The_Open_Door_deel1

It would be interesting to see how this income of the Treasury
(which grew at an unprecedented rate and which reached heights
never reached before in Liberia's history) has been spent.
However, reports other than the Treasury Department's Annual
Reports are not available, and even these Annual Reports do not
properly specify the yearly total expenditures (if a total is at
all presented)- Thus it is not possible to learn the specific
trend of Government's expenditures during this period. In i960
it was reported that "for the first time in several years
Government revenues exceeded Government expenditures in 7959"
(26).
However, as a government's budget is a reflection of its goals
and priorities, and the budgets present a rough idea of how
funds were tentatively spent, the Budgets for 1946, 1951, 1956
and 1961 are presented in Annex 21. The reliability of the
Budget as an indication of actual disbursements is limited in
the case of Liberia. First, "Budget Transfer Orders" were rather
common and authorised the President or the Secretary of the
Treasury to transfer funds from one "area" to another. Secondly,
no systematic record exists of Supplementary Budgets which had
been approved. Thirdly, corruption exists within the various
departments and agencies which handled government money. In
1948 it was reported
"that it was not unusual thai as much as three supplementary
Ludgets were made within four months after the
Ordinary Budget had Leen approved and the Legislature
had adjourned" (27).
These Supplementary Budgets were usually distributed on a much'
smaller scale than the "Ordinary Budget". In this case the
Supplementary Budget for 1946 could be traced and was included
in Annex 21.
During the 1950's the situation was very complex. In these years
the Government's Ordinary Budget which made no distinction
between current and capital expenditures was complemented by a
second budget for expenditures under a Nine-Year Development
Plan (1951 - 1960). This had been introduced and was implemented
with the assistance of the U.S. Government. This second budget
amounted during each of the nine years to txventy per cent of
total domestic revenues (the Liberian contribution). A third
budget consisted of funds which were obtained from the Export-
Import Bank and which were utilized exclusively to finance
capital expenditures (28). In addition to these three "budgets"
the Liberian Government during the second half of the 195O's
started to borrow large amounts of money, most of these being
suppliers' credits and prefinanced loans. It is not surprising
that in such a situation no- complete records exist in Liberia
which specify total expenditures during these years. Even
information related to expenditures under the Nine-Year
Development Plan have disappeared in Liberia. Here It is
interesting to note that the unexpected large revenues of 1951
had enabled the Government to make the final re-payment of the
1926 Loan which freed the country of Firestone's control. (The
1951 Budget was still based on total domestic revenues amounting
to I 5.0 million).