The US State Department 2023 Report on Fiscal Transparency has praised the Republic of Liberia and the Weah administration for making significant progress by making its executive budget proposal publicly available within a reasonable period during the period under review. The report hailed Liberia for making major state-owned enterprise debt information publicly available, and for making basic information on natural resource extraction awards publicly available.
According to the State Department 2023 Fiscal Transparency Report on Liberia, “The government did not make its enacted budget or end-of-year report publicly available within a reasonable period, but information on debt obligations was widely and easily accessible to the public, including online. The government maintained off-budget accounts not subject to audit or oversight.”
However, the report said the supreme audit institution, the General Auditing Commission (GAC), did not meet international standards of independence and did not make its audit reports publicly available within a reasonable period. “The government specified in law or regulation and appeared to follow in practice the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licenses, but there are reports of corruption and inconsistent application of regulations in practice,” the report, released on June 27, 2023, stated.
According to the report, Liberia’s fiscal transparency would be improved by, first, making the enacted budget and end-of-year report publicly available within a reasonable period; second, eliminating off-budget accounts or subjecting them to adequate oversight and audit; third, ensuring the supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence; fourth, making supreme audit institution audit reports publicly available within a reasonable period; and, fifth, ensuring the laws or regulations for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licenses are followed in practice.
The Fiscal Transparency Report informs citizens on how government and tax revenues are spent, and is a critical element of effective public financial management. It provides citizens a window into government’s budget, and those citizens, in turn, hold government accountable. It also underpins market confidence and sustainability.
The 2023 fiscal transparency review process evaluated whether the government publicly disclosed key budget documents, including expenditures broken down by ministry and revenues broken down by source and type. The review process also evaluated whether the government had a supreme audit institution that meets international standards of independence and audits the government’s annual financial statements, and whether such audits are made publicly available. The review further assessed whether the process for awarding licenses and contracts for natural resource extraction is outlined in law or regulation and followed in practice, and whether basic information on such awards is publicly available. The Department applied the following criteria in assessing whether governments met the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency.
