Monrovia City Mayor, John-Charuk Siafa has appealed to the joint committee on Ways, Means and Finance for more budgetary allocation for effective and sustainable city management.
Mayor Siafa told the committee on Tuesday, April 23. 2024 that sustainable waste management needs proper fiscal support, which the Monrovia City Corporation lacks.
He recalled in the 2023 budget, ceiling for Government of Liberia direct support to the cleanliness of Monrovia under the clean cities budget was US$600,000 with a drastic reduction of US$400,000 in the 2024 fiscal budget.
He further revealed that Data collected by the MCC indicates that to clean Monrovia City at 45%, the Monrovia City Corporation needs a total amount of US$2.8 million only for the collection, disposal, and management of waste within Monrovia’s city limits.
Siafa added that the CLUS project budgetary allocation and payment under the GOL in fiscal year 2023 was US$750,000 as opposed to the required US$1.5 million support.
He explained that this fiscal year 2024, the ceiling projected for the CLUS project has instead declined immensely to US$500,000 instead of US$1.5 million as government agreed commitment to the project.
Mayor Siafa also lamented that if the government cannot live up to its agreed US$1.5 million commitment to the counterpart funding, which he considers an error, there would be an eminent possibility for the CLUS project closure by the World Bank.
Additionally, Siafa told the legislators that the Monrovia City Corporation requires US$ 11,023,583 for the City of Monrovia’s effective and proactive functionality.
Siafa said MCC would provide US$2.8 million from internal income collection towards its budget, while the national government needs to provide 8.2 million, a sum that will improve the MCC’s function.
However, the Monrovia City Corporation has US$3.7million in the 2024 draft national budget, which is far lower than the MCC’s entire budget forecast to meet personnel and clean city efforts.
This indicates that the MCC needs an additional US$4.4 million from the national government.
