The Government of Liberia has failed to address the plights of scores of dedicated volunteer teachers and health workers across the country after submitting the Draft National Budget for Fiscal Year 2025 with no allotment made to have them employed.
Giving details of the draft budget submitted to the Legislature on by President Joseph Boakai on Monday, November 18, 2024, Finance and Development Planning Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan told journalists at the Ministry of Information regular press briefing on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, that the cost to admit all volunteer workers on the payroll is very high, hovering around US$50 million, and the government cannot afford it in 2025 given the competing demands in the fiscal space.
He said there will be a multi-year process of addressing the perennial issue of volunteer workers after an exhaustive and thorough vetting exercises conducted by the ministry in conjunction with the Civil Service Agency (CSA).
However, Ministry Ngafuan announced that beginning January 2025, no central government employee will earn a monthly gross salary below the US$150 minimum as provided for in the Decent Work Act Of 2015.
Minister Ngafuan said the President authorized the allocation of more US$16,000,000 to fund the first set of measures in a multi-year effort aimed at addressing some of the remuneration concerns and challenges in the public sector.
Minister Ngafuan said this measure will result in a monthly salary increase of between US$25 and US$50.
“Nurses, midwives, and physician assistants will receive US$50 salary top-ups per month while other health workers will receive between US$25 to US$40 based on their levels,” he said.
For employees in the agriculture and security sectors, the minister said they will also benefit from monthly salary top-ups ranging from US$30-US$40 per month.
“In sum, about 28, 200 government workers representing 45% of the government workforce are set to benefit from various forms of salary top-ups in FY 2025,” he said.
Meanwhile, beginning January 2025, Ngafuan said the Government of Liberia is going to add at least US$225 to the salaries of specialist doctors who are being remunerated below their pay grades as one of the first actions towards fully regularizing salaries.
Ngafuan said the submission of the budget was done pursuant to Section 17.1 of the 2019 Amendment and Restatement of the Public Financial Management Act of 2009.
Therefore, the total revenue envelope of the Draft National Budget for FY2025 is projected at US$851.8 million, comprising Core Revenue of US$833 million or 97.8% and Contingent Revenue of 18.8 Million or 2.2%. Of this amount, Domestic Revenue constitutes US$791.76 million or 93 percent of the total envelope.
This includes Tax Revenue of US$633.72 million or 80 percent of domestic revenue, Non-Tax Revenue of US$138.5 million or 17.4 percent.
Minister Ngafuan said the external resources amount to sixty million USD or 7.0 percent of the total revenue envelope, to be sourced from the World Bank (US$40 million) and the European Union (US$20million).
“We are going to implement the provision of the National Security Act of 2015, which mandates the Government of Liberia to cover the insurance costs for all active-duty police officers. In the first-ever implementation of this law, over 5,000 members of the Liberia National Police will be provided with insurance coverage fully funded by the Government of Liberia beginning January 2025,” the Minister of Finance said.
He said this initiative is expected to offer additional support to these dedicated individuals who continue to sacrifice for the collective security of the state under challenging conditions.
It can be recalled that President Boakia presented the Fiscal Year 2025 Draft National Budget to the National Legislature in the amount of US US$851.8 Million (comprising Core Revenue of US$833 Million and Contingent Revenue of US$18.8 Million) to the Presiding Officer of the House of Representatives through the Chief Clerk.
