The Government of Liberia through the Civil Service Agency (CSA) says it will end all salary payment transactions through the use of mobile money. Speaking Tuesday, October 1, 2024, at the Ministry of Information regular press briefing CSA Director General Josiah Joekai said the mobile money payment platform was being abused by unscrupulous individuals.
The platform was initially designed to address the specific challenge of paying employees in remote areas with no access to banking services, however, Joekai said this vulnerability has been exploited by individuals who manipulate the system to their advantage.
“While the intent behind the platform was well-intentioned, the lack of proper oversight and control measures has allowed it to become a tool for corruption,” he said. The CSA Director General said the government has a responsibility to safeguard public resources and closing the platform is the most effective way to address the issue while developing a more secure alternative.
He said this is necessary to protect public funds and ensure accountability in public financial management, as preliminary investigation revealed significant misuse of the platform with individuals exploiting it to steal money from the government.
Joekai further explained that by allowing these fraudulent activities to continue, public resources are drained, undermining the ability of the government to provide essential services and eroding public trust. He said the closure of the platform is a critical step toward restoring financial and payroll integrity and preventing future misappropriation of public funds.
“We have communicated with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) for our both institutions, the CSA and MFDP, to jointly carry out an immediate full-scale in-depth investigation into the operations of the Mobile Money Unit at the Ministry,” he said.
Moreover, he said individuals were paid from the platform who have zero relationships with the government and individuals whose names on the payroll did not match the names associated with the mobile money number, while others received payments of up to four times in a single month.
“We are not making up these stories, we have all the statements of transactions from December 2023 to July 2024,” he said. Predicated upon these findings, the CSA has announced that the mobile money payroll of the government is closed effective October 31, 2024, and legitimate employees on this payroll should transition to the bank payment method as issued by the CSA on September 23, 2024.
