Summary: Aloysius Howe, Special Assistant of former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah, claimed that the World Bank has suspended Liberia for nonpayment of arrears owed the Bank as of August 15, 2024. He also stated that all World Bank-sponsored projects across the country including those with the Ministry of Health have been halted immediately. We have fact-checked this claim and found it to be mostly correct. While the World Bank has suspended Liberia, projects that have already received disbursment of funds from the World Bank are not affacted by this suspension as claimed by Mr. Howe.
On August 21, Aloysius Howe claimed that the World Bank had suspended Liberia for nonpayment of arrears as of August 15, 2024 and all World Bank-sponsored projects across the country, including those with the Ministry of Health, had been immediately halted.
The Claim
“The World Bank has suspended Liberia for nonpayment of its arrears as of August 15, 2024. All world bank sponsored projects across the country, including the ones with Ministry of Health have been halted immediately.”
Rating Justification
To verify this claim, we conducted several online searches of official releases, statements, and articles regarding World Bank’s suspension of Liberia.
We viewed the World Bank’s Facebook page and website where we found no statement or release to support Howe’s claim.
We also searched for news stories, releases, articles of both local and international news outlets, but found nothing in relation to the claim.
To further authenticate the claim, we contacted Michael Sahr, the External Affairs Officer at World Bank-Liberia’s office, via WhatsApp .
Mr. Sahr confirmed that the claim is correct stating that as of August15, 2024, Liberia had defaulted in excess of 60 days on its payment obligations to the World Bank.
He said in accordance with the Bank’s general conditions and standard conditions as applicable to the financing agreement providing for the respective loan or grant, the Bank suspended Liberia’s rights to make withdrawals under effective and not fully withdrawn credits, projects preparation facility advances, institutional development fund grants and all loans grants and trust funds.
Mr. Sahr stated via WhatsApp: “On August 15, 2024, the Republic of Liberia’s payment obligations to the World Bank became 60 days overdue. In accordance with its General Conditions and Standard Conditions as applicable to the financing agreement providing for the respective loan or grant, the World Bank suspended the Republic of Liberia’s right to make withdrawals under effective and not fully withdrawn credits, Project Preparation Facility advances, Institutional Development Fund grants, and all loans, grants, and trust funds. The World Bank looks forward to the Republic of Liberia’s payment of all overdue amounts and remains committed to supporting Liberia to ensure the effective implementation of all the projects in its portfolio, for the benefit of the Liberian people”.
Meanwhile, it is important to note that disbursement to projects funded by the World Bank has been put on hold but projects that have already received funds are still continuing.
Mr. Sahr clarified that new disbursements will not be made until Liberia meets up with its debt payment but World Bank funded projects that have already received funds are still being implemented.
Conclusion
Based on the information provided by Mr. Sahr, a credible source working with the World Bank Liberia office, we conclude that the claim is mostly correct. World Bank has suspended Liberia for nonpayment of its arrears as of August 15, 2024. But this does not mean that all projects have immediately stop due to this suspension. Projects that have already received funding are still ongoing.
