BUCHANAN — The Liberian Government through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) has begun a training on Budget Disaggregation for local government officials, and key financial officers mainly from the health and education sectors.
The training that kicked off on October 12 runs until the 17th and is being held in Buchanan City, Grand Bassa County.
Acting Finance Minister Anthony G. Myers at the start of the event, said that it was the start of a fundamental transfer of authority to local leadership across the country.
“This is the beginning of the end of the realization of decentralization,” Acting Minister Myers declared to an audience of CEOs, County Superintendents, and treasury officers.
“You’re giving them power. You’re giving them responsibility. Why is the authority? The resources! They need the resources to execute that responsibility.”
Minister Myers promised that county officials will soon be able to “look through the budget of each ministry and agency and know how they are spending their resources across the country.” This would allow, for example, a superintendent in Grand Bassa to see exactly how much the Ministry of Education is spending within the county.
To facilitate this, the government is expanding its County Treasury system.
Myers announced that starting next year, six new county treasuries will be added to the existing four, bringing the total to ten. While not all fifteen counties will have a dedicated treasury immediately, he assured that “all fifteen counties will have access to county treasurer services,” with some sharing resources until the next expansion phase.
Minister Myers criticized the current system where all procurement is centralized in Monrovia, even for events held in other counties.
“You have a restaurant, or a hotel, or a catering service in Buchanan, and then the procurement has to be done in Monrovia,” he said. “One of the things that this strategy will do for the local economies… will be, business people will know how much ministries and agencies are spending in their counties. And so, they can compete for contracts in those counties.
This shift is designed to empower local entrepreneurs, create jobs, and keep spending within county economies. “What we want to see is, the county administration doing procurement here, the education authorities doing procurement here,” Myers emphasized.
Internal Affairs Minister, Hon. Francis Sakila Nyumalin for his part stressed “the need to professionalize local government,” signaling an end to political appointments for key financial positions.
For his part, Comptroller and Accountant General J. Elwood Nettey delivered a blunt message on the responsibility that comes with the new financial authority. He warned that the General Auditing Commission (GAC) would scrutinize county finances with the same rigor as the national government and that excuses about a lack of capacity would not be tolerated.
“Sooner or later, you will be on the front page that you will be taking money that you will probably never see in your life just because of a documentation issue,” he cautioned, adding that officials must be prepared to “take the bullet” for their financial decisions.
The high-level training in Buchanan marks the most concrete step yet by the administration to implement financial decentralization, a policy introduced since 2012.
If successfully executed, it promises to reshape governance and economic activity across Liberia by moving power and resources closer to the people.
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