The Executive Branch of government was required to submit a draft fiscal 2008/9 budget along with specified reports and supporting documents to the National Legislature by the 20th of May, 2008. The budget was reportedly submitted on schedule. Bravo to the Executive. Also, President Sirleaf promised to provide the required reports and supporting documents the following week. This, of course, implies that the government did not meet the deadline as required by law. According to the 2007/8 Budget Act which reads:

“AN ACT TO APPROVE THE BUDGET FOR THE FISCAL PERIOD BEGINNING JULY 1, 2007 ND ENDING JUNE 20, 2008 PROVIDING FOR EXPENDITURE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF LIBERIA” it is required that the President submits FY/2008-2009 draft budget to the Legislature on or before May 20, 2008.

Also, Section-VI -Budget Performance oversight By the Legislature - of the above mentioned law requires that “Each spending entity for which appropriations have been made in this budget shall include, in its annual report for FY/2007/2008 a measurable indication along with explanatory notes of the quantitative and qualitative results of spending the appropriations provided. This shall constitute the Performance Report of the entity, which shall be submitted to the President for on-ward submission to the Legislature.” Should the passage of the current budget be hinged on these reports?

Section-IX of this Act titled SUBMISSION OF THE FY/2008-2009 NATIONAL BUDGET also specifies that ”Each spending Entity shall, at the time of presentation of the draft FY/2008-2009 budget to the Legislature by the President, submit to the Legislature, a Budget Performance Report of their respective entities indicating the quantitative and qualitative results of spending the appropriations herein provided. This report shall be the basis upon which the Legislature will determine the effectiveness of the respective entities funded in this budget.” Has this been done? Did the respective Ministries comply with the law?

The law mentioned above establishes a deadline for the submission of the budget to the Legislature but does not provide a timetable (deadline) for passage of the budget. This might be a suggestion worth considering for the current draft budget. If the Executive Branch is given a deadline to submit the budget, it is only fair that the Legislative Branch be given a deadline to approve the budget.

Because there has been no outcry from our Legislators in public on the non-performance of the Executive Branch as regards submitting required documents and reports, we can assume that the required documents have now been provided.

The budget documents may now be in the hands of the proper authorities (The Liberian Legislature), who will not only ensure that the nation’s priorities are adequately reflected in our nation’s fiscal plan, but will also provide proper oversight to ensure that the funds are spent efficiently and effectively for purposes intended. The unfortunate event here is that there are no audited reports to authenticate the government’s submission. With less than 21 days to a new fiscal period, the General Auditing Commission (GAC) is still awaiting essential documents required for conclusion of its audit of the Ministry of Finance and the Liberian government comprehensive account.

Our Legislators, like their colleagues in many developing countries, may not have the technical competence to do justice to their constitutional mandate of providing proper oversight. But, they have adopted the right attitude by humbling themselves to training programs and conferring with experts in the area of financial management for guidance. For this, I salute them.

Best budget practices dictate that civil society is provided equal access to the draft national budget in order to offer its input. To date, I have heard of no medium for the effectuation of this scenario. Normally, the budget is placed on the Ministry of Finance website for public information. Unfortunately, this has not yet been done. An insider hinted to me that the Legislature has not approved the budget; hence it can not be made public. This notion may have been valid many decades ago; but can no longer survive in best practices of modern fiscal management.

I would like to make a special appeal to the Budget Director, Honorable Augustine Ngafuan, Minister Antoinette Sayeh, Chairman of the Budget Committee, and the appropriate committees of the National Legislature to make the draft budget document available to the public via at the earliest possible date. As a standard, I would suggest that the Budget be made available to the public for debate no less that 30 days prior to passage.

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