—Millennium Challange Account Liberia explains
On January 20, 2021, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and Millennium Challenge Account Liberia (MCA-L) marked the close of Liberia’s Compact. The close of the $257 million Compact, which aimed to encourage economic growth and reduce poverty in Liberia by addressing the inadequate access to reliable and affordable electricity and the poor quality of road infrastructure, has had many wondering what prospects there were for renewal.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, January 27, MCA-L said the closure of the Compact in Liberia is consistent with the fixed 5-year life span of MCC compacts. All Compacts have an end date, which is the fifth anniversary after the entry into force of a Compact. In the case of Liberia, the compact entered into force on January 20, 2016 and ended at midnight January 20, 2021.
The Compact invested in the rehabilitation of Liberia’s largest power source–the Mt. Coffee Hydropower Plant, reconstruction of the LWSC raw water pipeline, support for LEC’s management, training, and operational capacity, establishment of the Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission, and development of a road asset management system to support road maintenance planning.
According to MCA-L Chief Executive Officer, Monie R. Captan, MCC compacts are five-year agreements through which the United States provides grants to partner countries to support programs to reduce poverty through economic growth.
However, Mr. Captan explained that MCC might grant a second five-year compact or even a concurrent regional compact to eligible countries once it has reviewed a country’s performance on its first compact and determined that it has satisfactorily passed its scorecard. Regarding the just ended compact implementation, Mr. Captan said MCA-L was producing its compact completion report that will be shared with the Government of Liberia and other stakeholders.
He said once a country is deemed eligible by MCC, it enters into a period of compact development, which can take up to two years. After the compact development phase and the approval of a compact program, MCC and the beneficiary country will enter into negotiations leading to another signed five-year compact. Liberia’s eligibility for a second compact will depend on its performance on subsequent MCC scorecards and a performance evaluation on the implementation of the initial compact. Last year, Liberia improved its scorecard performance by passing 9 out of 20 indicators, compared to 8 out of 20 indicators in the previous year. If Liberia’s performance continues to improve, eligibility for a second compact is possible since a country needs to pass 10 out of 20 indicators.
As Liberia enters the second chapter of Weah’s administration, what a miracle this will be if Liberia meets the requirements of the Millennium Challenge Compact? I say this because the government keeps shooting itself in the foot by violating some major tests of good governance.
Among them are human rights abuses. For example: News is circulating in Monrovia Dr. Cassell, the renown Liberian-international philanthropist’s home has been the subject of continuous monitoring National Security Agency (NSA) thugs for some unclear reasons. If one may recall, Dr. Cassell was among those who quite recently decried the killings of the auditors and promised to give anyone who can produce information leading to their murders 25mln dollars.
Mariama Kpakama-Thompson
You have made some good points Mariama. And if I may add, when one does examine Weah’s Pro-Poor Agenda for Development and Progress (PPADP), he/she does see many parallels of “good governance”, which you mentioned above, between it and the various goals laid out in the Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC).
In other words, if Weah was to only deliver on the promises he made in the last three years of his administration with regards to his PPADP, being qualified for the the MCC would have been a no brainer for him because even though the wordings of his social compact may sound different from those of the MCC, but the over-arching objectives of both are all about good governance and improving the lives of those who seem to be perpetually lingering below the rungs of the economic ladder.
Nevertheless, the president chose to put his desire for the acquisition of imperial powers and the ungodly accumulation of wealth above all national interests.
And if I may also add to the rumors circulating in Monrovia, Liberians heard early this morning from the Costa’s Roots FM internet broadcast that Dr. Cassell in fact reported he has in possession some clear and unadulterated photos of the so-called NSA agents. They were caught on his home surveillance camera.
I don’t see any possibility for the MCC/ MCA next five years developmental agreement with the George M. Weah led government due to the consistent poor-performance score cards. This government has failed to address those layout objectives of the MCC. If this administration can not address human rights issue, press freedom, health, security and strengthening anti corruption institutions, I don’t see any positive forward match for them.