Africa-Press – Liberia. — County Council, Legislative Caucus set aside US$30k dev. Package for each Adm. District
Nimba County’s first County Council Sitting held in consultation with the 55th Legislative Caucus of Nimba has unveiled about US$30,000 to each of the 17 administrative districts in the county as a development package.
Making the disclosure in a press briefing on Saturday, Representatives Saye Mianah of Nimba Electoral District #8, who also Co-Chairs the caucus, said the council and the Nimba Administration presented a budget that gave each administrative district US$30,000 for development, but could not explain the exact development projects said money is expected to cover.
According to Mianah all the 17 administrative district commissioners, the statutory superintendents and senior local government officials, including Supt. Kou Meapeh Gono, were present at the meeting, which was reportedly held behind closed doors.
Rep. Mianah described the meeting as the first between the county and the 55th County Legislative Caucus under the administration of President Joseph N. Boakai, Sr.
The Council and the caucus meeting appears to contravene the new Local Government Act, which calls for the County Council working independently outside of any legislative interference, unlike what used to happen in the past, when the lawmakers were the key architects of the County Council Sitting.
However, Rep. Mianah explained that the reason for his participation in the meeting was to form a scope of operation (in his expression ‘SOP’) with the local officials as a framework to avoid conflict among the county leadership and the caucus, so as to focus on the development agenda of the county.
“We were not left out of the county council; every report from the county will go first to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, then to the Ministry of Finance before coming to us for approval, so it means we have all powers to say no or yes,” he said.
“So, if we come and review the development plan together, it will be easy when it reaches us at last for approval at the legislature,” he said.
“We are an elected body, the commissioners and all those at the meeting were not elected, so it gives us all power,” he said.
All the speakers who addressed the press, including Superintendent Gono, the acting County Council Chair Domah and even Rep. Mianah, could not explain in detail the exact amount for which the budget of US$30,000 was projected for each of the 17 districts.
In the press briefing, there was no mention of administration costs, municipal development, youth, women, disabled, scholarships, or agriculture as enshrined in President Boakai’s ARREST Agenda.
None of the speakers could disclose the total budget for the county projected but, when quizzed by reporters about how much Nimba had in the coffers currently, Supt. Gono put the figures to about US$5 million, which comprises the more than US$3 million already in the Nimba account and an expected US$1.5 million from the social development fund.
“We have over US$3 million in our account, but another US$1.5 million from the social development fund, then we are going to have US$5 million in all,” she said.
But, it is not yet known how much of US$ 5 million was projected as a budget for the county development for this fiscal year.
Earlier, outside of the County Council Sitting, Supt. Kou Meapeh Gono unilaterally refurbished the superintendent’s compound in Sanniquellie and also procured a brand new jeep. Up till now, the public is yet to know the cost of these two expenditures.
Supt. Gono also talked about reassessing Nimba’s grounded yellow machines and also embarking on tourism, but failed to disclose budgetary allotment for the possible repairs of some of the machines.
Since President Boakai took office, this is the first time for Nimba’s local leadership to disclose a development package to the public.
There was a dispute among the civil society organizations in Nimba over the legitimacy of Alexander Nyahn as chairman of the CSO to represent the CSO on the County Council.
The argument obstructed every function of the council, because they could not scrutinize or approve the budget, forcing the two CSO representatives to resign, leaving the county council with seven members.
Now the seven-person council is headed by a female representative, but people are skeptical about her experience to work appropriately without being harassed or intimidated by the hierarchy of the county as compared to Alexander Nyahn who had experience in running his own CSO for over a decade.
During a press conference, held on Saturday, October 19, 2024, the citizens expected her to give more details and how they arrived at the budget. Instead, she referred most of her questions to the superintendent.
“What we don’t understand, we asked the superintendent and they made it clear to us,” was the only response given when asked to give the total budget for the county.
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