Ex-Finance Minister Samuel Tweah Alleges CDC Government Inherited $300M Debt with No Records from Unity Party Administration

Tweah revealed that these debts remained undisclosed until the International Monetary Fund (IMF) compelled the George Weah administration to include the UP’s liabilities in Liberia’s official debt statistics.

Monrovia – Former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, charged with economic sabotage says the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) of covered up the Unity Party’s (UP) poor credit records in government accounts. He has challenged the UP to conduct an audit of its previous regime.

In a social media post, Tweah asserted that an audit of both governments would reveal the financial malpractice of the ruling Unity Party. He specifically called for an audit of the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) and the Consolidated Accounts, claiming the UP borrowed hundreds of millions from the CBL, which was hidden from the public.

Tweah revealed that these debts remained undisclosed until the International Monetary Fund (IMF) compelled the George Weah administration to include the UP’s liabilities in Liberia’s official debt statistics.

“Yes, it had to take the IMF to force us to include this borrowing in Liberia’s official debt statistics. More than US$300 million in borrowing with no financial record,” he said. “As minister, I resisted this attempt, but the IMF argued they do not distinguish between UP-governed Liberia and CDC-governed Liberia, so we had to include the borrowing in the debt. In the end, we compromised with the IMF in the interest of Liberians and the IMF program but took about USD 100 million off the stock of hidden debt, which is still hanging at CBL.”

“The IMF said we could audit this ‘hanging debt’ at some future date, but the program had to go on! So, we included more than USD200 million (The official records are there, and my witness is the IMF).”

As such, the former Finance Minister has called on the National Legislature to investigate the “recordless borrowing from the CBL by the UP.” He noted that under the Weah regime’s IMF program, President Weah ended borrowing to high praise from the international community for three consecutive years.

“We had to borrow to pay government workers in an election year, and there will never be a finance minister who will not borrow from CBL in an election year if revenue is being challenged! So, bring on the audit debates, but do so factually and in an environment of law,” Tweah stated.

He cited the audit of the government’s Consolidated Accounts, highlighting that the CDC has an outstanding record compared to the UP. He further alleged that under the UP’s leadership, the GAC had to issue disclaimers due to a lack of financial information.

He added that the Weah administration had to work to improve the UP’s poor borrowing record to meet IMF requests.

“Imagine the auditor disclaiming against USD500 million in revenue under UP versus questioning USD50 million that may lead to an adverse opinion under the CDC? How can you even compare the two scenarios? No audit under the CDC was ever DISCLAIMED!” he exclaimed.

“We said all these facts in 2023, but they were drowned out and buried under the intensity and brouhaha of the election. President Boakai and the UP have engendered the best atmosphere now to discuss audits in Liberia and the general question of public accountability.”

Tweah also urged Liberians to advise the government against threatening judges about signing constitutionally mandated bails. He announced that he would soon return to Liberia to address the issues entangling him but emphasized that he would do so under the rule of law, not a “regime of lawlessness.”

He has threatened to expose alleged financial discrepancies of the UP, which he claims are documented in audit reports covering its 12 years in power.

“The fact we did not go after them is not the issue. The issue is wrongs were perpetrated, and the public has the right to know about those wrongs, and we will and should expose these wrongs,” Tweah stressed.

He labeled the ongoing actions by the Boakai administration as an “imagined battle.” Additionally, Tweah disclosed that health workers are planning a major protest, accusing the UP of removing USD 7 million from the budget that the CDC had allocated to increase the pay of health workers, as promised by President Weah under a new health pay grade.

He wondered why the Joseph Nyuma Boakai administration has not been able to reverse harmonization, stating that there is no economic or financial rationale to roll back harmonization.

He said: “To reverse harmonization is to collapse the country the same day. Government payroll pre-harmonization was an immoral mess of inequality, with security personnel and teachers making as low as USD 45 per month while others made as high as USD 15,000 a month, with thousands of teachers and health workers not even on payroll. It was the CDC that brought them on payroll! Pay under UP was based on ‘who knows you,’ where a minister could pay his driver US$2000 a month while doctors made US$700 a month. It was the CDC that took doctors’ pay to US$2000.”

On procurement governance, Tweah noted that the UP accused the CDC of violating procurement tenets with the ETON and EBOMAF deals. Still, now in power, the UP has “delivered a yellow machine disaster,” which he said makes ETON and EBOMAF look like a “gold standard in public procurement.”

He expressed excitement that at least the Legislature was involved in ETON and EBOMAF but criticized the UP for its handling of the Yellow Machine saga, where he said a few individuals made decisions for the country with “reckless disregard of laws.”

Tweah expressed frustration, saying, “The country is split down the middle: diehard CDCians, diehard UPists, other parties, and Liberian voters who reside in what I call the ‘independent movable middle,’ where we aim to stage the ensuing political battles.”

He criticized the President’s decision to suspend the CBL Governor Aloysius Tarlue as a breach of the law.

Tweah further claimed that using Liberia’s reserve money accumulated through CDC reforms under the IMF program, President Boakai forced the CBL to illegally pay US$8 million without the IMF’s involvement to a bank that took depositors’ money to finance the UP campaign, which he said horrified the IMF and World Bank.

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