Former Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel D. Tweah, Jr., has come in defense of ex-President George M. Weah’s statement that the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government left US$41 million in the government’s Consolidated Funds Accounts.
Tweah’s statement comes in the wake of the General Auditing Commission (GAC) submitting its report/findings of the special audit conducted on the consolidated account as instructed by the Liberian Senate’s Public Accounts, Expenditures and Audits Committee (PAC), headed by Gbarpolu County Senator, Amara Konneh.
On January 21, 2024, former President Weah told the nation that he left US$40 million in the Consolidated Accounts, while President Boakai told the National Legislature and the public in his State-of-the-Nation Address on January 29, 2024 that Weah’s statement was not true, and that his predecessor left US$20.5 million in the Consolidated Account at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL).
The claim and counterclaim sparked a national debate, and in an effort to depoliticize the financial matter the Joint Public Accounts and Audits and Banking and Currency Committee of the Liberian Senaterecommended that, in the interest of accountability and transparency, it would be better to call for a special reconciliation audit of the consolidated accounts to establish the facts and give them to the Liberian people. The purpose of this special audit, according to the report, is to establish true balances (gross and net) of the consolidated accounts to clear any doubts about the true net position of the Consolidated Accounts that President Boakai inherited as of January 21, 2024.
Accordingly, the GAC conducted the special audit and, on March 4, 2024 submitted its reports to the Senate’s Public Accounts Committee, revealing US$46.5 million as total bank accounts balances, and a total outstanding checks balances of US$43.2 million.
Even though Senator Amara Konneh has argued that both President Joseph N. Boakai and ex-President George M. Weah were misled, former Minister Tweah has maintained that So President Weah said the truth. “The special GAC audit report shows cash balance as at January 17, 2024 at more than US$46 million. President Weah spoke about actual cash balance being US$41 million,” Tweah observed.
Tweah said, “On January 21 or thereabouts, President Weah told Liberians that the total cash balance in the consolidated account was around US $41 million. This report was based on consolidated cash report prepared by the Comptroller and Accounting General at the MFDP and the information was placed in the speech of the President.”
According to him, “Since then, there have been attempts to controvert this figure for political purposes, a truly sad situation. President Boakai was made to say that US$20 million was left in the consolidated account. The attempt to deny springs from the fact that the UP left a far smaller amount of US$7 million for the CDC in 2018. Since the CDC’s number was bigger than UP’s number, someone was not happy! This is how low and cheap Liberian politics has become!
“Even when the facts are glaring, politics will take over. So the GAC was asked to look into the matter. And the GAC has said more than US $41 million was in the account on the day in question.
“Did the GAC confirm US$46 million cash available on that day? Yes! Did President Weah say US$41 million cash was available on that day? YES. Did President Weah say anything about government obligations? No. Should President Weah have reported ‘reconciled numbers’? Hell no! Cash balances on a daily basis are in real time. Reconciliation comes after so many things that may or may not happen over time. Reconciliation is done at the end of an accounting period. The political tradition since 2018 is you say how much you are leaving in cash and in reserve.”
Tweah continued, “Let’s concede the simple facts and be honest for once. We have bigger things to talk about than check balances on a particular day. If you went to an ATM machine to print out your bank statement for a particular day, you will have it. The number you see is the amount in the bank. Whether you pay your rent tomorrow or next week is a different matter. The number President Weah read was the amount in the bank: He was factually correct!”
