Tweah Puts CDC, UP External, Domestic Debts On Scale -Faults ‘Daydreaming’ Proposition CDC incurred US$2.6b

MONROVIA – The elephant-styled battle between the Coalition for Democratic Change, formerly the Congress for Democratic Change and the Unity Party is not showing signs of wanning down soon. The fight is rising to nearly the USA-based Republic and Democratic Parties level, except that the Liberian side is hardly about clear fundamental social and political doctrines or manifestos. Howbeit, the UP and CDC, as they continue to swap and counter-swap politically, are continually embroiled into controversies, one of which is currently about who incurred higher public debts, internationally and domestically, during their terms. Thus, a recent insinuation that the CDC, between 2018 and 2023, accumulated over US$2 billion debt has provoked a methodical retort from the finance minister of the period, who posits in a piece of social media post that his version of expose on the external debt debate is unassailable except the other side employs propaganda as their weapon. The Analyst reports.

As the Unity Party government, which took over from the former ruling Coalition for Democratic Change, finds its bearing on the political and economic landscapes of the country, now being in its seventh month, it continues to fight off predications that it is walking majestically into the infamous “debt trap”.

With world economic crisis not far from over, and the Liberian version feeling the shocks, analysts are conjecturing that the ruling administration’s options on the table for recovery point to going for more loans, mostly commercial loans, to make good its electoral promises.

But instead of contending with the crisis on hand, the UP is flipping the debate by taking aim at its immediate past predecessor, the CDC, stating that the former Government had already left a debt of nearly US2.6 billion.

It can be recalled that the Unity Party, in its first term, fought hard to meet HPIC requirements, including debt relief, in the tone of nearly US$4 million.

It is not clearly how much more debt the UP administration (2006 to 2017) left on the books, but there are reports that while it successfully obtained debt relief principally from the Paris Club, the regime also accumulated over 2 billion in domestic and foreign debts.

Recharging the debt debate between the CDC and UP was the Deputy Minister for Economic Management at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Dehpue Zuo, who said during a public function recently that CDC left a debt portfolio of over US$1.5 Billion after six years.

But before Mr. Zuo swallowed spit making this declaration, the though-talking ex-Minister of Finance for Development Planning in the CDC government unleashed a serious riposte.

Writing on his official social media page, Samuel D. Tweah, Jr. began: “Facts on Domestic and International debt between CDC and UP for end 2023: anything contrary is Propaganda.”

He admitted that at the end of CDC regime total domestic and external debt stood at U.S. $2.1 billion. He wondered: “Did I read an evil report somewhere that CDC alone accumulated $2.6 billion in debt? I must have been dreaming? What a Lie!”

The six-year former Finance Minister asserted: “Here is the official breakdown of this US$2.1. billion debt stock. A stock means the debt money has been spent and is recognized in Liberia’s official debt statistics. So, of this 2.1 billion about US$914 million is DOMESTIC debt. The rest is international debt from multilateral institutions!”

Tweah added: “Here Is the breakdown of the US$914 million since end 2017.  UP left domestic debt of US$266 million on the books in December of 2017. But this was not all UP debt. I have told you they were hiding more than US$300 million. We agree with the IMF to RECOGNIZE the US$300 million to start our IMF supported Program but we left more than US $100 million hanging at the CBL for future audits! So this puts UP’s domestic debt total to US$ 566 million. It is US $666 million if you added the hanging unaudited US$100 plus million”.

The former Finance Minister said, “If you subtract US$566 million from US$ 914 million that leaves US$348 million in domestic debt under the CDC,” calling on the public to contact the IMF to verify the information about the Hidden, UNDER THE TABLE DEBT!”

“These are the facts of our debt numbers,” Tweah opined, stating that “anything to the contrary is senseless propaganda like the stupid propaganda that says CDC borrowed US 2.6 billion when total domestic and external debt stock for the period is not even $2.2 billion!”