By Grace Q. Bryant
The Director General of the Civil Servant Agency (CSA), Josiah Joekai, has announced that the government of former President George Weah’s expenditure on consultancy services for the last fiscal year amounted to a staggering US$6.1 million, thus bloating the government’s payroll.
He said, in stark contrast, the CSA has proposed a consultancy budget allocation of US$2,000,000 for the upcoming fiscal period, reflecting an impressive savings of US$4.1 million.
Addressing the Ministry of Information press briefing yesterday, the CSA boss noted that this fiscal prudence, coupled with implementing the brand-new consultancy policy guidelines, promises to yield substantial dividends for the government.
According to him, with this austerity measure, the government can now redirect the US$4.1 million savings to other basic services, including education, agriculture, health care, and sanitation, consistent with the ARREST Agenda.
Director Joekai disclosed that 67,746 personnel across 103 governmental spending entities were also added on the government payroll, something he said translates to an alarming average monthly wage expenditure of US$23,543,874.64.
Joekai further revealed that key among those institutions facing these issues is the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, of which a significant portion of the workforce, represented by 69 individuals could not be properly accounted for, which makes them ghost employees.
He also narrated that 98 employees of the Liberia National Police (LNP) remained untraceable, raising suspicions of fictitious personnel on the government payroll, something he said would need a holistic approach to address the situation.
The CSA boss maintained that the regular internal controls audits and assessments conducted by the Internal Audit Agency (IAA) consistently unveiled numerous detrimental issues persistently undermining the integrity and efficiency of the civil service.
He stressed that the US$6.1 million used for consultancy services is an astronomically high expenditure that does not reflect the quality of the job or consultancy provided by those hired by the past administration.
“We reviewed the folders of 18 consultants selected, employed, and remunerated, and none of the 18 consultants received a contract until after nine months into the so-called annual engagement and eight did not have valid contracts in their folders,” he emphasized.
Joekai further intoned that only 12 consultants participated in a headcount exercise, while the remaining six did not show up to date and are still unaccounted for, despite receiving payment, noting, “So, they are ghosts because no reports for services provided, no performance appraisal report, timesheets and TOR.”
He, at the same time, stated that the revelation of these disparities underscores the urgent need for comprehensive reforms to rectify egregious discrepancies and prevent further misuse of public funds, adding, “Such reforms are imperative to restore our civil service’s efficiency, responsiveness, integrity, and ensure accountability and transparency.”
Meanwhile, Joekai revealed that the CSA has taken decisive action by requesting the General Auditing Commission (GAC) to examine payroll compliance across all 103 spending entities forensically, stressing that the audit will cover the period January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023, and will provide vital insights into the extent of financial mismanagement and irregularities within the system.
He added that the government of President Joseph Boakai fully supports the critical national initiative and is committed to providing the necessary resources to facilitate the CSA and GAC’s effective execution of the audit.
