In Summary:
Social Media Activist Martin Kollie and Former Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Isaac Doe debated on Spoon FM on July 9.
Both made claims about the budgetary allocations to Liberia’s education sector for Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024 under the administrations of former President George Weah and President Joseph Boakai.
To fact these claims, we reviewed the official budgets published by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
On July 9, Martin Kollie and Isaac Doe had a debate on Spoon FM where they discussed several national issues, including the level of investment made in Liberia’s education sector by the current administration of President Joseph Boakai and former administration of President George Weah.
Two claims emerged during the debate, both concerning the national education budget allocations under each administration. Below is a fact-check of both claims.
Claim #1
At (2:28:53) of the radio debate, Martin stated: “2024 fiscal year, under President Joseph Boakai, 119 million United States Dollars was allocated for Education.”
Kollie made the claim during a debate with Isaac Doe on the popular Spoon Talk show
Rating Justification
To verify this claim, we reviewed the Fiscal Year 2024 National Budget as published by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
According to the document, the amount allocated to the education sector for FY2024 is $111 million.
It is important to mention that the amount disclosed by Martin is the actual allocation to that sector for FY2025 and not 2024, as he claimed.
Conclusion
Based on our review of the budget, we conclude that Martin’s claim that the government under President Boakai allotted US$119 million for education in FY2024 is incorrect. This amount represents the actual allocation for the 2025 budget year.
The actual allocation to education under the Boakai administration in FY2024 was US$111 million.
Claim #2
At (2:50:14) of the radio debate, Isaac Doe rebutted Martin’s statement by saying:
“In 2023, President Weah spent about 98 million on education. In 2024, President Boakai spent 86 million.”
Doe rebutted Kollie’s assertion about education budget by the current administration and also made a claim
Rating Justification
To verify Doe’s claim about spending made by the Weah administration towards the education sector, we reviewed the Fiscal Year 2023 National Budget published by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
We found that the education sector was allotted US$93,861,430 in 2023. This amount was reduced to US$91 million due to the recast that was done to the budget.
By the end of this budget year, the sector spent about US$98 million more than what was allotted.
However, we verified Doe’s claim that the Boakai administration spent $86 million in FY2024. A reviewed of the FY2024 budget shows that the Boakai administration spent US$107 million more than the amount claimed by Isaac Doe. This is shown on the 2024 budget outturn below.
Conclusion
Based on a review of FY2023 budget, we conclude that Doe’s claim that President Weah spent about 98 million for education is correct.
However, his claim that the Boakai government spent US$86 million on the Education Sector in 2024 is incorrect. The administration spent US$107 million on the sector in 2024.
