Lion’s share of first peacetime budget for welfare

Liberia’s parliament on Thursday debates President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf’s first but sure-to-please budget, with pledges of whopping wage increases for civil servants and provisions for restoring the country's damaged social services. Rebuilding the war-battered educational, health and justice systems take the lion’s share of the US $120.2 million budget to be spent from 1 July 2006 to 30 June 2007. The budget also offers a 73 percent increase in monthly wages for government employees, meaning that ordinary government workers could take home an equivalent of US $26 monthly in comparison to the current US $15, or 800 Liberian dollars. After taking office in mid-January following her election victory in November last year, Sirleaf's administration operated on a recast budget drawn from the previous fiscal year budget of US $80 million. Under the new bigger budget, the government plans to spend US $10.3 million on education, or 7.99 percent. This would go toward renovating and equipping schools as well as paying teachers’ salaries in a country with an 85 percent illiteracy rate. Health is the next item, accounting for 5.62 percent or US $ 7.2 million to revamp health facilities and provide incentives for nurses, doctors and other health workers in a country where the 14-year war displaced one out of two of the country’s three million people. Liberia's shattered legal system and new post-war security forces, including the police, comprise the third item on the budget, with US $ 7.5 million constituting 5.82 percent. The rebuilding of damaged infrastructure, such as road networks around Liberia, would take 4.31 percent of the budget, totalling US $5.5 million. The new budget will depend on receipt of local revenues, such as taxes on property and goods and services, as well as revenues from maritime programmes and taxes on international trade. Most of Liberia’s government revenues in the past were based on diamond and timber exports, but this income is currently non-existent due to UN sanctions. While the export of diamonds remains under UN sanctions, the UN lifted restrictions on timber exports last month. However, exports have yet to begin. In a recent warning, the Forestry Development Authority (FDA) said “absolutely nobody is allowed to produce logs for export since in fact no one presently owns a concession in Liberia. Anyone caught exporting logs or sawn timber will face the full weight of the laws of Liberia relative to such violation." However, the FDA is putting in place laws and policies that are subject to legislative approval on the exportation of logs and sawn timber from Liberia. It remains unclear at this date exactly when exports will be cleared. Sirleaf told reporters last week that her budget would mark the beginning of a six-year term with a development agenda. In mid-April, she released a short-term agenda entitled "First 150 Days Action Plan: A Working Document for a New Liberia". The Action Plan was the first phase off a long-term strategy for reconstruction and development focusing on four areas - the revitalization the economy, restructuring the country's police and other security agencies, rebuilding rural infrastructure and roads networks, and strengthening governance and rule of law. ak/ccr/cs