There appears to be doubt over a Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) loan of US$83 million to the government of Liberia. In the wake of this uncertainty, the Liberian Senate has launched an investigation to ascertain what happened with the loan in December 2023
On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, the Senators set up a committee to investigate. Senate Pro-Tempore, Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence in Facebook post on Wednesday, said the action is a violation of the Public Financial Management (PFM) Law of 2009 (as amended), and the CBL Act.
She said an ad-hoc committee has been named to investigate the borrowing of the $83 million, which the General Auditing Commission (GAC) says the purpose and timing are suspect and the public needs a full accounting of how the government spent it.
“Borrowing and spending $83 million in less than 60 days during an election and transition season in addition to revenues that were collected and deposited in the Consolidated Account by the LRA during the same period requires explanation,” the senator said.
She said the Ad-hoc Committee and the Senate Public Account Committee (PAC) were given a mandate to establish how much the December wage bill was and why both MFDP and CBL expanded the borrowing beyond the $34 million wage bill to $83 million.
Senator Lawrence said the Senate is not accusing anyone of stealing but believes the timing of the loan was wrong, and only a thorough inquiry backed by a detailed audit of how the $83 million was expanded can bring out the facts.
“Checks were written to draw down on the $83 million. We will follow each check all the way to the vendor,” she noted.
