Liberians express Concern Over “Suspicious Fire” At MFDP …But Official warns Against Public Sentiment Amid Investigation

Fire incident on the third floor of the Ministry of Finance and Development (MFDP) has raised serious concern among Liberians with many suspecting foul play in a bid to destroy key financial documents. 

Third floor of the MFDP contains key units including the Public Financial Management Unit (PFMU), Internal Audit Unit IAU), Budget and Finance Unit (BFU) Human Resource and Procurement Unit.

Early Wednesday, October 25, 2023 fire gutted the third floor of the Ministry leaving the wall and several documents destroyed within each important unit. The fire was then quenched through the intervention of the National Fire Service or LNFS and efforts of employees at the Ministry. 

The PFMU for instance, is a unit that provides financial management functions for donor-funded projects. 

As highlighted by political Activist Martin K.N. Kollie on his page, and several other Liberians, this could be meant to hide some financial transactions due to unaccountability as international donors have accused the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) led Government of President George Manneh of misappropriation of funds. 

But despite the public perception, the Director of the PFMU,  Papee Daniel says all the government’s financial records are all in tight. 

“This office is the administrative wing of the Project Finance Management Unit, where we have our documentation and files, but by the grace of God nothing happened to our documents. We still have our files in tight, but at the administrative wing of the office is where everything got burned,” said Mr. Daniels. 

Mr. Daniels, however,  called on Liberians to be calm as investigation is ongoing to establish the cause of the fire outbreak.

He urged Liberians not to be quickly judgmental but rather give the investigators a chance to that they can come up with their findings void of sentiment.