Summary:
- Liberian activist Martin K. N. Kollie has claimed that the Legislature spent US$13.9 million on “Legislative Committee Hearings” during Fiscal Year 2024, significantly exceeding the US$3.6 million initially allocated for that budget line in the national budget.
- We verified this claim, through a review of both the FY2024 National Budget and the FY2025 Draft Budget and found out that Mr. Kollie’s assertion is correct.
- In FY2024, the budgetary allocation for Legislative Committee Hearings was US$3.6 million, but the actual expenditure rose to US$13.9 million, as reflected in the budget outturn.
Liberian Activist Martin K. N. Kollie claimed on Facebook on January 11, that the appropriation to the National Legislature for “Legislative Committee Hearings” jumped from US$3.6 million to over US$13.9 million in less than 11 months in 2024.
Martin made the claim while frowning on the Legislature for what he termed as “wasteful spending” in government.
Legislative committee hearings are formal meetings conducted by legislative committees to gather information, deliberate, and discuss matters related to proposed legislation, government policies, or other issues within their oversight and law-making powers.
The Claim
Martin wrote to Facebook: “The appropriation for just “Legislative Committee Hearings” or “In-house Meetings” alone jumped from US$3.6 million to over US$13.9 million in less than 11 months.”
The Rating Justification
To verify this claim, we reviewed the FY2024 National Budget on the website of the Ministry of Finance.
On Page 5 of this budget, the amount of US$3.6 million was allocated to the National Legislature for Committee Hearings.
This amount climbed to over US$13.9 million as the actual amount the Legislature received during the year for Committee Hearings.
To prove this, we checked Page 5 of the 2025 draft budget, the outturn for Committee hearings for 2024 rose to US$13.9 million.
In budgeting, outturn refers to the actual expenditure for a period, compared to the estimated budget.
Conclusion
Based on these findings, we conclude that the claim made by Martin K. N. Kollie that the National Legislature spent over US$13.9 million or more than the US$3.6 million allotted to them in 2024 for committee hearings is correct.
A review of the 2025 draft budget found the 2024 budget outturn for committee hearings to be more than US$13.9 million.
