Liberia: Legislators Must Now Work Hard for Their Money; Several Bills Soon To Hit The Capitol

Legislators in session at the Capitol Building in Monrovia

If members of the Legislature thought they had some serious work ahead of them, they need to think again. After a brief rest from her Annual Message (as if she needs it) President Johnson Sirleaf is soon going to swamp the floors of this 53rd Legislature with more bills than anyone of them has seen in a long time--- bills for consideration and action.

That means that this batch of legislators had better start rolling up their sleeves now, because this time around, they are going to have to work for their money. And if members of the House and Senate start demanding an increase in their salaries as well because of the amount of work that lies ahead, don’t be surprised.


Prominent among the proposed bills is the Bill to Merge the Ministries of Planning and Finance to create the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

Finance Minister Amara Konneh has been acting as Minister of Planning and Economic Affairs, something legislators in August 2012 raised serious issues with. They grilled Minister Konneh for telling them that he has been serving in both capacities as “Minister of Finance and Planning,” something that aggravated the lawmakers. Their (legislators) point was that the position of “Minister of Finance and Planning” was non-existent in the Liberian government.

The Senate said there was no such position within the Executive Branch of government. The Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Economic Affairs said it was inaccurate for Finance Minister Amara Konneh to ascribe (assign, credit) such a title to himself.

The Committee, in a communication presented to plenary at its Thursday, August 2, 2012, session held on Capitol Hill, Monrovia, described such reference by Minister Konneh as “not only deceptive, but an impersonation.” The senators maintained that “Minister Konneh's service in such dual capacity amounts to a usurpation of functions not legally attributed to him as Minister of Finance.”

But in her annual message delivered to the Legislature on last Monday, the President disclosed her intent to clear the air on that matter, by informing that national body of her intent to have both ministries merged.

Also, the President announced her intent to separate the land function from the Ministry of Lands, Mines, and Energy through the establishment of an agency with a focus on land matters. She said a bill to that effect has already been prepared and is ready for submission to the Legislature for consideration and action. The already established and functioning Land Commission is tasked with developing policies, legislation and regulations that ensure equal access to productive land for all Liberians; ensure security of tenure and the rule of law with regard to all land transactions; facilitate the development and implementation of institutional framework, the use and management of land, and the promotion of investment in land and land resources.

In her speech, the President acknowledged that the administration and management of land and governance of the country’s natural resources continue to pose major challenges and would become one of Government’s principal areas of concentration during 2013. The recent Private User Permits (PUP) debacle, she said, is a glaring example of the need for major reform of our land and natural resource governance systems. 

She disclosed that Government recognizes the need to address these challenges in a comprehensive manner, and have taken significant steps in this regard, principally through the creation of the Land Commission.

Critical among several bills to be submitted by the Executive Branch of Government for legislative scrutiny are the Bill Creating a Special Economic Zone and a Bill Establishing the Liberia Revenue Authority, disaggregating the Revenue Division of the Ministry of Finance to establish a new autonomous Revenue Authority.

Others are the once trashed Gender Equity Bill. A new bill seeking to ensure that gender parity measures are being enforced across all sectors of the Liberian society in May 2010, landed on the floor of the Liberian Senate; was debated upon and subsequently dunked in the trash bin. However, crafters of the bill seem not to be deterred by that development. They were still of the conviction that things would work out once the bill is properly cleaned up to make it less ambitious, as President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf puts it.

“We need a gender equity bill. Other countries have it. Senegal has it, though it is not as detailed and ambitious as ours. Maybe that’s what makes it difficult for ours to pass. Our bill is being cleaned-up and revised. And I hope it will pass. I certainly will work with the women legislators, if they clean it up a bit to make it less ambitious and give it more chances of passing, so we can see that it is passed,” President Johnson Sirleaf told me in a June 2011 interview. The question posed to the President was whether Liberian women need a gender equity bill to secure them certain percentage of political participation.

For Liberian women, the Gender Equity Bill will be a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will ensure that the challenges women face in this country are addressed. Several forward-thinking leaders of the women’s world interviewed separately by me observed that although tremendous strides have been made with regard to gender parity, more still needs to be done. Their facial expressions and body language all pointed to the fact that these women are passionate about this issue of gender democracy and were certain the gender equity bill would go a long way in achieving this.

Other potential bills soon to hit the legislative floor from the Executive Mansion include a Bill outlining procedures for the exercise of the constitutional authority for Expropriation; an Anti-Drug Bill; a new Police Bill; A Bill to Establish a National Tourism Authority and a Bill to Establish within the Ministry of Justice a Bureau for Child Justice; Bills to reconstitute the statutory Boards of several government-owned corporations beginning with the Forestry Development Authority.

“Pursuant to our policy of good and decentralized government, I intend to submit, to your honorable body, a Bill to Repeal the Local Governance Law, Title 20, of the Liberian Code of Laws Revised, to establish a New Title 20 to be known as the Local Governance Law of Liberia 2013,” the President informed legislators.

Other proposed bills to be submitted are The National Pension Bill; a Bill to Ratify the Treaty on the West African Power Pool that expands electricity to all four Mano River countries; a Bill to Ratify the United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography;  several Bills for the dissolution and liquidation of un-necessary moribund public agencies that were created by law but have either become redundant or unnecessary within our current reform framework, only to mention a few.