Liberia’s Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel Tweah addressing the Liberian Senate on Tuesday at the Capitol Building disclosed that only 1,000 new comers were absorbed in the civil servants since the takeover of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) government in 2017.
This statement on the part of the Finance Minister did not go down well with some Liberians who spoke to the GNN rooming reporter today, Tuesday, September 4, 2019, said the Finance Minister is not saying the truth regarding the huge influx of employment carryout by the government since its inception.
“This number put forward to the Liberian Senate by Minister Tweah is far from the truth, because each and every one of the executives including Nathaniel McGill, Mulbah Morlu, Jefferson Koijee and other senior members of the CDC submitted names to be employed at various ministries and agencies be it whether you are qualified or not, so it is disheartening to hear that this government absorbed only 1,000 persons in the civil servant,” Alice Jah Thomas of Monrovia in a chat with the GNN said.
For Nathaniel Jackson, a resident of Jamaica Road, Bushrod Island, Minister Tweah’s statement to the Senate, particularly on the issue of absorbing only 1,00 into the civil servant is laughable, stressing, “The Minister’s report to the Senate has brought him to a total public mockery, despite his stance to appease this government, it is indeed wronged by given misleading information to that honorable House,” Jackson said.
“I was taken aback when I listened to the Minister that this government employed only 1,000 since it came to power, blaming previous government of being responsible of overcrowding the current payroll. The Senate must quiz the Minister on this issue,” Saralyn Turcker a resident of Paynesville expressing her disbelief of this figure told our staff.
Speaking further at the Senate, Minister Tweah bragged that the number 2,000 nurses and 1,000 brought in by the CDC government increased the number of civil servants to 43,500, to 68,000, but only to increase that number to 69,000 as the number of interested Senators in the payroll aspect of the hearing increased.
“We hope to do better coordination through information whenever we embark on such national endeavor,” Minister Tweah told the over 20 senators present at yesterday’s three-hour grilling session.
He said the harmonization exercise is undertaken by the Civil Service Agency and the Ministry of Finance, and collectively with all other governmental entities, their combined effort is being debated. Minister Tweah disclosed that the harmonization will benefit every gainfully employed a civil servant, specifically the health, security, and education sectors, although he did not provide specifics or say how gainfully employed civil servants will benefit.
But Minister Tweah came under a sustained barrage of questions when Senators Daniel Naatehn and Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence inquired about the number of civil servants inherited by the George Weah Government and the total number of civil servants.
Having made what appeared to be a brilliant power-point presentation, Minister Tweah got entangled as he desperately tried to put the correct number of the government payroll.
He told the gathering that President Weah incorporated 2,000 nurses who had been outside payroll, and as far as he knows it has placed only one thousand persons on the current payroll by this government.
Earlier, the CSA representative at the hearing told the session presided over by the President of the Senate, Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor, that “as at June 2019, we have 43,000 civil servants and as today, all of them have been put into the data and are being compiled, and after that we will know.”
Contrary to public fears of salary deduction, Minister Tweah assured that the harmonization will bring happiness to homes of civil servants.
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