Claim: “All Countries that passed the MCC scorecard received hundreds of millions of dollars, except Liberia.”
Verdict: False! Liberia is not the only country that failed to receive a grant from MCC after passing its scorecards.
Full Text
A staunch critic of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government under the leadership of President George Weah has claimed that all countries that passed the just released MCC scorecard received hundreds of millions of United States dollars except Liberia.
According to Henry Costa, Liberia missed out on the MCC grant due to the poor leadership credentials of President George Weah.
He made the claim when he appeared on a local radio talk show, the OKay Morning Rush, aired on Okay 99.5FM upon returning to the country.
The show, which was carried live on the station’s official Facebook page, had 1.2k comments, 17.1k viewers and over 550 emojis.
The assertion was made at 51:34-47 seconds within the over one-hour show on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.
Verification
Since the issue of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has become a talking point for Liberians, especially after the first and highest pass made by the Liberian government under the Weah-led regime, DUBAWA decided to subject the claim by Henry Costa to scrutiny.
What is Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)?
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is an innovative and independent U.S. foreign assistance agency that is helping lead the fight against global poverty. The MCC was created by the U.S. Congress in January 2004 with strong bipartisan support and has changed the conversation on how best to deliver smart U.S. foreign assistance by focusing on good policies, country ownership, and results. MCC provides time-limited grants by promoting economic growth, reducing poverty, and strengthening institutions of countries that are deemed to have passed the MCC scorecards.
When did Liberia join the MCC?
Liberia joined the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in 2006 under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s leadership; since then, the country has been a part of the program.
Under the presidency of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia passed the scorecards on two occasions, in 2013 and 2017. Here are the 12-year scorecards of Liberia under President Sirleaf.
After passing the MCC in 2013, the Government of Liberia and the United States Government, through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Liberia in October 2015, signed a US$257million compact with a direct focus on rebuilding the country’s broken electricity sector and the construction of a new 48-inch diameter Raw Water Pipeline between Mt. Coffee and the White Plains Water Treatment Plant to replace a damaged 36-inch diameter pipeline that had not been in use since Liberia’s civil war. The benefits from this compact ended on January 20, 2021.
Under the George Weah-led administration, the Liberian government in 2022/2023 passed 12 out of 20 indicators of the MCC scorecard.
This pass received massive media reports through the instrumentality of the government of Liberia, as seen here and here.
Is Liberia among the countries eligible for the grant?
Though Liberia is part of the countries that passed the recently released scorecard of the MCC, Liberia is not among the countries eligible to benefit from the grant.
One hundred countries passed the 2022/2023 MCC scorecard. Out of this number, only 62 countries were eligible for the grant under the low-income category, while under the lower middle-income category, four countries were eligible for the grants: Algeria, Eswatini, Indonesia and Samoa.
Eligible countries for the grants
Even though 62 countries have been deemed eligible, only a few were announced as grant beneficiaries. In a December 14, 2022, statement issued by United States President Joseph Biden on behalf of the MCC’s Board, $1.2 billion was announced for grant beneficiaries. Liberia was omitted from the list of beneficiaries, and so were other countries.
Biden said in connection with the announcement of grants, “Along with selecting countries for new grant programs, MCC’s Board also reselected Côte d’Ivoire as eligible for a concurrent regional compact program; Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and Zambia for compact development; and Kiribati for threshold program development. The Board also reaffirmed its support for continuing compact development in Belize. MCC regularly reviews its partner countries’ policy performance throughout developing and implementing a compact or threshold program.”
Per this statement, Liberia was not the only country left out of receiving the grant from the MCC. Countries like Nigeria, Somalia, Malawi, Lesotho, Ghana, Cape Verde and many others were not selected, even though all of them were eligible.
Still unsatisfied with the statement, DUBAWA reached out to the head of the MCC-Liberia compact, Mr Monie R. Captan, to find out why Liberia was omitted. Mr Monie R. Captan told DUBAWA in a WhatsApp conversation that when a country becomes eligible, it does not mean it will be selected automatically, adding that there are limited funds and selection is competitive among those deemed to be eligible.
Mr Captain further stated, “the selection is not every year, so it is possible we might get selected next year. Each compact has a separate project. The last compact had to do with energy, and the compact closed in 2021 when we completed the project.”
Conclusion
Based on all of the research conducted by DUBAWA with evidence from the Millennium Challenge Corporation official site, it is safe to say that the claim made by Henry Costa that Liberia is the only country that did not receive an MCC grant after passing its scorecard is false.
