LPP on Boakai’s Back -Wants GoL Account for Creditors’ Whopping $200m

MONROVIA – The Liberian People’s Party (LPP) is demanding President Joseph N. Boakai administration to submit an explanation and/or a schedule of the expenditure of the $203M received from creditors in 2024.

The party said in a statement that the Liberian Government borrowed additional $203M in 2024 more than the $48M it projected in 2024 budget as money to be borrowed.

LPP calculation showed total debt at the end of 2024 was $2.588B and that the debt at the end of 2023 was $2.337B, quoting the 2024 Liberia National Budget.

“Additional loans borrowed in 2024 was $251M ($2.588B minus $2.337). The $203M to be accounted for is determined when one deducts $48M from $251M,” the LPP, one of Liberia’s oldest political parties said, further referencing 2025 Liberia National Budget.

The LPP said it was aware that projected revenue and expenditures are usually different from the actual numbers, therefore, the Boakai administration included the 2024 Recast within the 2025 budgetary documents.

“Without any explanation, the administration didn’t include within the 2024 revised numbers the $203M revenue and/or goods and services,” said the party in a release signed by chairman J. Yanqui Zaza.

The LPP claimed that the Boakai administration does not have to revise the expenditure if the authorities used the $203M loan to make up the shortfall of the $718M revenue projected.

Again, it stressed, even though the administration has not indicated that it had a revenue shortfalls, the Boakai administration should document and report the correct revenue and/or expenditure.

“Interestingly, the $48M loan (i.e., projected loan for the revenue shortfalls) was minuscule in comparison to the loans of $138M and $178M projected and received in 2022 and 2023 respectively,” the LPP said, citing page 21 of the 2025 Budget.

According to the LPP, the history of revenue shortfalls in 2022 and 2023 might not help the administration in determining how to account for the $203M, nonetheless reviewing the expenditures might help if the 2024 documents are not available.

LPP recommended that the Boakai administration should revisit and verify the total debts of $2.337B as the total borrowed money at the beginning of 2024 and $2.588B as the total money borrowed at the end of 2024 and review and verify the expenditures as reported in the revised expenditures in 2024.

It also called on the Boakai administration to review and verify the total revenue projected and collected during the months of January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024, and review and verify why the projected loan of $48M (i.e., the amount to make up the shortfall in revenue) was by far lower than the loans of $134M and $187M projected and received in 2022 and 2023 respectively.