By S. Siapha Mulbah
Liberian activist in exile, Martin K.N. Kollie, has termed figures reflecting in the approved national 2024 budget as a serious contradiction to the rescue agenda on which President Joseph Boakai and the Unity Party was elected in the November 7, 2023 presidential runoff elections.
Activist Kollie, explained yesterday morning to national radio talk-show that the national envelope is not intended to seek the interest of the ordinary people.
He laid out the basis of his argument on grounds that the country has financial constraints with cardinal priority issues but the government and legislature selfishly continue to allot more monies to individual offices than the accounts of institutions that will seek the welfare and livelihood development of the citizens.
According to him, the drafted national budget that was presented to the national legislature months in the past before meeting approval actually demonstrated signs that the UP-led government would have instituted change, but with the approved version published on the website of the ministry of Finance and Development Planning the same bad governance practiced by previous leaders is glaring to continue.
He further argued that the drafted budget had a little over US$ 6 million for the operation of the offices of the top five public officials namely, the office of the President, Vice President, speaker, senate pro-tempore and deputy speaker respectively.
The contradiction is noted in the case of activist Kollie that the same top five officials’ offices that had over US$6 million budgeted now graciously increased to more than US$11 million in the approved national budget.
He said the increase in the President’s budget from 2.46 million in the draft to 2.99 million was unrealistic and means that the Liberian leader somersaulted from his initial promises made to the people of Liberia during the campaign period.
Martin Kollie explained that the increase in the president’s budget signaled the Legislature to increase their budget without considering what could be done with the rapid increase; a draft budget then allotted US$38.3 million to the Legislature but after review it increased to 53.3 million.
Providing this analysis, the activist maintained that a government in a country ranked the eight poorest nations in the world should be concerned about making things work in the best interest of the citizens rather than getting the pockets of its leaders full with the state resources.
“We promised our people during the election that when they vote for us, we will change their lives. We never told our people that we were coming to power to get rich at the expense of the government, that is the contract that made them vote on the rescue mission we presented to them,” Kollie asserted.
He, however, called on President Boakai to reflect on the trust imposed in him by the majority portion of the population and work in their interest as he promised them during the campaign. “This President came to change the system according to the agenda he brought and we that were part of the agenda have to call him to stand for what he came to change for our country.”
