Monrovia — A newly launched audit follow-up report by Liberia’s Basic Auditing Fee (GAC) has raised severe crimson flags about governance, accountability, and potential corruption on the Nationwide Catastrophe Administration Company (NDMA) after the company didn’t implement practically all suggestions from earlier audits.
By Edwin G. Genoway Jr.
Based on the Auditor Basic’s Annual Progress Report on the Implementation of Audit Suggestions, NDMA applied just one out of 82 suggestions—a compliance charge of simply 1 %—in the course of the interval August 30, 2024, to August 31, 2025. The report was formally launched in December 2025.
Auditor Basic P. Garswa Jackson Sr. warned that persistent disregard for audit suggestions locations public funds at severe danger and erodes confidence in establishments tasked with defending lives and property.
Repeated Audit Failures
The report reveals that NDMA’s noncompliance just isn’t new. In the course of the first section of audit follow-up, protecting September 6, 2022 to March 29, 2024, the company didn’t implement a single advice. Within the second section, spanning August 2024 to August 2025, NDMA applied only one advice—bringing its total compliance charge to a troubling 1 %.
Auditors recognized persistent weaknesses, together with poor accounting for public funds, violations of monetary and procurement legal guidelines, and weak inner controls and governance methods. Accountability advocates warn that such deficiencies improve the chance of misuse of public assets, waste, and corruption.
Restricted Cooperation with Auditors
The GAC additionally expressed concern about NDMA’s restricted cooperation with the audit follow-up course of. Whereas the company attended an preliminary acquaintance assembly and acknowledged receipt of audit paperwork by way of e mail, auditors reported delayed conferences, gradual responses to correspondence, and inadequate proof demonstrating corrective motion.
In consequence, auditors have been unable to conduct monitoring visits to confirm whether or not suggestions have been being applied. NDMA was in the end categorised as “Partially Compliant.”
Based on the report, NDMA failed to interact meaningfully in audit follow-up actions past the introductory stage, making it tough to evaluate whether or not any substantive reforms have been underway.
Why Audit Compliance Issues
Audit suggestions are meant to appropriate deficiencies corresponding to lacking or poorly documented funds, weak oversight mechanisms, and noncompliance with legal guidelines and laws. When businesses ignore these suggestions, the identical issues persist—creating fertile floor for corruption and abuse.
The audit follow-up course of is remitted below the Basic Auditing Fee Act of 2014 and performed in keeping with worldwide auditing requirements. Findings are shared with the President, the Legislature, the Public Accounts Committee, growth companions, and the general public to advertise transparency and accountability.
Influence on Unusual Liberians
For unusual Liberians, the implications are far-reaching. NDMA is answerable for catastrophe preparedness and response, together with floods, fires, and different emergencies that threaten lives and livelihoods. Poor monetary administration can instantly have an effect on the company’s potential to reply successfully when disasters strike.
“When public funds aren’t correctly managed, communities might undergo throughout emergencies as a result of assets are unavailable or misused,” the report cautions.
Whereas the audit doesn’t instantly accuse NDMA officers of corruption, governance specialists say that persistent failure to behave on audit findings is a severe warning signal. Transparency and accountability organizations typically view such patterns as creating circumstances the place corruption can thrive.
A Clear Warning
The message from the Auditor Basic is unequivocal: audit studies should lead to corrective motion, not excuses.
Till NDMA totally addresses the audit findings and implements the remaining suggestions, severe questions will proceed to encompass the administration of public funds meant for catastrophe preparedness and response.
