BONG COUNTY, LIBERIA-An investigative report on Bong County Social Development Fund has uncovered an alleged mismanagement of about two-million United States Dollars.
The report, which span from 2018 to 2021, was conducted by three leading Civil Society Organizations, including MACE-Rural Liberia, Foundation for International Dignity and DELTA-Human Rights Foundation.
According to the report, there was no legitimate contract documents signed between local authorities and contractors that were hired to implement major projects derived from the County sittings.
Moses Bailey, Team Leader on the investigative report, said at the launch of the report on Wednesday, February 3, 2022, no project has been completed out of the thirty projects awarded to contractors.
He said not only was contracts signed through gentlemen agreement, they were also awarded outside the Public Procurement and Concession Commission Act of 2010.
According to him, such action contributed to the many stalled development projects across the seven electoral districts in the County.
Meanwhile, Mr. Moses Bailey has recommended, on behalf of his colleagues, for anti-graph institutions like the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC), Internal Auditing Agency (IAA) and the General Auditing Commission (GAC) to investigate findings from the report.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Superintendent and the Bong County Legislative Caucus have responded to the report released.
The Assistant Superintendent for Development, Solomane Swaray, has welcomed the report on behalf of the Superintendent, Esther Walker.
Mr. Swaray admitted that the lack of monitoring is one major reason for which contractors hired to undertake projects funded from the County Social Development Funds failed to complete the projects.
However, the Assistant Bong County Legislative Caucus Chair,, Representative Papa Kolleh, said the caucus, by law, has no authority to sign chechs to finance projects in the County.
Representative Kolleh, however, stated that the local authorities, through the office of the Superintendent, are required to provide updates on expenditure of funds to the Caucus after every three months.
Meanwhile, the Bong County Legislative Caucus Chair did not state whether or not the Caucus requested the financial updates from the local authorities.
