The Speaker of the House of Representatives J. Fonati Koffa has threatened to shut down the House if the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning cannot meet the operational needs of that august body.
Speaker Koffa’s statement was trigged by information from the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) Commissioner General Dorbor Jallah when he appeared before Plenary on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, stating that the entity has overly performed in generating revenue from January to June 2024.
Commissioner Jallah told members of the House of Representatives that LRA has raised US$316, 000,449 instead of the US$308,000,612 target given them for the period under review.
Speaker Koffa said it is frustrating to hear that LRA has overly performed in collecting revenues and House of Representative is yet to receive its budgetary support from the Ministry of Finance.
He said members of the House should not be borrowing from money changes and banking institution to provide for their gas while instruments should be available for lawmakers to work effectively are lacking.
“LRA Commissioner General Jallah is telling us that LRA has overly performed but Ministry of Finance is saying there is no money though they supported the Liberian Senate retreat in Grand Bassa County,” Speaker Koffa said.
The Speaker revealed that the House has only received two months benefits and was forced to postpone their planned retreat while running behind NGOs to support this worthy venture.
According to him, Chair and Co-Chairman of House Committee on Ways, Means and Finance have spent days at office of the finance minister but cannot get any complete answer on their benefits.
