A prominent citizen of Gbarpolu County, Sam Zinnah, has alarmed that over US$700,000 of Gbarpolu County’s County Development Funds (CDF) is currently languishing in an escrow account at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL). Zinnah said his attention has been drawn to the delay of processing the transfer of the amount allotted in the fiscal year 2021/2022 from the Ministry of Finance Development Planning (MFDP) escrow account to the Gbarpolu County Development Fund’s account.
According to Zinnah, a similar action on the part of the leadership of the county led to the county losing US$2 million from the county development funds in recent years, thus leaving the county in an underdeveloped condition.
The County Development Funds are monies placed in the national budget to undertake development initiatives to help impact the livelihood of dwellers of the county and bring about transformation in terms of road connectivity, housing, healthcare, among other development.
He blamed the county’s legislative caucus for the money languishing in the escrow account, claiming that no genuine and concerted effort has been made to access the funds for the development of the county.
Zinnah has therefore called on the authorities of Gbarpolu County to move swiftly to initiate a county sitting and craft the necessary resolution to seek the transfer of the money concerned.
He said the delay on the part of the county’s lawmakers is denying the county of its development benefit.
According to him, the lawmakers of the county are to make sure that the county benefits from all of the developments other counties are enjoying.
At the same time, Zinnah noted that currently there are growing concerns about the transfer of Social Development Funds (SDF) by the Western Cluster to Bomi, Cape Mount and Gbarpolu counties.
He said no lawmaker from the western region has spoken about this matter at the level of the National Legislature; instead, they are focusing their attention on launching their re-election campaign and forgetting the interest of their counties.