By: Linda Gbartie
MONROVIA: Monrovia City Mayor, John-Charuk Siafa, appeared before the National Legislature yesterday for his first budget hearing, during which he called for more financial allocation for effective and sustainable city management.
Mayor Siafa, speaking on behalf of the City of Monrovia, said sustainable waste management needs proper fiscal support.
He said the MCC lacks such support, a situation which contributes significantly to the city’s present waste management dilemma.
He noted that in the fiscal year 2023 budget, ceiling for GOL direct support to the cleanliness of Monrovia under the clean cities budget was US$ 600,000 with a drastic reduction of USD$ 400,000 in the 2024 fiscal budget.
He further revealed that Data collected by the MCC indicates that to clean Monrovia City at 45%, the Monrovia City Corporation needs a total amount of USD $2.8 Million only for the collection, disposal, and management of waste within Monrovia’s city limits.
Additionally, Mayor Siafa during his presentation at the Legislature added that the CLUS project budgetary allocation and payment under the GOL last fiscal year 2023 was US$750, 000 as opposed to the required US$1.5 million support.
For this fiscal year 2024, the ceiling projected for the CLUS project has instead declined immensely to USD $ 500,000 instead of USD$ 1.5 Million as government agreed commitment to the project, according to the MCC Boss.
Mayor Siafa also lamented that if the government can’t live up to its agreed USD $ 1.5 Million commitment to the counterpart funding which he considers an error, there would be an imminent possibility for the CLUS project’s closure by the World Bank.
Additionally, Mayor Siafa told the Legislators that the Monrovia City Corporation requires US$ 11,023,583 for the City of Monrovia’s effective and proactive functionality, which could potentially close the city’s current funding gap and support its cleanliness efforts, thereby improving Monrovia’s overall waste management.
Mayor Siafa said that the MCC would provide US$2,813,032 from internal income collection towards its budget , while the national government needs to provide US$8,208,551 USD, a vital sum that will improve the MCC’s functioning.
However, the Monrovia City Corporation has US$3,777,965 in the 2024 draft national budget, which is far lower than the MCC’s entire budget forecast to meet personnel and clean city efforts .
This indicates that the MCC needs an additional US$4,430,586 from the national government, as well as an internal income contribution of US$2,813,032, to equal its entire planned budget of US$11,021583.
The MCC-approved budget for the fiscal year 2023 was set at US4,654,415 USD, with a US$3,777,965 USD decrease in the proposed budget maximum for 2024, resulting in a difference of US$1,133,253 USD, or 23%.
Mayor Siafa believes that without achieving the Monrovia City Corporation’s overall actual budget of US$11,023,583, the city authority will find it extremely difficult to address Monrovia’s waste management challenges, which do not bode well for the country and its people, given that Monrovia is the country’s capital.
He called on lawmakers during the budget hearing to see a just reason to allocate the much-needed and deserving resources that will enable the Monrovia City Corporation to handle Monrovia’s affairs notably waste management.
