The plenary of the Liberian Senate has mandated the General Auditing Commission to audit the World Food Programme and the government’s committee that headed the US$30 million COVID-19 stimulus package. A motion by Grand Bassa County Senator Nyonblee Kangar Lawrence urged the GAC to audit the process and report to the Public Accounts Committee of the Senate in the soonest possible time.
During deliberation in session, Senator Lawrence said she didn’t sign the joint resolution approving the stimulus package because it never had distribution plan.
The Minister of Finance and Development Planning and the head of the stimulus package professor Wilson K. Tarpeh should have appeared before the plenary of the Liberian Senate to report to the body.
According to secretary of the Senate, Professor Tarpeh phoned him and said that he couldn’t come because there was no way he could get the report from the World Food Programme, because that the WFP is requesting diplomatic procedure.
Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe said the Senate is a formal place so they will not accept a phone call as an address to them. Instead, he advised the Senate to write the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to get the full report from WFP.
The Government of Liberia contracted the WFP to use its expertise to carry out the COVID-19 stimulus food distribution, but the under the contract, the UN food agency shall not assume liability for losses or damages arising out of, relating to or connected with the Agreement, unless attributable to gross negligence or willful misconduct by the agency.
It also stipulates the WFP shall not be liable for any indirect or consequential loss or damage, and that WFP liability hereunder shall be limited to the total funding ceiling under the agreement. By Ethel A. Tweh
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