The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have engaged with the Legislative Caucus Chairs from Bong, Lofa, Maryland, Grand Kru, and River Gee Counties on the recent consultations of the Counties Development Agenda and the formulations of the National Agenda for Inclusive Development (AID).
During the engagement on Friday, September 27, 2024 in Monrovia, Finance Minister, Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan disclosed that the timeline given for the formulation of the AID which will supersede the ARREST Agenda is ambitious; therefore, the government cannot retreat because of the challenges ahead.
The Finance Minister said his Ministry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will meet President Joseph N. Boakai to discuss the submission period of AID.
Ngafuan said that the county development plan is meant to solicit views from citizens in rural parts of the country, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to ensure that their inputs are factors in the AID which will give everyone the chance to be heard through for the next six years. He added that the Executive Branch of Government through the Ministry of Finance will submit the Fiscal Year 2025 National Budget before the end of November 2024.
Given an overview, Assistant Minister for Development Planning at the MFDP Wellington Barchue said, “On July 22nd we, MFDP, and MIA met with AID, the public sectors on investment programs, the 15 counties development agenda in which we [MFDP, MIA] divided the consultations into two parts namely, the sub-national level and the National level, conducted and completed on August 15, 2024.
According to him, since the completion of the consultations process, MFDP and MIA have been instrumental in providing the necessary support to the two consultancy firms that were hired to develop these development plans into the National Agenda for Inclusive Development (AID).
For his part, Senator Prince K. M oye, who chairs the Bong Legislative Caucus, lauded the Finance and Internal Affairs Ministries for what he called “great initiatives”. Senator Moye expressed his profound gratitude to both ministries for soliciting citizens’ views of the county, especially what they want in terms of developments.
The Bong County senator said, “I am excited to be a part of this engagement because, prior to the enactment of the Local Government Act of 2018 legislative caucuses were the ones deciding developments for their counties, making it difficult for the completions of said projects and the subsequent neglects by the people because they were left out the decision-making process.”
