President George Weah and members of the Liberian Legislature are expected to meet over the weekend at a retreat to discuss issues of national concerns in particular the ailing economy which is not getting anywhere near better.Deputy Presidential Press Secretary Smith Toby says as part of preparation ahead of the retreat, the president was due to meet with 50 technical heads of revenue generating agencies on Tuesday.
“The country is challenged with revenue collection, so the president is looking for all means and ways as to how to get Liberia’s revenue generating capacity working very well. Later on today he will be meeting with 50 heads of technical assistants from revenue generating entities in our country,” he says.
According to Toby, the technical meeting is all geared toward strategizing to see how Liberia can improve on its revenue generating efforts.
Mr. Toby reveals that from Friday, 16 August to Saturday, 17 August, the president will be hosting both members of the House of Representatives and the Liberian Senate at a retreat at Farmington Hotel in Margibi County.
“National issues will be highlighted. There will be a lot on the table. There’s a lot of controversy whether it is coming from the Legislature or the Executive,” he explains.Mr. Toby indicates that when the government decides to meet and put on the table all of the issues confronting their districts, counties and the country in general, government expects that the retreat will be fruitful.
The Executive Mansion is hopeful that all members of the Legislature will be at the two – day retreat in Margibi because it is about the governance of the country and to brainstorm on all of the challenges that the government is faced with.The discussions are expected to be open on matters whether they are about lawmaking, budget or issues about development in the districts, among others.
The planned retreat, according to the Deputy Press Secretary, follows discussions at the Capitol surrounding the need for both members of the House and the Senate to meet with the president.In another development, the Executive Mansion has reacted to Nobel Laureate LaymahGbowee’s Oration, saying her points on the need for President Weah to publish his declared assets, and the number of female cabinet members were probably not properly researched.
Mr. Toby argues that there are 51 positions for females in the government, ranging from Ministers to Deputy Ministers and directors, among others.He further notes that the law requiring asset declaration does not mandate the president to publish his assets, urging Liberians to go back to their lawmakers for amendment of the law if they so desire seeing their president publish his assets.
“And the reason the president raised that issue, for a national orator to go to a function … and say publish your asset and don’t keep it secret or don’t hide it, in my own interpretation of what I understood, it means that the orator may have gotten something wrong,” Toby argues.By Winston W. Parley-Edited by Othello B. Garblah
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