The Monday, September 1, 2025, release of the General Auditing Commission’s (GAC) 2024 audit report and the subsequent defense from the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) has laid bare a familiar tension in Liberia’s governance, the clash between accountability and self-justification. While the GAC highlights troubling irregularities in budget execution, the Finance Ministry insists that the audit proves progress rather than misconduct. The truth lies in the critical space between these two narratives.
The GAC report, covering the fiscal year ending December 31, 2024, did not mince words. It found US$2.8 million in budget overruns and US$2.85 million in payments without documentation, breaches that directly contravene the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act of 2009. The audit also revealed disbursements beyond approved appropriations in key institutions, such as the Ministry of Public Works, Liberia Airport Authority, and Bureau of Concessions. With some excess spending reaching nearly 30 percent, the Commission warned that such actions heighten the risk of misappropriation and undermine legislative oversight.
The Finance Ministry, however, paints a different picture. It emphasizes that the audit opinion has improved from “Adverse” in 2023 to “Qualified” in 2024, a shift it argues reflects “substantial progress in financial management, budget discipline, and accountability.” According to the ministry, of the more than US$700 million executed in 2024, only US$2.8 million remains undocumented, a margin it attributes to archiving challenges rather than mismanagement. Officials insist that the audit “does not state that any funds are missing or misappropriated by the MFDP.”
At the heart of this debate is a crucial question of whether progress excuses ongoing irregularities. The Ministry highlights improvements in bank reconciliations, with 95 percent of accounts balanced compared to hundreds left unreconciled in 2023, and full disclosure of restricted cash balances that were previously omitted.
These gains, though significant, do not erase the core problem flagged by the GAC, which is the absence of legislative approval for budget overruns and missing documentation for millions in spending.
The MFDP’s explanation that auditors gave them only five days to produce files raises further concerns. If the Ministry, custodian of the national purse, cannot promptly account for disbursements, what confidence should taxpayers have in its stewardship? The claim that US$2.85 million is simply “lost in the archives” underscores the systemic weakness of Liberia’s record-keeping, a weakness that fuels public skepticism about transparency in government.
Moreover, the Ministry’s reliance on PFM regulations permitting interagency transfers under two percent thresholds does not address the GAC’s central finding: that significant excess expenditures occurred without legislative approval. The Bureau of Concessions, for example, overspent by US$373,000, a figure well above “minor” adjustments. The GAC was clear: no evidence was provided to show that a Statement of Excess Expenditure was submitted to the Legislature, as the law requires. By dismissing these breaches as routine adjustments, the Ministry risks normalizing what should be extraordinary exceptions.
Liberians should welcome the improvements documented in the audit. Shifting from an adverse to a qualified opinion is no small feat in public financial management. Yet, progress is not the same as compliance. The GAC did not accuse the Ministry of outright theft, but its warnings are unambiguous: missing records, overspending without approval, and weak documentation create fertile ground for misappropriation. In a country where corruption has long stifled development, such gaps cannot be brushed aside as clerical mishaps.
The Ministry’s pledge to implement an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) may indeed modernize archiving and retrieval. But until accountability mechanisms are fully enforced, reforms risk being cosmetic. A digital filing system cannot replace legislative oversight, nor can it substitute for compliance with the PFM Act.
Ultimately, this episode is more than a technical debate about reconciliations and archiving. It is about trust in government. When the Ministry celebrates progress while the Auditor General flags breaches of financial discipline, Liberians are left to wonder whose version to believe. Transparency requires more than statistical improvement; it demands accountability when rules are broken.
The GAC has set out its findings. The Finance Ministry has offered its defense. But the fundamental question remains unanswered, will Liberia’s leaders treat audits as tools for genuine reform, or as hurdles to spin away with technical explanations? Until that question is addressed, the gap between progress and accountability will continue to define the country’s financial governance.
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