Finance and Development Planning Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan has provided clarification on the latest General Auditing Commission (GAC) report on the Consolidated Fund Account of the Government of Liberia. Appearing Monday on the Liberia Broadcasting System’s Super Morning Show, Minister Ngafuan described the issue as a documentation gap rather than evidence of fraud. He emphasized that the GAC report highlighted weaknesses in record-keeping, not theft or misappropriation.
“The auditor did not say there was fraud. The auditor did not say there was misappropriation,” Minister Ngafuan clarified. “Had there been fraud, we would not have received a qualified opinion.” Hon. Ngafuan said auditors could have used “alternative evidence gathering procedures” to verify these transactions with beneficiaries such as Ministries of Education and Health.
The GAC report reviewed over US$735 million in government transactions and cited about US $2.8 million without adequate documentation. Hon. Ngafuan explained that many of these transactions originated from spending entities like the Ministry of Education and county health teams. One of such payments cited by Minister Ngafuan totaling US $423,482 was made on September 9, 2024 stressing that the absence of some receipts should not be mistaken for mismanagement.
Regarding the US$2.8M on excess payment without legislative approval in FY2024 cited by the auditors, Minister Ngafuan noted that these payments were made largely due to address urgent and critical nature of those transactions. To illustrate, he cited, the current request from the University of Liberia in the amount of US$550K as an example of urgent request that cannot wait for legislative approval, especially at a time when the legislature is on recess. Regarding the US$2.8M on excess payment without legislative approval in 2024 as cited by the auditors, Minister Ngafuan noted that these payments were made largely due to the urgent and critical nature of those transactions.
To illustrate, he cited the current request from the University of Liberia in the amount of US$550K as an example of urgent request that cannot wait for legislative approval, especially at a time when the legislature is on recess. He noted that controls initiated in FY2024 explains why the amount of spending in excess of legislative approval dropped drastically from a whopping US$96M in 2023 to US$2.8M in 2024. In comparison, he said that the Auditor General issued a ‘’ Qualified’’ opinion for 2024, which means that the financial statements were presented fairly, in all material respects, except for a few observations noted by the Auditor in the report.
Whereas, the Auditor General issued an ‘’adverse’’ opinion in FY2023 due to a host of significant issues. Minister Ngafuan also clarified that four individuals served as Finance Minister during the 2024 calendar year. “Samuel D. Tweah was Minister of Finance for the early part of January 2024. Then Boima Kamara took over until July 2024. After that, there was a brief tenure by Anthony G. Myers, who acted as minister from July until the 16th of September, when he officially turned over to Minister Ngafuan. So, in total, we’re talking about four persons who held the portfolio during that period.
To address any lingering suspicion of fraud, Minister Ngafuan made a clarion call to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate both the FY2023 and FY2024 audit findings and those that may be found culpable of committing fraud should be prosecuted. To address the documentation challenge in auditing, Minister Ngafuan noted the MFDP is in advance stages of procuring an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) which will fully digitize government payment records and make them easily accessible during audit.
