Citizens of Margibi County are expected to assemble at the Kakata Administrative Building soon to decide the usage of their County Social Development Fund remitted to the County by the central government.
The decision on the usage of the fund will be decided by the citizens at the County Council Setting as prescribed in the budget law of Liberia, a law that calls for the conduct of County Council Setting every budget year.
This is the first time in more than three years that citizens of the County will go to the County council sitting to make decisions on the usage of their County Social development fund.
It can be recalled that the past administration of the County headed by former Superintendent John Z. Buway and the Legislative Caucus under the leadership of Former Margibi District #5 Representative James Emmanuel Nuquay ignored the portion of the budget law that calls for the holding of County Council sitting for over three years and took decision on the usage of monies that were remitted to the County, something that citizens of the County blamed on the division that existed amongst members of the Caucus with the former Superintendent playing a mid-field role.
The Chairman of the Margibi Legislative Caucus, Ben A. Fofana at the end of a leadership meeting in Kakata recently said the current leadership of the County will not condone the act of unilaterally deciding the usage of the people’s money, as such; they are going to live by the budget law of Liberia.
“County sitting is by law so we as Lawmakers should not be lawbreakers, County sitting is a platform given to the citizens of Margibi County so we will make sure that they have that opportunity to utilize that platform to ensure that they make decisions that will be in their own interest” Hon. Fofana stated.
On that note, the Margibi County Caucus Chairman said November 9, 2018 has been set aside as an alternative date for the holding of the County Council Setting for the 2017/2018 budget year.
The Margibi County Caucus Chairman disclosed that in order to have a successful sitting, his leadership has set up two separate committees one of which is charged with the responsibility to formulate budget for the program while the other committee is responsible to set up a guideline vet applicants wishing to contest as members of the Project Management Committee (PMC) and do a short listing of successful applicants.
The Margibi District #4 Lawmaker also indicated that as part of giving power to the people where they will be able to make their own decision, each district will have a district sitting before the County Council Sitting where they will derive at their own developmental agenda that they will take to the Council Sitting.
“We may be there to provide limited guardian but we want them to be able to be in the position as much as possible to make a determination of what they want to see in their areas” he narrated.
He said this exercise will eventually be accumulated in the near future to a County development agenda where Margibi County will be able to make a determination as to where the Margibians will want to see the County moving to in terms of development for the next five years
Hon. Fofana at the same time revealed that a Project Management Team will be set up as per the law to be able to monitor the project from start to end in their Community.
“In fact, they must make selection of their project they want to be done in their Community, they must make cost analysis, what that will cost and bring it to us,” he said.
