US envoy revealed that he found multiple county hospitals that had received no money from the 2022 budget…reports Asian Lite News
The US Ambassador to Liberia, Michael McCarthy, has accused lawmakers in the country of neglecting rural citizens by underfunding hospitals and service centers while “buttering their own bread” and “feathering their own nests.”
He revealed that he visited several rural counties and found multiple county hospitals that had received no money from the 2022 budget.
According to McCarthy, the lack of any alarm being raised indicates a syndicate involving players at the legislature, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
McCarthy criticised the elite in Monrovia, including representatives, senators, and ministers, for receiving annual duty-free imports and paying lower taxes than the average citizen.
The United States, a longstanding ally of Liberia, has committed over $40 million to build a laboratory in Liberia, which will require $3-4 million annually from the national government to operate.
Graft is endemic in Liberia, with Transparency International ranking it 142nd of 180 countries in its 2022 corruption perceptions index, AFP reported.
In December, several hundred Liberians demonstrated peacefully at the call of the opposition to protest government incompetence, as well as President George Weah’s alleged indifference to the plight of ordinary Liberians.
Weah will seek a second term in the presidential election on October 10, AFP reported.
Fighting corruption was one of his major campaign promises in the last election, but last year the United States accused three of his close allies of corruption and imposed sanctions on them.
In September Weah accepted their resignations, it reported.
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