Liberia’s Road Fund Office Optimistic MMC Compact Would Rescind US$15 Decision

The Manager of the National road Fund says the NRF currently has almost US$12 million dollars in its account, which includes monies remitted by the Liberian government as well as other commitments made by international partners.

DG Boniface Satu also disclosed that US$3.5 million – as part of the approximately US$12 Million – has been remitted into the NRF escrow account by the Government as matching fund to the Millennium Challenge Compact’s road fund contribution to the country.

But delays in the transfer of funds to the escrow account – a pre-condition captured in the MCC compact for Liberia – have caused the US government to cancel a US$15 million NRF package.
As part of the Compact, Liberia was obligated to achieve11 conditional precedents before the MCC disburses its funding to the NRF.

Amongst several things, the NRF was to set-up its own office and open an escrow account for the remittance of funds collected as a levy on the sale of petroleum. “We understand it is their policy and we are not meeting that 100% but we have done that 80 to 90%, so they should understand our financial position… the strides this government has made in ensuring that the road fund is functional, operational, transparent – we have been accountable,”, said Boniface Satu, Manager of the NRF.

DG Satu admitted that the “the only issue that we have was the transferred of the funds into the escrow account” which he added, “government made an effort to transfer the funds”.
He disclosed that for fiscal year 2018/2019, despite the delays due to the stalemate in completing certain procedurals, over US$5 million was transferred to the escrow account.
“Between April and May, we put in almost US$5.6 million dollars based on the amount that was owed but there was still a balance left and we came up with a payment plan and based on that you can even see the flow of payments that government made,” he explained while displaying bank statements from United Bank of Africa and Liberia Bank for Development and Investment indicating the bank balances of the NRF.

“In FY 2019/2020, our record shows that fuel levy collection to date is approximately US$8 million – up till present, our available balance that we have is almost US$12 million dollars.”
He clarified that some of these monies are “committed funds”, which means donors’ commitments to the NRF are also covered and he, at the same time, boasting of support from several other donors including the GIZ or German Development Agency.

Responding to the decision of the US government to cancel the US$15 million for road fund, Mr. Satu said the “Liberian government has been making frantic efforts to assure the MCC that the government is following all of its pre-conditions and criteria” that primary includes regular transfer of road funds to the escrow account without hindrance.

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