The International Monetary Fund (IMF) new Country Director Madam Eva Jenkner Friday paid a courtesy visit to House Speaker Bhofal Chambers.
They discussed pertinent economic issues ranging from the challenges and prospects of the Liberian economy from the perspective of the IMF and that of Speaker Chambers.
Madam Jenkner, a German national, told Speaker Chambers that she sees some prospects for the Liberian economy. She said the International Monetary Fund is committed to working with the Liberian government’s monetary and fiscal technicians about the country’s vast economic potential.
She emphasized the intentions of the Fund to work with GoL to accelerate Liberia’s commitment to the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework policy and the expansion of the government’s tax regime.
The Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) provides the government with a tool to manage the tension between competing policy priorities and budget realities.
This helps to re-prioritize expenditure and make informed policy choices that are affordable in the medium term, but spending alone cannot deliver services.
During the meeting, the IMF official said her visit to the Capitol Building also coincided with the Fund’s engagements with the Legislature through its bi-cameral department for fiscal and budgetary activities referred to as the Legislative Budget Office (LBO) where the IMF sponsored a week-long training.
During the meeting, Speaker Bhofal Chambers told the IMF officials that he looks forward to seeing the Fund work with the Liberian government’s economic technicians for a more efficacious revenue architecture that will yield strong economic dividends.
Speaker Chambers further mentioned that it is his wish for the IMF to expand Liberia’s rights to borrow as it is done to other countries.
The Speaker said like the case of many countries around the world, the IMF works with them and borrows billions that they used to solve some of their respective infrastructure challenges. The Speaker added that he believes that Liberia should be treated the same. –Press release
What happened to the screening of decrees introduced PRC time that affected Liberians right to trade? Are lawmakers waiting to be elected before scrutiny?
I am not saying that the House is linking economic issues to law making concerns. What I think is important and pressing is the fact that the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice, is interpreting laws within her function that are unconstitutional to her, basically on salaries owed to the Liberian civil code of justice that should be encumbered before election. This is a supreme appoint and not an elected post. If proven and true she could not be contacting the executive branch for payment. She should rather pond on the Legislators who foolishly passed this bill, not to erase this bill or change the texture thereof, but to amend constitutional provisions that make them equate their legal rights to be paid. It not true, it is also the legislative branch to prove its unworthy of the law quoted.
In short, it is the responsibility of the house to explain to the highest court why the subtraction of salaries and point out in the code of conduct or laws the underlying plus immediate reasons. Neither the Legislative, nor the executive branch interpret the law. When the President of Liberia is approached for such with law quotes his duty is to refer the same to the Capitol building because it is not an allotted amount still within the executive circle and needs revision or amending before re-executed. This is what the Speaker should be doing before getting connected to future IMF macro-economic issues far yet away in the few months left to election. After these facts, how many of them will be re-elected?