An investigation conducted by this paper has uncovered that County Service Center Coordinators across Liberia have gone unpaid for over three months, despite a formal directive from the Ministry of Internal Affairs mandating interim salary payments.
Appointed effective June 1, 2025, the coordinators, assigned to oversee public service delivery across all 15 counties were reportedly promised a monthly salary of US$1,000.
However, the majority of them have yet to receive any compensation, in direct contradiction to a June 19, 2025 internal memo issued by Internal Affairs Minister F. Sakila Nyumalin, Sr.
According to the memo, all county superintendents were instructed to begin paying their respective coordinators from county resources as a temporary arrangement until the positions are formally placed on the Ministry’s central payroll.
“The Ministry has officially appointed Service Center Coordinators for all of our 15 counties,” the memo reads. “To facilitate a smooth transition and ensure immediate operational capacity, the Ministry has resolved that county administrations will temporarily be responsible for the monthly salary compensation of their newly appointed Service Center Coordinator.” Despite the clear instructions, implementation has been inconsistent.
“Since we got appointed effectively June 1, 2025, the majority of us have yet to receive the monthly salary we were promised,” said one coordinator, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Only one or two coordinators are getting paid. We are suffering. So far, only two counties are taking pay. Even the operational fund for 2025 is yet to be sent to the various counties, and we are nearing the end of the year.”
The delay in both salaries and operational funding is fueling concerns about the government’s commitment to its decentralization policy, a central component of Liberia’s governance reform efforts.
County Service Centers were established to bring essential government services closer to citizens, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
These centers offer services such as birth certificates, business registration, national ID processing, and other civil documentation. Coordinators serve as the backbone of this effort, managing day-to-day operations and ensuring service continuity.
“The coordinators are expected to work, but there’s no budget, no support, and now, no pay,” said a governance analyst familiar with the program. “This could completely erode the progress that’s been made in bringing government closer to the people.”
In the meantime, several coordinators continue to work under increasingly unsustainable conditions, often using personal resources or relying on local community goodwill to keep the centers operational.
With the fiscal year drawing to a close and no concrete solution in sight, many fears the situation could devolve into a broader administrative crisis at the county level, one that could significantly disrupt public access to government services nationwide.
