"Do Nothing Budget" …Senator Konneh describes Proposed Budget

The former Minister of Finance and Development Planning(MFDP)  now Senator of Gbarpolu County Amara M. Konneh has described the proposed budget by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning as a "do nothing budget," meaning that it cannot  undertake development.

"The brief version of the proposed budget that was submitted to the Legislature is a do nothing budget, just from the perspective of paying people or servicing or operational costs, from a point of view where you can't do any development work with it."

"This is the budget they call you eat, you go to the bathroom, it just takes care of the 70 to 80 thousand workers who work in the public sector. It doesn't invest in two sectors that are ready in crisis right now, health and education," he asserted.  

Speaking on Monday, January 15, 2024 on the OK Conversation, Senator Konneh disclosed that the budget needs serious expansion and this can only be done through a collective effort.

The Gbarpolu County Senator  said government is not generating enough revenue to spend on household, and the high cost of living in the country is causing families to complain.

He noted that the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) is unable to generate monthly revenue to pay wages bill because taxes are not paid by business owners due to lesser income.

"Every family in this country is complaining, not one family can say things are OK. Even those with business they are all complaining why, because the government is not generating enough of money to spend on household and for household to spend on the third component which is businesses to be able to pay more taxes back to the government. When the government chocks, household is affected and unhappy and businesses get less profitable and therefore government make less revenue, " he accentuated.

Senators Konneh  pointed out that  the harmonization shouldn't have happened, however urged citizens to remain kind and take ownership of the country's development.

"I don't think this harmonization should have happened, we ask you'll to exercise patients, it took time to do the harmonization process and it will take time to review and undo it, is not going to happen overnight," he averred.

“So that is why I hope as professionals, you keep producing so that the economy can perform and that can be reflected in your wages. And that is why the high rate of non-performing loans have gone up, but we have to wait for the new government to sit in, for the Executive branch to review this and present proposals to the legislature which we can now debate on the pros and cons,  this time not to give them a clear cut plan to go and implement a policy to analyze the policy and to make sure that this time it will not fail," Senator Konneh, among other things, added.