Liberia: House Threatens Justice Minister with Contempt Charges
— But the question then is, who would enforce the competent charges, which involve a jail term or fine?
Members of the House of Representatives are threatening the Minister of Justice, Cllr. Frank Musah Dean, with contempt charges if he fails to provide updates on the debt that petroleum importers owe the state.
The threats against Dean, who, as Minister of Justice, has the authority to pursue any legislative contempt charges, come after he had failed to appear at a House scheduled hearing on February 28, without any written excuse.
His visit was meant to give lawmakers real-time information as to whether petroleum importers were in compliance with the National Road Fund Act of 2016, as many had reneged on paying fuel levy charges intended to fund road construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance across the country.
The House, as part of its oversight responsibility, earlier summoned the Minister, as well as the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) and the National Road Fund (NRF) heads, along with the country’s importers of petroleum, to respond to the issues of the fuel levy charges remittance.
But after failing to attend, Dean has now been summoned to show why he should not be held in contempt “for obstructing the work of the House” as he had been earlier informed about his Feb. 28 appearance.
The Minister is expected to appear with his legal counsel on March 2 but, if he fails, the House has vowed to act on its threats of holding him in contempt.
But the question then is, who would enforce the competent charges, which involved jail term or fine? Contempt of the Legislature, according to Article 44… “consists of actions which obstruct the legislative functions or which obstruct or impede members or officers of the Legislature in the discharge of their legislative duties and may be punished by the House concerned by reasonable sanctions after a hearing consistent with due process of law.
Meanwhile, the National Road Fund, since becoming operational in 2018, faces a challenge in collecting US$0.25 on every gallon of petroleum sold in the country from importers, with arrears running in millions.
The funds came into existence to finance road construction and maintenance as Liberia faces massive challenges with its road network, much of which is in a deplorable state.
Road Fund is a development module adopted by many developing countries to maintain public infrastructure. And with complimentary funding from international partners, Liberia was expected to see periodic maintenance of roads and bridges in the coming years.
But challenges with timely collection of arrears mean the National Road Funds authorities are having trouble funding road construction on a timely basis.
Currently, almost all the importers of petroleum owe the National Road Fund its levy charge, which runs into millions of dollars.