Aspirant wants Lawmakers audited

A former Manager at Coca-Cola Bottling Company and an aspirant for Montserrado County District#9, Fubbi Henries, has petitioned the 53rd Liberian Legislature, calling for the immediate audit of lawmakers.

He says the exercise is necessary to provide transparency and accountability for lawmakers’ tenure of leadership. Mr. Henries told reporters on Wednesday this week in an interview that if members of both houses did not adhere to clauses within the petition, the matter will be taken to the Supreme Court for further intervention.

“We are going to call for a regular audit, and if both houses do not adhere to the petition, we will have the Supreme Court intervened, because we need to know what is happening to our resources’’, he emphasizes.

Mr. Henries says the audit is very important because it will save the country and its people from lot of waste. “Some of those in the house are not working in the interest of the Liberian people, and the essence of being in government is to serve country and people, and we have not seen such.”

According to him, lawmakers continue to increase their salary and benefits, while reducing funds to key sectors of the economy namely; healthcare, water and sanitation, lamenting, this is something that is dishonest and unacceptable, “because we cannot be allotting money to 103 persons when the sectors that are to cover persons over 4 million are underfunded and we see money going to the pockets of few individuals; these are some of the reasons we are calling for an audit.”

He says the power to decide one’s salaries and benefits should be taken from lawmakers and invested into another independent body, which will be imposed in the civic service commission with a sixty percent cut in salary and benefits. Henries further stresses that this will help to support other key sectors such as agriculture, health and education.

However, he points out that the decision to audit the House of Representatives will be of interest to the Liberian people, adding that it’s time people stop complaining about basic social services. “Liberians cannot get better services to road safety program, electricity, healthcare, sanitation and water, but rather the money goes into the pockets of 103 lawmakers, who are enjoying our taxes at our expenses.”

By Bridgett Milton -Editing by Jonathan Browne