerns were also prominent. While the draft lists a US$329 million wage bill, CDC calculations including a new US$26 million “other compensation” line put the true wage cost at about US$352 million — roughly 37.8 percent of core domestic revenue.
The party pressed for disaggregation of the US$26 million to reveal beneficiaries and to reclassify it under compensation for transparency and IMF monitoring under the current ECF program.
On debt, the draft proposes US$230 million in total servicing — an increase of roughly US$70 million over FY2025 and including a new US$55 million interest line. CDC urged alignment with the General Auditing Commission’s domestic debt audit and requested an independent debt sustainability and fiscal risk assessment within 45 days.
CDC outlined eight policy demands intended to tighten fiscal discipline: return and conservatively recast the budget; exclude speculative revenues from the baseline; appropriate contingent windfalls only via supplementary budgets after legal receipt; ring-fence one-off inflows for capital investment; publish a PSIP readiness report within 30 days; commission an independent debt assessment; increase payroll transparency; and accelerate Liberia Revenue Authority reforms with quarterly progress tied to disbursements.
The opposition warned that failure to adopt these measures could trigger midyear shortfalls, stalled infrastructure projects, weakened donor confidence and a reversal of recent fiscal credibility gains.
“Passing a budget built on sand is not patriotism; it is peril,” the CDC said, urging lawmakers to “return the budget, reframe it, rebuild Liberia on solid ground.”
Finance Minister Augustine Ngafuan insists the budget is realistic and that there will be no revenue shortfall.
The budget must still proceed through the Legislature, where debate over revenue assumptions and spending priorities is likely to shape Liberia’s fiscal posture for 2026.
