The plenary of the Liberian Senate has endorsed a report from the Joint Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Budget as well as Public Accounts and Audits requesting the National Legislature to craft a law that will establish a statute of limitation for creditors of the state.
According to the report, the legislation will require lenders to claim their debts within a specified time periods, thus providing the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) with full and impartial information to plan its debt-servicing routines and processes on the National Debt Portfolio of Liberia.
The Senate also resolved that, going forward, the General Auditing Commission (GAC) should speed up the vetting of all claims of domestic debts in order to establish legitimacy and authenticity, and that such vetting should be carried out sooner rather than later in order to give the Legislature ample time to review the GAC report and make appropriation for servicing domestic debts in the 2023 national budget.
It can be recalled that Montserrado County Senator, Abraham Darius Dillon, has argued that domestic debt stock remains high from one fiscal year to the other, even though projections for servicing domestic debts in consecutive fiscal years are largely realized.
Following several weeks of debate on Senator Dillon’s concern, the plenary mandated the General Auditing Commission (GAC) to thoroughly vet all claims of domestic debts in order to establish legitimacy and authenticity so as to restore public trust and confidence in the domestic debt servicing process, and ensure that state resources are expended in accordance with established laws, regulations and standards.
According to the Senate’s press release, the recommendations were as a result of series of public hearings conducted by the Joint Committee on Ways, Means, Finance and Budget as well as Public Accounts and Audits with the authorities of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, in order to validate legitimacy and authenticity of national debts.
The release said the Joint Committee’s report took into consideration GAC’s vetting of all claims of domestic debts, as well as the public hearing conducted with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.