By Pewu Y. Sumo
MONROVIA – In a massive, multi-administration accountability dragnet, the Joint Public Accounts, Expenditure, and Audit Committee of the 55th Legislature has summoned a sweeping roster of powerful financial heavyweights—spanning three successive presidential administrations—to face a high-stakes public probe into how billions in government tax revenues were handled.
The sweeping legislative inquiry, scheduled to kick off on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, at the Chamber of the House of Representatives, is designed to dissect a critical and highly sensitive Auditor General’s Report: The Special Reconciliation Audit of Government Tax Revenue Collected Through Government Transitory Bank Accounts and the Consolidated Accounts.
The audit covers a six-year fiscal window from July 1, 2018, to December 31, 2024—a period that encapsulates the tail end of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf era, the entirety of George Weah’s presidency, and the opening year of President Joseph Nyuma Boakai’s current administration.
By summoning officials past and present, the Joint Committee is signaling that no political era will be exempt from scrutiny regarding the potential leakage or mismanagement of state funds through transitory bank accounts.
The witness list reads like a Who’s Who of Liberian macroeconomic governance over the last decade, forcing bitter political rivals and current policy drivers to sit before the same microphone.
The Financial Chiefs Summoned to Testify Includes:
- James Dorbor Jallah – Commissioner General, Liberia Revenue Authority (January 2024 – Present)
- Rufus Mahn – Commissioner for Internal Audit, Liberia Revenue Authority (January 2018 – Present)
- Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan – Minister of Finance and Development Planning (September 2024 – Present)
- Boima S. Kamara – Former Minister of Finance and Development Planning (January 2024 – July 2024)
- Samuel D. Tweah, Jr. – Former Minister of Finance and Development Planning (January 2018 – December 2023)
- Elwood T. Netty – Controller General, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (January 2024 – Present)
- Prince Lighe Sr. – Deputy Controller and Accountant General (July 2015 – Present)
- Janga A. Kowo – Former Controller General, Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (January 2018 – December 2023)
- Henry F. Saamoi – Executive Governor, Central Bank of Liberia (July 30, 2024 – Present)
- Milton Alvin Weeks – Former Executive Governor, Central Bank of Liberia (April 2016 – 2018)
- Nathaniel R. Patray – Former Executive Governor, Central Bank of Liberia (2018 – November 2019)
- Jolue Aloysius Tarlue – Former Executive Governor, Central Bank of Liberia (November 2019 – July 30, 2024)
The investigation is not limited to government actors. In a move that highlights deep-seated anxieties over how commercial banking institutions interface with state treasury accounts, the Committee has also commanded the leadership of eight major commercial banks to participate in the hearings.
The institutions facing legislative scrutiny include:
Ecobank Liberia
Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Liberia
United Bank for Africa (UBA) Liberia
Liberia Bank for Development and Investment (LBDI)
Afriland First Bank Liberia
Bloom Bank Africa Liberia
International Bank (Liberia) Limited
First International Bank (FIB) Liberia
At the heart of this legislative showdown is the management of government “transitory accounts”—intermediary bank accounts where taxpayer funds are temporarily held before being swept into the main Consolidated Fund.
Historically, these accounts have been flagged by financial integrity watchdogs as high-risk zones for revenue diversion, unspent balances, and reconciliation discrepancies.
By covering the period up to December 31, 2024, the Committee is putting the current Boakai administration on notice that its early fiscal management will be measured by the exact same yardstick applied to the highly criticized Weah administration.
The Joint Committee has framed the exercise as a fulfillment of its constitutional oversight to ensure sound financial governance, but in a politically charged environment, the upcoming hearings are bound to be a zero-sum game of finger-pointing, systemic exposure, and a test of whether the 55th Legislature has the teeth to enforce accountability.
The public, civil society organizations, and international development partners are expected to pack the gallery on Wednesday as the first round of testimonies begins at 11:00 AM.
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