Who’s Stealing Mont. County Social Dev. Funds  -Rep. Bernard Blue Benson Mad as a Hatter

MONROVIA – Since its founding in 1847, Liberia’s governance administration had remained concentrated and controlled by few political leaders in Monrovia. Cognizant of the need to decentralize national governance and the allocation of wealth accrued from exploitation of the country’s natural resources, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s new established the Development Fund wherein the amount of US$200,000 was allocated to each of Liberia’s 15 counties annually in the national budget, amounting to a total of US$3 million for the CDF, while several counties also received Social Development Funds from concession companies. Amid perennial allegations of financial malpractices in the management of the CDF/SDF, Montserrado County District #17 Representative Bernard Blue Benson has alarmed that for the past two years Montserrado County has not received one cent from the Social Development Funds despite millions of dollars paid by concessions to the Government of Liberia for Montserrado County Districts’ development. Rep. Benson believes some sort of stealing is going on with the County/Social Development, as The Analyst reports.

Taking to his social media platform over the weekend, Representative Benson vented his frustration at what he sees as stealing and thievery going on with the handling of the Social Development Funds for Montserrado County.

“For two Years and Montserrado County has not received one penny for Social Development Funds Despite Millions of USD paid by Concessions to GOL for Montserrado County Districts Development. Other counties are bringing development to their districts while Montserrado is being robbed.

“We are calling on the GAC for a full audit of Montserrado County SDF and the LACC to invite past and present Montserrado County Superintendent and Caucus Leadership for investigation.

“In the President’s SONA address, he said that all SDF and CDF have been disbursed. Not for Montserrado. Some kind of stealing and thievery is going on.

“This is the reason most of the development in our district comes from our pocket. Money to accelerate the process is being diverted,” Representative Benson furiously alleged. 

It can be recalled that the mismanagement and inequitable distribution of the country’s natural resources fueled the 14 years of civil conflict in Liberia. Pundits opine that the establishment of the County Social Development Funds (CSDF) was a positive reform measure in the Natural Resource Management (NRM) sector.

“However, this has not happened in practice, largely due to several factors, including—poor oversight, rampant corruption, weak supporting institutions, and poor collaboration and coordination between stakeholders on one hand and government ministries and agencies on another hand,” stated the Liberia Accountability and Voice Initiative – Natural Resource Management (LAVI-NRM) in a 2017 report.

The County Development Fund (CDF) and the Social Development Fund (SDF) were merged into the County Social Development Fund (CSDF) in April 2011.

“According to the Guidelines for the Management of the County Social Development Fund the merger was to consolidate the county accounts and provide one framework that leads to the improvement of the overall administrative architecture of the funds, thus laying the basis for the facilitation of fiscal decentralization.

“Prior to the merger, the two funding mechanisms (CDF and SDF) were administered under separate arrangements, between 2006 and 2011.

“The source of funding for the CDF was the annual national budgetary allocations to each 15 Counties primarily as Government of Liberia’s support to County infrastructural development, while the SDF which derived from concessions operations was purposely intended to support the socioeconomic and infrastructural development of what was termed, “Project Affected Communities” (communities affected by the operations of concessionaires).

“When the funding mechanisms were merged into the CSDF, the Ministries, along with other actors, including the private sector that contributed to the funds and civil society, revised the guidelines for the management of the funds.

“When the funding mechanisms were merged into the CSDF, the Ministries, along with other actors, including the private sector that contributed to the funds and civil society, revised the guidelines for the management of the funds.

“The revised guidelines had clear layers of administrative and operational structures that promoted transparency, accountability and curbs on the abuse of power.

“Fearing marginalization, the Legislature, with responsibility for passing the national budget into law, took advantage of their leverage to pass the budget into law, ensuring that the law wrestled back the management of the funds to them,” the LAVI report stated.