By Precious D Freeman
A non-for-profit organization called Budget IT Liberia has officially launched its fiscal year 2023 simplified budget book.
The launching ceremony, which took place in Monrovia yesterday, was under the theme: Enhancing Accountability and Promoting Citizens’ oversight on Budget Monitoring.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, Budget IT Country Leader, Abraham Varney, said that good governance and public accountability are a sine qua non for ensuring development and social order in a country.
According to him, Liberia’s inability to tackle most developmental challenges such as poverty, unemployment, and the deplorable state of infrastructure has been primarily attributed to poor governance and lack of transparency at the different levels of government.
He added that this is worsened with the wide gap between elected officials and the electorates. There is an allocation for developmental or capital projects under the Public Sector Investment Plan in Liberia’s annual budget, and the government executes these projects.
“Other government institutions, i.e., members of the legislative branch of government, use county and district development funds to implement projects. Still, these constituency projects have been a contentious issue in Liberia, as lawmakers are consistently accused of siphoning funds meant to execute these projects” he said.
The Budget IT Boss noted that Liberia’s development, elected, and appointed officials need to be accountable to citizens. In bridging this gap, Budget IT Liberia makes the Liberian budget and public data more understandable and accessible across every literacy span.
“Budget IT’s innovation within the public circle comes with the creative use of government data, by either presenting these in simple tweets, interactive formats, or info graphic displays. Our primary goal is to use creative technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional development, to drive societal change in Liberia” he stated.
According to him, the national budget outlines how much the government plans to generate and spend in a fiscal year. According to section 65(1) of the amendment and restatement of the amended PFM ACT 2021, the government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, estimated an amount of US$782.94 million of the national budget for FY 2023, which marks the second beginning of new fiscal period (January 1 – December 31).
Varney noted that the government anticipates an overall revenue of US$782.94 million this fiscal year, with an anticipated US$672.94 million coming from domestic sources, and US$110 million coming from external resources, of which $107.2 million is loan while 2.8 million is grant. Tax revenue, at US$553.61 million (82.26%), accounts for the majority of the domestic revenue, mostly from income and profit taxes, foreign trade, and goods and services. Non tax revenue is estimated to be US$119.33 million (17.73%), primarily from property income taxes.
“The national budget and public data document are the property of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP). The report produced by Budget IT Liberia is meant only to provide information on the national budget and public data, as contained in the MFDP’s document, with no extra data or figures added by Budget IT Liberia.
He emphasized that Budget IT Liberia hereby certifies that all the perspectives expressed in this document reflect analytical views with a strong belief that they are reliable and fact-based.
