The Director General of the Bureau of the Budget, Augustine Ngafuan has disclosed that the Executive Branch of government through the Bureau of the Budget has submitted a Draft Supplemental Budget for the Fiscal Year 2007/ 2008 to the National Legislature for its analysis and approbation.

	• Mr. Augustine Ngafuan

According to him, the proposed Supplemental Budget of US$10 million consists of a domestic revenue component of US$4.353, 660 and a targeted donor component of US$5,646,340.

Speaking at Wednesday news conference, he said the domestic component of the supplemental budget includes nearly US$2 million surplus revenue from the first semester of fiscal year 2007/2008, US$994,522 out standing payment from Mittal Community development fund, and a US$600.000 remittance from tie national oil company of Liberia.

Of this amount, he said telecommunication authority collected US$400,000 GSM spectrum fees while US$360,000 came from the Robert L. Johnson Group of Companies. “The donor portions of supplemental revenue are US$4 million from the World Bank and US$1,646,540 from the government of France”, the Budget Director indicated.

Director Ngafuan informed reporters that US$1.4 million an equivalent of (33%) of the domestic revenue will be used to finance expected shortfalls in the appropriation for pension and severance payments.

“Other items of spending from domestic revenue as proposed in the draft supplemental budget include US$100,000 subsidy each to the University of Liberia and Monrovia Transit Authority,” he noted.

Speaking further, Mr. Ngafuan said US4150, 000 will go to the Phebe Hospital in order to ease what he called “effort of initial budget cuts” and US$400,000 will go the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation to commence operation of already installed land line telephone services.

The Budget was Wednesday sent to the Legislature, and according to Mr. Ngafuan, under the arrangements for the US$4 million World Bank grant, more than US1.4 million will go to the free and compulsory primary education program, including “WAEC fees for 6th grade students for MCSS.

He said another US$1.4 million will be used to provide ambulance, essential drugs and medical supplies to each of the 15 counties under the Health Ministry basic package of health services program.

He said the US$1,648,340 French grant will be used for the construction of eight joint customs and immigration borders posts and improves capacity for revenue administration and housing facilities for police in rural areas amongst others.

BOB Graduates 31 Internal Auditors

Wednesday, April 16, the Bureau of the Budget awarded certificates to 31 Liberians that serve as Internal Auditors from the Ministry of Finance, the Bureau of the Budget, General Service Administration, and the Ministry of Land, Mines and Energy for mastering fundamentals of Internal Control, a key element in the prevention of corruption and efficient use of resources.

A release says the certificates are the result of a two-phase intensive training that began in November 2007 and ended in March 2008.

The United States Agency for international Development (USIAD) funded a Liberian CPA firm – Panel, Kerr and Foster – to design and conduct the coursework for this Liberia Improved Budgets, Assets, and Mining Management (LIBAMM) Project to support GEMAP.

According to the release, the United States, in total, has spent 5.9 million to support these kinds of trainings through GEMAP. Those awarded certificates yesterday met strict attendance requirement and passed the stringent final examinations.

Presenting the certificates to the 31 were heads of the four agencies whose staff participated in the course.

They were, Messrs. Willard Russell of General Services Administration (GSA), A.K. Ngafuan of the Bureau of the Budget (BOB). Others were John Nylander, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Lands, Mines, and Energy, Oso Smith and Tarnue Mawolo both of the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Others are Douglas Carey of the U.S. Embassy, Co-chairman of the GEMAP Technical Team, and USAID Acting Director, Lucretia Taylor addressed the graduates.

The course was inspired by the 2007 Annual GEMAP Economic Governance Steering Committee’s Retreat where an evaluation of efforts to date indicated “Capacity Building” was a priority.

The General Services Administration wanted to improve internal controls to both manage its resources better and to gain public trust. At first, an internationally recruited internal control and audit expert assessed the four participating entities and each staff member with internal control functions.

The findings from this assessment allowed the course designers to customize an arduous course that focused on building capacity based on the needs of these entities. Finally, the top five graduates are to be offered on-the-job training by Firestone, recognized worldwide for sate-of-the-art internal audit techniques.

Internal controls test the work processes of each agency to see if they reliably protect government resources – the people’s tax dollars.

GEMAP is a partnership between the government and people of Liberia and the International Community. Its purpose is to improve governance and enhance transparency and accountability. US government assistance to GEMAP is administered through USAID.