Monrovia-March-8-TNR:Former Finance Minister, Samuel D. Tweah has strongly defended his boss, former President George M. Weah on the latest report released by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) on Liberia’s Consolidated Account left behind by the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) Government.
Reacting to the latest GAC report released Wednesday in Monrovia, the former Finance Minister disclosed that the special GAC audit report shows cash balance as at January 17, 2024 at more than US$46 million. He said former President Weah spoke about actual cash balance being US$41 million.
Tweah in a statement posted on social media noted that on January 21 or thereabouts, former President Weah told Liberians that the total cash balance in the consolidated account was around US$41 million adding, “This report was based on consolidated cash report prepared by the Comptroller and Accounting General at the MFDP and the information was placed in the speech of the former president.
An audit conducted by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) to reconcile the net account balances of the government’s consolidated accounts as of January 17 and 19, 2024, revealed discrepancies in the figures claimed by former President George Weah. Despite his assertion that he left US$40,044,305.90, the audit found that he actually left US$3,378,848.89 and US$6,918,142.97 on January 17 and 19, 2024, respectively.
This prompted the Joint Committees of the Liberian Senate comprising Public Accounts Audits and Expenditure Committee (PAC) and Banking and Currency Committee to request the Auditor General to perform a Special Reconciliation Audit on the net account balances of the Consolidated Fund Accounts as at January 17 and 19, 2024.
According to the GAC report, in addition to the huge discrepancies in the amounts mentioned by both the former and current Presidents as balances in the consolidated accounts, the audit also discovered liabilities amounting to US$16,526,121.90 and US$16,526,842.58 on the same dates, indicating a net commitment left by the former administration for President Boakai to finance. These amounts were to be settled within 90-day period as at the end of the Budget Year 2023.
But in his reaction, former Minister Tweah said there have been attempts to controvert this figure for political purposes describing same as truly sad situation. Tweah pointed out that President Boakai was made to say that US$20 million was left in the consolidated account. “The attempt to deny springs from the fact that the UP left a far smaller amount of US$7 million for the CDC in 2018. Since CDC number was bigger than UP’s number, someone was not happy. This is how low and cheap Liberian politics has become,” the former Finance Minister noted.
Tweah went on, “Even when the facts are glaring, politics will take over. So the GAC was asked to look into the matter. And the GAC has said more than US$41 million was in the account on the day in question. So former President Weah said the truth.”
“Did the GAC confirm US$46 million cash available on that day? YES! Did former President Weah say US$41 million cash was available on that day? YES. Did former President Weah say anything about Government obligations? NO. Should former president Weah have reported ‘reconciled numbers? Hell no. Cash balances on a daily basis are in real time. Reconciliation comes after so many things that may or may not happen over time. Reconciliation is done at the end of an accounting period. The political tradition since 2018 is you say how much you are leaving in cash and in reserve,” the CDC strongman added.
According to the former Finance Minister, government obligations are not the debate here. He said in 2018 the Unity Party (UP) left US$7 million when Government obligations were more than US$40 million. “So UP left (US$33 million) or negative US$33 million? Well, if you apply the same accounting to CDC, CDC still wins with a positive balance. So where are we going with this debate?” Tweah wondered.
Tweah further argued, “Let’s concede the simple facts and be honest for once. We have bigger things to talk about than check balances on a particular day. If you went to an ATM machine to print out your bank statement for a particular day, you will have it. The number you see is the amount in the bank. Whether you pay your rent tomorrow or next week is a different matter. The number former President Weah read was the amount in the bank: He was factually correct.”
Tweah lauded the GAC for making this very simple and clear adding, “Debate closes. Lesson, let the fact be the fact for once in Liberian politics.”
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