MONROVIA: It has become quite clear that Nimba County District #7 Representative Hassan Musa Bility is not taking his call to audit the National Legislature lightly. He recently used his social media page to express his frustration over years of failure by various past governments to authorize the GAC to audit the National Legislature and the failure by the National Legislature to authorize the audit of the GAC. He suspected conspiracy between the two to avoid audit. Now he is taking the bull by the horn by writing the GAC to start the Legislature’s audit process, stating that if the GAC plays down his request, he would use all resources available to him to drag the Commission to the Supreme Court with a Writ of Mandamus to compel it do the job. The Analyst reports.
A ranking member of the 55th National Legislature, Nimba County Representative Hassan Musa Bility, has initiated more pressure on the General Auditing Commission to move fast with the auditing of the National Legislature.
In a communication addressed to the Auditor General of Liberia, Mr. Bility made it clear that if his request goes unanswered or be declined, “please know that I will take advantage of all avenues and resources available to me, including seeking legal action through a writ of mandamus to mandate you to perform, to ensure that the GAC performs its legal mandate to audit all recipients of public funds, including and specifically the Legislature which has not been audited since 1989”.
“It is my sincere hope that we do not have to revert to such actions, as I trust that you are also just as interested in accountability of public funds in the interest of the Liberian people,” he said in the letter dated April 22, 2024.
Bility noted that as “we embark on this journey of nation-building, it is imperative that both the Legislature and Executive focuses, amongst other things, on fighting corruption and safeguarding our country’s limited resources by ensuring that monies allocated in the national budget are used for the designated purposes”.
“As such, understanding past financial performance of the Legislature’s budgetary allocations and expenditures is cardinal to achieving this objective and informing our current and future behaviors.”
Addressing the Auditor General the Nimba lawmaker said: “The General Auditing Commission (GAC), which you currently head, is the only agency clothed with the authority to independently and accurately determine budget performance of any government parastatal through audits. The GAC was established by a 1965 Act of Legislature and further amended in 1972 under Chapter 52 of the Executive Law to give it some independence.
“The 1986 Constitution lists the GAC as one of three (3) autonomous agencies and gives power to the Legislature to enact laws for its governance. Further, in 2005, Section 53 of the 1972 GAC Act was amended by the National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA), giving the GAC more independence from the Executive branch by having it report to the National Legislature. According to a 2007 Report of the GAC by former Auditor General John Morlu, titled “The Blueprint for Accountability, Transparency and Good Governance.”
According to him, the Legislature, as a government institution, has been the recipient of public funds for many years.
“In a February 19, 2024 letter to the Speaker of the House of Representative requesting an audit of the 53rd and 54th Legislature, I informed him that, as lawmakers, we are the biggest beneficiaries and highest recipients of public funding in this country; thus earning us the label ‘Butchers’ House’ in a scathing review recently published by the Daily Observer, a major local daily,” Bility recalled.
According to the 2nd Edition of NAYMOTE’s Legislative Digest Report (covering the period January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022) the annual budget of the Legislature from 2018-2022 was $228,666,183.00, he said further.
“Added to the 2023 annual Legislative Budget of US $43 million, this will be a total of about US $271 Million…over a quarter of a billion dollars in just five (5) years.”
Bility said in spite of these unconscionable amounts of public funds allocated to the Legislature, “when you appeared before the House on February 8, 2024, you informed us that the Legislature had not been audited since 1989 but a full scale financial audit of the 55th Legislature would be done in two (2) years after the GAC has completed a Financial Systems Review and put into place a clear financial system which will be in compliance with the Public Financial Management Law (PFM Law) and other financial instruments.
“This will set the 55th House of Representative aside for taking concrete actions to ensure transparency and accountability from the get go. A tribute to the astute leadership of the honorable Speaker of the House of representatives, J. Fonati Koffa.”
Further raising the issue, Mr. Bility told the Auditor General: “As you are fully aware, a Financial Systems Review is not the same as an audit. While I do agree that a Systems Review is necessary and critical to ensure financial propriety, thanks to the Speaker and members of the House of Representatives of the 55th Legislature, it does not address the equally critical necessity to account for public funds allocated to and expended by past Legislatures.
“Therefore, in our unbending quest to protect public funds and improve transparency and accountability, I hereby request the GAC to audit, both statutory and performance, the National Legislature from 2014 – 2023, the period immediately after the Amended GAC Act of 2014, covering the 53rd and 54th Legislatures,” he asserted, indicating that his request is supported by Section 5.5 of the 2014 Act of the GAC.
He asserted: “Hence, considering that the GAC is the supreme audit institution with the legal mandate to audit the Legislature and that there are no resource constraints, I believe that you will grant this request for audit, in keeping with law.
Mr. Bility expressed the hope that he would get a written response from Auditor General’s office within one week of the receipt of this request by his office.
Sending the AG a strong caveat, the Nimba County Representative said: “However, should this request go unanswered or be declined, please know that I will take advantage of all avenues and resources available to me, including seeking legal action through a writ of mandamus to mandate you to perform, to ensure that the GAC performs its legal mandate to audit all recipients of public funds, including and specifically the Legislature which has not been audited since 1989.
“It is my sincere hope that we do not have to revert to such actions, as I trust that you are also just as interested in accountability of public funds in the interest of the Liberian people.”
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