Monrovia, Liberia – The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning has sternly ordered government spending agencies to “prioritize their priorities” because resource shortage is still a major concern.
In a recent communication to Ministries, Agencies, and Commissions, issued by Finance Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan, the Ministry stressed the significance of continuing to be aware of scarce resources.
“It is important that the heads or senior management of spending entities remain aware of the fact that resources are few. You’re advised to prioritize the priorities,” the Ministry said.
All government spending institutions have been given explicit instructions by the Ministry to follow their authorized budgets for Fiscal Year 2025 and to practice fiscal discipline amid what it refers to as a “challenging fiscal environment.”
The Ministry has also emphasized to government agencies how crucial it is to properly manage their finances. “Please manage your budget well. Your budget is for the entire 12 months of 2025. So, you’re strongly advised NOT to execute your budget as if it were a six-month or one-quarter budget. If your budget lines are depleted too soon, you probably won’t obtain any more funding from the government,” the Ministry said.
The Ministry also informed government institutions that the budget is a projection until revenue is actually raised through the efforts, dedication, integrity, and sacrifice of the Liberia Revenue Authority, the MFDP, and all other stakeholders involved in revenue generation.
“The budget for this year is US$88.7 million, which is a 19.2% increase over the US$738.9 million Recast Budget from previous year.”
The Ministry clarified that although this rise of US$141.8 million is unquestionably noteworthy, it still falls well short of the upwards of US$2 billion in funding requests for 2025 that the MFDP received from spending entities during the creation of the current budget.
With the nation currently in the second month of the Fiscal 2025 National Budget, the Ministry has been receiving a lot of requests for additional funds from spending entities, according to a memo dated February 18, 2025, signed by Minister Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan and sent to all heads or senior management of spending entities.
These requests aim to address expenditure pressures and new objectives that weren’t covered by the spending bodies’ budgets.
“The budget of the spending entity itself should be the first source to fund an unforeseen demand or priority that arises during budget execution,” the Ministry said.
The Ministry also reminded all spending entities that the sole unallocated fund from which the Ministry can obtain additional monies to meet unanticipated expenditure requests is the US$3.26 million that was designated as a contingency reserve fund in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
This sum is plainly little in comparison to the plethora of real, unanticipated expenditure demands that occur throughout the year.
“This simply means that in order to fund legitimate unforeseen spending demands, the MFDP, working within the framework of the Public Financial Management and Budget Transfer laws, must make the difficult decision to look to other budgeted appropriations,” the Ministry continued.
The Ministry emphasized that the effective, significant, and fair implementation of the national budget depends on the collaboration of all spending bodies.
