In Summary
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Minister of Youth and Sports Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah has claimed that the Business and Domestic Occupational Training Center (BDOTC) was funded under the Youth Rising Phase I project.
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We have verified her claim and found it to be correct. However, the BDOTC was not part of the initial scope under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, as it was only added following a 2020 expansion during President George Weah’s administration.
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Furthermore, her claim that the full €26 million project budget was negotiated under Sirleaf is misleading, given that groundwork only established an initial framework.
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The formal €20 million financing agreement was done in 2018, and the subsequent top-up that raised the project budget to approximately €26 million was finalized under Weah’s leadership.
Following the dedication of the Liberian National Hospitality Training Center at the Business and Domestic Occupational Training Center (BDOTC) on August 6, Minister of Youth and Sports Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah claimed in a Facebook post that the BDOTC was funded under the Youth Rising Phase I Project. She also claimed that €26 million for the project was negotiated by the Unity Party-led government during Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s presidency.
Minister Kruah made the claims in an apparent response to former Youth and Sports Minister D. Zeogar Wilson, who stated in a Facebook post that construction works at the center began during former President George Weah’s administration.
The center is expected to provide hands-on training in hospitality management, tourism services, food preparation, accommodation management, and other industry-related disciplines, equipping students with the practical competencies required by the labor market.
The Claim
Minister Kruah’s post reads: “BDOTC was funded under the Youth Rising I project. The total funding negotiated was euros 26m under the Unity Party-led government when Madam Sirleaf was president.”
Rating Justification
To verify the claims, we reviewed the original European Union-funded Youth Rising Phase I project document, the project’s 2021 addendum, United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s independent mid-term evaluation, and information published by Liberia’s Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.
Our review found that the groundwork for Youth Rising Phase I began during President Sirleaf’s administration. UNIDO records show that the project, identified as Project No. 160082, entered development in June 2016 with an initial €7.08 million. Joint EU–UNIDO assessment missions involving Liberia’s ministries of Education and Youth and Sports were also conducted in April and June 2017.
The EU’s funding framework allocated €32 million to Liberia’s education sector, of which €20 million was earmarked for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
However, the formal €20 million financing agreement for Youth Rising Phase I was signed by the European Union and the Government of Liberia on May 3, 2018, during former President George Weah’s administration.
The initial project targeted six institutions: the Monrovia Vocational Training Center, Booker Washington Institute, Cape Palmas High School, Zwedru Multilateral High School, Sinoe Multilateral High School and W.V.S. Tubman High School.
Our review further found that the EU and the Government of Liberia signed an additional €12 million TVET financing agreement in May 2020. This led to a modification of Youth Rising Phase I to cover three additional institutions: BDOTC, Harbel Multilateral High School and Tumutu Agriculture and Vocational Training Centre.
The expansion was formalized through an addendum to the EU–UNIDO agreement in 2021. The addendum increased the EU–UNIDO contract by €5.75 million, raising the EU’s contractual contribution from €19.5 million to €25.25 million. With UNIDO’s contribution of approximately €50,000, the total project budget was about €25.3 million, which the EU has sometimes presented in public communications as approximately €26 million.
Conclusion
Based on these findings, we conclude that Minister Kruah’s claim that BDOTC was funded under Youth Rising Phase I is correct.
However, BDOTC was not included in the original project during former President Sirleaf’s administration. It was added following the May 2020 additional financing agreement and the project’s 2021 addendum, both happening during former President Weah’s administration.
Minister Kruah’s claim that the €26 million was negotiated during President Sirleaf’s administration is unsupported by the available project documents.
Although the project’s groundwork and initial €20 million allocation originated during the Sirleaf administration, the formal €20 million financing agreement was signed in May 2018, while the additional funding that increased the project’s value to approximately €26 million was signed during Weah administration. Therefore, this part of Minister Kruah’s claim is incorrect.
