Former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah Slams Unity Party-led Government Over Salary Harmonization ‘Hypocrisy’.
By: Lawrence D. Kawala
MONROVIA – Former Finance Minister Samuel Tweah has criticized the Unity Party-led government for what he describes as hypocrisy regarding the salary harmonization policy implemented during the administration of former President George Weah. Through a post on his official Facebook page, Tweah accused the current administration of misleading the public about its intentions to reverse the harmonization policy.
The salary harmonization policy, introduced at the beginning of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) administration, aimed to create equitable pay across government sectors by reducing salary disparities and eliminating discretionary allowances. The implementation of this policy led to widespread discontent among civil servants due to salary cuts, which the Weah administration defended as necessary for maintaining fiscal stability.
Meanwhile, Mr. Tweah pointed out that despite the Unity Party’s campaign promises to reverse the harmonization policy, they have, in fact, committed to reducing the wage bill even further. He revealed that the Unity Party government agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reduce the nominal wage bill from US$305 million in 2023 to about US$270 million, bringing public wage expenses down from 7.1 percent of GDP to 6.3 percent.
According to Tweah, such a reduction contradicts the Unity Party’s previous commitment to dismantling the harmonization framework. He argued that truly reversing the policy would require restoring salary levels to their pre-harmonization state, which would increase the wage bill by over US$30 million instead of decreasing it.
“This is not a slight reduction; this is sustaining the trends begun under harmonization,” Tweah asserted, adding that the Unity Party-led government is merely continuing the policies initiated by the previous administration rather than reversing them.
Furthermore, during the 2023 election campaign, the Unity Party heavily criticized the harmonization framework, which had been accused of disproportionately affecting lower-paid government workers while standardizing salaries across various levels of public service.
“Harmonization was subjected to propaganda! Some health workers whose salaries were never harmonized were singing ‘you harmonize our pay, we harmonize your vote.’ Now, when the dust has settled, the Government is not even able to give health workers the US$5 million placed in the budget by the CDC government to give them an increase under a new pay scale agreed with them,” Tweah wrote on Facebook.
Additionally, in late September, the IMF approved a 40-month Extended Credit Facility (ECF) for Liberia, worth about US$210 million, to support Liberia’s reform efforts aimed at addressing economic imbalances and promoting private-sector growth. This facility includes an immediate disbursement of US$5.8 million to support Liberia’s balance of payments.
The IMF reform program focuses on fiscal sustainability, proposing measures like reducing unproductive spending, implementing a Value Added Tax (VAT), and boosting investments in infrastructure. Tweah’s remarks put pressure on the Boakai-Koung administration to demonstrate how their wage reforms will differ from those of the Weah administration.
“We are waiting to see the end of voluntary payroll that the CDC promised several teachers and health workers. Are they going to remain perpetual volunteers?” Tweah questioned, leaving the public to anticipate how the new administration will address these lingering issues.
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