The Minister of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan has warmed government heads of entities to properly manage budgetary allotments to cover the entire one-year fiscal period.
Speaking Thursday, January 9, 2025, at the beginning of a three-day workshop on the effective execution of the Fiscal Year 2025 National Budget, Minister Nyafuan urged ministers and directors appointed around April not to have the mentality of executing their entities or ministries’ budget within nine months, adding that doing so will exhaust their budgets before the budget year.
“While it is true we recognize that some ministers and directors were appointed around April, having a mentality of budget execution for nine months will exhaust the budget and your entity or ministry will turn broke soon. This budget is not for three, six or nine months, but twelve months,” Minister Ngafuan said.
Liberia’s Finance Minister called on heads of governmental institutions to do quarterly and yearly planning; saying, it will help during the budget execution.
The Minister urged heads of ministries and entities to understand the rules of the budget to better align their budget to their institutions’ execution.
He said two ministries can have the same budget but one can execute wisely, while the other does not; adding that it depends on how each ministry manages their budget.
“It is not how your budget is, it is how you use it. The reason why the government expects better budget execution this year is that last year, there were transition challenges for which the budget had to be recast, submitted in April and passed almost in May, and the same recast budget had to be reversed two times. Due to that, planning on the part of ministries and agencies was a challenge. Now, ministries and agencies have a year to plan for which there should be no excuse to do better,” he explained.
For her part, the Deputy Minister for Budget and Development Planning, Tanneh G. Brunson said the workshop is designed to refresh and deepen the understanding of policymakers and technical staff from spending entities on key fiscal rules, budget execution procedures, monitoring, and reporting.
According to her, the initiative is critical to enhancing the capacity of spending entities to execute their budgets efficiently and responsibly.
Liberia’s Deputy Minister for Budget and Development Planning revealed that the workshop will help ensure that public funds are used effectively to meet citizens’ needs while supporting the government’s broader development goals by equipping participants with the necessary knowledge and tools.
She said the workshop is to ensure the FY2025 budget is executed in alignment with the approved National Budget; deepen the understanding of fiscal rules, policies, processes, and procedures associated with budget execution, monitoring, and reporting, strengthen the capacity of spending entities to deliver timely and responsible financial and performance reporting; and foster better inter- and intra-ministerial coordination to promote the efficient, accountable, and responsible use of public funds. The workshop will bring together participants, including officials from 108 spending entities.
By Prince Saah
