LPP Condemns US$13.5m Additional budget Request -Terms It ‘Attempt to steal broad day-light’

The Liberian People’s Party (LPP) vehemently condemns President George Manneh Weah for what it termed as “attempting yet again to steal US$13.5 Million in broad day-light” from the Liberian people with the blatant complicity of the leadership of the Legislature.

LPP press release issued over the weekend quoted the party as saying that the CDC-Administration has once again scored one of its first-time ever feats by, “without any shame or fear of God, glaringly attempting to rob the Liberian people of US$13.5 Million in the midst of the harshest living condition our people are coping with”.

The party referenced the Daily Observer Newspaper edition of Thursday, 25 November 2021 that “The House of Representatives on Thursday has unanimously voted to pass a supplemental budget to the 2021 Special Budget in the amount of US$13,498,000” less than forty-eight (48) hours after President Weah submitted request for the money.

The communication from President Weah, the LPP said, is requesting the “Special Supplemental Budget” which is purportedly “to stabilize the price of rice across the country, known as the Rice Stabilization Fund, to the tune of US$7m followed by a Contingency transfer of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning of US$3,998,000.00.”

The LPP press release further quoted the Newspaper as further reporting that US$500,000 would go to the Monrovia Consolidated School System (MCSS); the perennial renovation of the Executive Mansion would yet again get US$1.5 million; and the Liberia Revenue Authority gets US$500,000 the LRA for purported “Revenue Enhancement”.

“LPP does not see any concrete basis for this “Special Supplemental Budget” exactly thirty-two (32) days to the expiration of the Semi-Fiscal Budget (July-December 2021) of US$347,909,700.00 on 31 December 2021 when a budget performance report has not been made so as to determine whether money (nearly US$348 Million) appropriated by the Legislature in Semi-FY Budget (July-December 2021) have been exhausted or not,” the release indicated.

“Now that that feeble House of Representatives has once again applied its 4G passage to this blatant criminal attempt to steal yet another US$13.5 Million from the Liberian people, LPP calls on the Liberian Senate not to be a culprit in this creeping criminal enterprise,” the release concluded.

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