Information Minister Is Mostly Correct About Operations Fund Alloted in 2022 Budget

Monrovia __ Liberia’s Information Minister Ledgerhood Rennie, on the Wednesday’s edition of the OK Morning Rush confirmed that the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism only “received US$17,500 in the FY2022 National Budget for operation”.

Fact Check By: Jerry Gaye | LVL Fact Checker

His statement was in reaction to an inquiry by the host of the talk-show on why the Ministry was doing little to respond to criticisms from the public against the government.

Said Minister Rennie: “When I come here on my own, it takes me $350 at least, imagine when I come here at OK FM today, on Friday I go to Prime FM and on Tuesday I go to Freedom FM; that’s $350 times 3 and that’s $1,050 a week

He continued: “Imagine you doing it every week in the month, you’re talking about close to $5000 a month and then a year, that’s about $60,000. 

But you know my Ministry Budget to operate for the whole fiscal year, this fiscal period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022? It is $17,500”. 

Local Voices Liberia Fact Checking Desk reviewed the respective allocations for the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism in the approved National Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 on page71 and found a budget line ‘Operational Expenses’ with code 222109.

The approved amount for this budget line (operational expenses) under the Ministry of Information is $17,200 for the FY2022.

In previous budgets; FY2020-2021and FY2021-2022, this budget line has been allotted $73,500 and $55,896 respectively under the George Weah administration.

Conclusion

Based on a careful review of the budget for the Ministry of Information, Cultural Affairs and Tourism for FY2022, we conclude that US$17,200 is allocated to the Ministry for “Operational Expenses”. Therefore, we find Minister Ledgerhood Rennie’s claim to be mostly correct. The amount allocated for operation in the 2022 budget is $17,200 and not $17,500 as claimed by Mr. Rennie in the interview.