Monrovia-Liberia: A GAC system audit of The Liberian Senate in possession of Verity News reveals how US$4,211,000 was dished out to ghost contractors for “procuring goods and services” between January 2022 and July 2023. Payments under former Senate Pro Tempore Albert Tugbe Chie were made without evidence of contracts and contractors according to a July 2024 GAC System Audit Report.
The report has indicted former Senate Pro-Temp Albert Chie’s leadership of dishing out over USD 4 Million on awarding contracts in goods and services to unknown contractors between January 20, 2022, and July 21, 2023. The damaging audit report shows that between July 18-21, 2023, Pro-Temp Chie’s office alone awarded contracts amounting to US$1,545,000 without any evidence just in 4 days. The audit could not establish evidence or proof for the remaining US$2,666,000, which was captured under “other operational expenses for The Senate”.
The system audit also established a variance of US$2,699,497.03 between IFMIS Ledgers which capture US$18,138,150,03 and Financial Statements which capture US$15,438,653.00 for fiscal year 2023. There was also a variance of US$3,090,455 between the Fiscal Outturn and the Financial Statement of the Liberian Senate for the fiscal year 2023. The GAC in its recommendation called for the Senate management to account for the variance identified between the general ledger, trial balance, and financial statements.
The audit report established a US$26.9M discrepancy between the expenditure report and the fiscal outturn report of the Liberian Senate from FY2018/2019 to FY2023 amid no evidence of scrutiny for several staff employed, inadequate financial records, unapproved salary scales, non-remittance of NASSCORP’s contributions, and non-disclosure of bank accounts. The GAC has recommended that Albert Chie’s Senate accounts for US$26.9 Million in discrepancy.
Additionally, third-party payments amounting to over US$269,000 were made to employees of the Senate in 2023 instead of the service providers that the Senate claimed: “rendered services” amid irregularities associated with the Senate’s fixed assets management system including no evidence of fixed assets management policy, no evidence of periodic physical verification of assets, no history of disposal of assets, among others.
The damning findings in the system audit of the Liberian Senate highlight an urgent need to conduct a comprehensive audit, including compliance, financial, payroll, etc., of the Liberian Legislature: The House of Senate and The House of Representatives.
As public outcry for accountability and justice surges, the Boakai-led administration is under pressure from civil society actors and social justice advocates to put an end to impunity and ensure the full and impartial implementation of findings and recommendations of the GAC audit reports and the LACC investigative reports.
