By Bridgett Milton
Monserrado County District#10 Representative Yekeh Y. Kolubah Thursday, July 7, stormed the plenary of the House of Representatives, demanding accountability for the National Road Fund.
According to Rep. Kolubah, Speaker Chambers has allegedly failed to give attention to the Road Fund that is set aside for road rehabilitation but frowned on the government for diverting money from the Fund to pay salaries.
The district#10 lawmaker was seen moving up and down in the Chamber of the House, yelling that if the Road Fund was not discussed, there will be no session.
However, Speaker Bhofa Chambers asked the Sergeant-At-Arm to escort Representative Kolubah outside, but the lawmaker resisted that he was not going anywhere because he was elected to talk for his people and the plenary of the House of Representatives is where he has to address issues, not in somebody’s living room.
After few minutes, Rep. Kolubah was later calmed down by Monserrado County district#8 Representative Acarous M. Gray, who assured him that the House of Representatives will look into the matter.
For several weeks now the issue of the National Road Fund has been around following an audit conducted on the Fund by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) for two fiscal periods July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2020.
The GAC audit unearthed millions of dollars of fuel levies paid by motorists for the maintenance and rehabilitation of roads in Liberia are either not being remitted to the road fund account as required by the Act creating the National Road Fund or expended for the intended purpose.
Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel Tweah has revealed here that US$27 million was taken from the Road Fund by the Executive to pay salary. Editing by Jonathan Browne
