By Lincoln G. Peters
Authorities at the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and the Liberian Senate are locked up in a blame game over US$6.7million Medtech Scientific 20% remittance to the Liberian government, which remained unaccounted for.
On Tuesday, June 24, 2025, the Liberian Senate, through its Public Accounts and Audits Committee, held a public hearing on CTN and MedTechs Agreements, particularly the government of Liberia’s 20% remittance, which has raised controversy.
At that hearing, the General Auditing Commission, Auditor General, P. Garswa Jackson, Sr., revealed that a GAC compliance finding conducted at LRA and Midtech Scientific unearthed a breach in the Public Financial Management Act (PFA), the Public Procurement Concession Commission (PPCC), among others.
According to AG Jackson, out of the total DI inspection fees collected from performance destination inspection activities by Medtech, about US$6.7 million was remitted to the Liberia Revenue Authority as a result of the 20% fees.
What was more striking about their findings was that LRA used the remitted 20% for its operations, something the GAC described as a breach of the Public Financial Management Act and associated regulations.
” If you look at Regulation B, one of the Financial Management Act, it provides that Public Financial Management institutions that are allowed to collect funds on behalf of the government should retain those funds, except where a legislation mandates that institution to utilize the funds. In this case, there were no such regulations that mandated the Liberia Revenue Authority to utilize the funds from the DI inspection,” AG Jackson explained.
Auditor General further explained that at some point, the LRA termed the fees as customs-related fees, which gives them the authority to use the funds for customs capacity building.
The Auditor General also stated that a review of the LRA’s annual budget shows no sign of existence of the remitted 20% government share of revenue provided by Medtech.
” So, we indicated in the audit that the LRA should have accounted for the US$6.7 million that was utilized for its operation. Also, we cautioned that going forward, the LRA should facilitate full remittance of the money collected on behalf of the government to the consolidated account,” he concluded.
AG Jackson also explained that the transitory account, which was ordered created to ensure that all funds collected for BF services were remitted there was never created.
” We observed during the audit that the transistor account was never created. The funds were exclusively collected by Midtech and retained by the company up to June 2024. Also, the LRA was requesting funds from the company for custom capacity-building services and other operational uses. Now, the LRA should ensure the immediate opening of the transistor account,” he stated.
“We also saw noncompliance with the approval fees structure by Meditech. The contract approval has an approved fee structure that was put in place and signed by all authorities. Now, we attempted to validate the compliance, but we observed that this was not applied. We further requested if there was an amendment, but nothing was done. The money collected by the company up to a hundred thousand extra fees, the government was not entitled to a dime,” he concluded.
However, LRA Commissioner General James Dorbor Jallah debunked some of the findings of the GAC at the same hearing, while providing clarification regarding the Liberian Senate inquiries.
During the hearing, Senators raised critical questions regarding the government’s 20% remittance, whether the money was declared by the LRA in the 2024 budget, and what has prevented the government of Liberia from renegotiating the agreement to bring relief to the Liberian people.
Since 2021, Meditech has failed to provide the government of Liberia’s 20% remittance in its transitory account for onward deposit into the consolidated account by the LRA as mandated by the contract.
“We are talking about US$6.7million that was not deposited into the government of Liberia consolidated account only because the transitory account was not created, which is a fact. Also, when you do all of the calculations, we will be talking about a whooping US$33 million, which the GAC report unearthed. Now, Medtech, did you do reconciliation or full disclosure regarding the funds to LRA? Now, can you account for this fund?” The Senate questions.
The Liberian senate said that the money is an extra revenue that is not captured in the budget, nor reported for which they believe will address some of the challenges. The LRA usually advocates for an increase in budgetary allotment.
Responding to the General Auditing Commission Compliance audit report and the Liberian Senate inquiries, the Liberia Revenue Authority boss said that the Medtech contract had long existed before the UP government’s arrival, adding that these issues existed long before they came to power.
Accordingly, he noted that the legislature in its Revenue Code of 1822 grants the LRA the right to collect these customs service fees and use them for customs capacity building and operation; therefore, the Senate is best suited to address the concern.
Speaking on the government of Liberia’s 20%, he said that when the government took over, LRA was unable to receive the money from Meditech due to the internal conflict in the company, which led to the Supreme Court placing a ban or freezing the company’s account.
