Claim: “We (CDC) took over from a place where they (Past Government, UP) had only US$ 27 million for public sector investment.”
Verdict: False! Public Sector Investment was not US$ 27 million when George Weah became President. Instead, it was US$55 – 280,850, according to the 2017/18 National Budget.
Full Text
With less than ten months to Liberia’s Presidential and legislative elections, members of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) headed by President George Weah have been trumpeting the achievements of the regime in the last five years with reasons why they think the government should be retained in office.
The latest such campaign was displayed recently by Assistant Minister for Planning at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), Benedict Kolubah when he engaged the secretary of the opposition and immediate past governing party, Unity Party (UP), headed by then President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
On January 2, 2023, the two gentlemen faced each other on a local radio station, Okay 99.5FM, in a debate to compare and contrast the achievements of the two regimes.
The show was live on the media outlet’s official Facebook page with over 730 comments, 241 emojis, 7.3k viewers, and 90 shares.
During the debate, Assistant Minister Benedict Kolubah claimed that the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) took over the country from the Unity party at a point when Public Sector investment was US$ 27 million.
Assistant Minister Kolubah made the claim at 2:10:40-51 seconds of the over two hours show.
The Assistant Finance Minister said, “we picked up from a system without space to invest in the country. The space on the budget was just for recurrent expenditure. We picked up from a place where there was only US$ 27 million for public sector investment.”
Assistant Minister Kolubah indicated that the Unity Party-led government inherited a broken economy at the time. He indicated they had all the opportunities to improve the country’s economy but did not do enough in the country’s and its people’s best interest.
Verification
Due to the importance of the claim in relation to the country’s progress under the Weah-led administration, DUBAWA embarked on an investigation to ascertain the facts about the claim.
Public Sector Investment is the expenditure incurred by the government in areas such as infrastructure, agriculture, housing and other related areas.
It is important to state that the Weah-led CDC government was sworn into office in 2018 after winning the 2017 General elections.
To investigate the statement, DUBAWA needed to compare data from the final year of the Sirleaf-Johnson administration to that of the first year of the CDC administration.
DUBAWA first contacted the claimant through a WhatsApp chat for evidence of his claim. But the Assistant Minister, Benedict Kolubah, provided DUBAWA with a sheet of paper through WhatsApp showing, among other things, a declining trend in the Public Sector Investment Plan (PSIP) from 2013/2014 to 2017-2018, as seen below.
Assistant Minister Kolubah also referred DUBAWA to the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning’s official website to verify his claim.
DUBAWA then visited the official website of the Ministry of Finance. According to the last budget, 2017/2018, under the previous administration headed by Ms Sirleaf, public sector investment for the fiscal year 2016/2017 was at US$62,398,129 and 2017/18 was at 55,280,850, contrary to what the Assistant Minister claimed as seen below:
This information is found on page 550 of the country’s National Budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018 under Annex four with the caption Public Sector Investment plan. It contains every item and all its allocations.
DUBAWA also pulled out the first budget prepared under the CDC-led administration in 2018-2019, and according to that budget, PSIP was placed at US$58,762,836.
Conclusion
Based on evidence from the country’s National Budget for the fiscal year 2017-2018 and the Minister’s evidence provided, it is safe to say that the assertion made by Assistant Minister Benedict Kolubah that Public sector Investment was at US$27million when the CDC-led government took over from the then Unity Party government is false. It was at US$62,398,129 in 2016/2017 and US$55,280,850 in 2017/18.
