Monrovia — Spoon TV, a local online platform, reported on January 8 that President-Elect Joseph N. Boakai has reduced his Inaugural Budget to US$650,000. But there’s no evidence of how much was in the budget that was submitted earlier before the reduction.
Report By: Siaway T. Miapue- siawaytmiapue@gmail.com
In the Facebook post, the online platform did not mention the initial amount presented to the transitional team that was later reduced. For 10 hours, the post generated 2.9k reactions, 1.6k comments, and 206 shares.
“President-Elect Joseph N. Boakai has reduced his Inaugural Budget to $650k, which is $250k less than the $900k used for outgoing President George Weah’s January 22, 2018, inauguration,” Spoon TV posted.
However, there is no official statement about the JNB-JKK transitional team instructing the outgoing President George Weah’s administration to reduce its budget for the January 22 inauguration.
Meanwhile, in a January 8, 2024, story with the headline Liberia: US$650K Inaugural Budget Approved, the Chair of the Joint Presidential Transition Team Atty. Samuel Kofi Woods announced that the budget was given the green light by President Weah and that the current government is fully cooperating with the transition process. No specific breakdown of the budget was provided.
When contacted, the 2024 inaugural steering committee Chairman for the subcommittee on media and communications, Jonathan Paye-Layleh, in his response, said he can’t make an official comment at the time on the reports but again referred Local Voices Liberia to what Spoon TV has already reported.
The local online TV also stated that “the budget for the inaugural ceremony of then-President-elect George Weah and Vice President-elect Jewel Howard Taylor was set at US$900,000, with entertainment alone accounting for US$278,250.00.”
To validate these reports, LVL contacted authorities linked to the hearsay including those in the present and incoming governments. They were all tight-lipped in providing the details.
The details about the inaugural budget of the outgoing Weah-Taylor administration and incoming Boakai-Koung administration are still very unclear. There is no official report about the budget for these inaugural activities on any of the authoritative websites including the Executive Mansion.
However, some news sources including FrontPageAfrica (FPA) and Daily Observer (DO) have been reporting different figures about then-President-elect Weah and Vice President-elect Taylor inauguration budget, as well as incoming President and Vice President-elect Joseph Boakai and Jeremiah Koung.
In a January 2018 story with the headline ‘What’s in President-elect George Weah’s Inauguration Budget?’, the then information minister Eugune Nagbe told FPA that the cost of Inauguration for Weah-Taylor is US$700,000.00.
According to Minister Nagbe, at the time, the budget was US$2 million but was cut by US$700,000 by both the President-elect Weah and outgoing President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.
On the other hand, the Daily Observer, in its January 8, 2024, edition, with headlines Liberia: US$650K Inaugural Budget Approved, reported that the cost of festivities for the inaugural ceremony of Weah-Taylor was a whooping US$900,000 with entertainment alone accounting for US$278,250.
However, when contacted the then minister of information now Commissioner of the Liberia Maritime Authority, Eugene Nagbe referred our desk to speak with the current minister of information or the Ministry of States, that he is no more the Minister of Information.
“To answer you adequately, I would need to refer to past documents, but as I am no more Minister of Information, I suggest you speak to either MICAT or MOS,” Commissioner Nagba wrote vis WhatsApp.
Ledgerhood J Rennie, who is the current Minister of Information, told LVL to contact the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP).
When Patience Senkpeni-Kumeh, the director of communications & external affairs at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, was contacted by a phone call, she referred our team to the website of the finance ministry.
But the website including the National Budget FY 2017-2018 does not contain a report about the inaugural budget of outgoing President Weah and Vice President Taylor.
So, the facts about the budget for the inaugural ceremony of then-President-elect George Weah, Vice President-elect Jewel Howard Taylor, and President-elect Boakia and Koung remain hidden and vague, as authoritative sources with the responsibility including outgoing and incoming government continue to shy away from providing details. This is influencing the spread of misinformation and disinformation about the actual cost of the upcoming January 22, 2024, inauguration of Mr. Boakai.