By D. Wa Hne, Jr. (Former Deputy Director General for Research and Consultancy LIPA)
We write and write and write and we ask ourselves these painful questions: Are there readers still existing in our Country? Is Government media services still placing before their bosses’ critical articles and analyzing them to their bosses?
Or is there a negative attitude that waves aside important issues that demand state solutions? Whatever it is, we still find ourselves writing. What we write today becomes history tomorrow and that’s our consolation.
Reforms When reforms in government do not hurt the personal interests of leaders, then they are cosmetics and only intended to impress international partners and citizens that something is being done to make government effective, efficient, productive and systematic, while the interior corridors actually remained the same.
The Liberia Revenue Authority Commissioner General boasted that LRA was reorganized, and its machineries were tactfully in place to generate the projected $1.2b National Budget. This writer researched the possibilities and endorsed the calculations of Commissioner General Dorbor Jallah and his team based on reforms instituted and the reputation of the Commissioner General. But unfortunately, Dorbor and his team have failed.
They collected below the target, though not so badly. The question now is why? Some analysts believe that Jallah’s over-confidence, sterned attitudes, bossing his lieutenants around, and unfriendly approaches in dealing with his external colleagues may be the cause of this missed-target.
But far from the above are underlying technical and administrative reasons that can be cited. Commissioner General Dorbor Jallah built his calculations on overblown and unrealistic projections and also heavily relied on uncollectable tax debts owed the Government that are still represented on the books which should have passed as bad debts.
Research further shows that State Owned Enterprises have had and still have serious compliance problems in meeting their revenue obligations. There has always been deficits recorded. The LRA lacks significant compliance enforcement powers. It relies on the Justice Ministry (JM) to enforce collection. On the other hand, the JM failure impacts against the achievement of LRA projected deliverables. Besides compliance difficulties, the Liberia Revenue Generating Processes are fragmented.
State Owned Enterprises have sole powers to handle internal revenues collection on an independent basis which truncates transparency and accountability. In other words, LRA access to internal revenue generating accounts makes it difficult to verify actual amounts collected and to conduct reconciliation. Further, SOEs are deficient on timely revenue collection which affects the integrity of the Budget process. This is followed by inadequate system of reporting and oversighting.
My research shows that 11 out of 20 SOEs submitted their quarterly report with only 4 of them being on time. These inefficiencies were captured in my last article on the LRA. The SOEs are like a porous border where illegal activities take place without the knowledge of the assigned authorities and in this specific case, LRA. Political Will Needed Reforms are meant to strengthen systems and make them effective.
When critical questions and substantive responses are placed on the backburner and suppressed during reform processes, or wave aside deliberately, the system might seem to function overtly, but internally, they are treated on the peripheral and consigned to mere theory.
Reform is like a leak that has to be mended. Our revenue system has many leakages which rob the nation in dollars and cents. Unless we do something about it, our projections will always be defied and unobtainable. Key SOEs that were relied on to achieve the $1,2b budget target fell far short of their own projections. Where can the leakage be traced? LPRC.
projected $5m USD for FY2025 but remitted $799.139. What went wrong? Where is the balance which is so huge? The management has again increased its projection to $11.2m for 2026 without documentations to support. Dorbor may again rely on such projection and boast aloud what his collectible would be. The National Ports Authority presentation was incomplete and inadequate; there was allegedly no financial statements for 2024 and 2025. How did this happen?
Amazing! Liberia Maritime, considering the fact that it has the highest registry with a stable payment environment, refused to increase a legitimate assessment of $20m. NAFAA and LTA projections were also overblown and unrealistic. Yet LRA relied on those projections. State-Owned Enterprises were expected to contribute $12.37m but raised only $8.44m which anchored on a $3.88m deficit.
Design A Central Collection Policy The leakages in the Liberia Revenue Envelop are enormous and the porous environments too many. Actions must therefore be taken. Such action might close important Windows of interests to leaders, but transparency and accountability are more important. There should be established a Central Collection of Revenues. This means that SOEs will not handle their own Revenue Collection.
The LRA must handle all collections, have access to internal revenue generating accounts, and remit whatever percentage the laws agreed upon to the accounts of SOEs as revenue generating agencies. This might mend the hidden holes in the bucket. There is a lot to be done to increase government revenue base. But these come with strong political wills.
For example, more Governmental Reforms are required in many areas to cause increase in GoL revenues. Instead of giving more money to the Ministry of Agriculture for rice or food sufficiency without results, set up independent structure such as Liberia Rice Development and Investment Agency or Authority to take full charge.
Carved from the Ministry of Mines and Energy the Cartographic Department and set it up as an Authority to ensure that Liberia benefits from mineralization and sound management of its natural resources.
There are so much structural reforms required to boost Liberia’s revenue activities and close doors to exploitations and mismanagement. We need UP to be strong in protecting Liberia resources and more efficient in managing our money.
