IMF Revelation Raises Fresh Questions About Liberia’s Revenue Collection, Banking and Public-Funds Accountability
MONROVIA — As Liberia’s Revenue Authority intensifies its call for information sharing and improved domestic revenue mobilization, an important disclosure by the International Monetary Fund raises a much bigger question for the Liberian public: How many government accounts exist, where are they held, who controls them, and how does money collected on behalf of the Liberian people move through those accounts?
The issue is not simply how much money the Liberia Revenue Authority (LRA) collects.
The bigger question is where that money goes after it is collected.
In its January 2025 First Review of Liberia’s Extended Credit Facility arrangement, the IMF reported that the Liberian authorities had completed a comprehensive survey of government accounts at the Central Bank of Liberia and commercial banks and found a total of 1,253 government accounts remaining open as of December 2024, including project-related donor accounts.
This followed an earlier IMF report in September 2024 in which the Liberian government told the Fund that government accounts at the CBL and commercial banks were estimated to be in the range of 1,150 to 1,300 accounts.
The government said it intended to close accounts outside the parameters of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), with exceptions including donor-funded and state-owned-enterprise accounts.
The revelation deserves far greater public discussion.
Why does the Government of Liberia need more than 1,200 bank accounts?
How many of those accounts receive tax revenue?
How many receive customs revenue?
How many receive fees, royalties, charges and other government collections?
How many are revenue-transitory accounts?
How many are held at commercial banks rather than the Central Bank of Liberia?
How much money passes through these accounts every month?
And most importantly, how quickly is money collected on behalf of the government transferred into the Consolidated Fund?
These are not merely accounting questions.
They go to the heart of public accountability.
The IMF’s 1,253-account revelation
The IMF’s finding should be stated precisely.
The Fund’s January 2025 report said that, as of December 2024, 1,253 government accounts remained open at the CBL and commercial banks, including project-related donor accounts.
The same report said the Comptroller and Accountant General had identified accounts eligible for closure under Liberia’s 2021 Treasury Single Account concept note, with the actual closure of eligible accounts scheduled to be finalized by March 2025.
The Liberian government itself also told the IMF that it had completed a comprehensive survey and found 1,253 bank accounts open as of December 2024, while beginning the process of closing dormant and ineligible accounts.
Therefore, the public debate should not inaccurately claim that the IMF found 1,500 government accounts.
The documented IMF figure is 1,253 accounts as of December 2024, following an earlier estimate of between 1,150 and 1,300 accounts.
But even 1,253 accounts raise an enormous transparency question.
Where does the taxpayers’ money enter the system?
The LRA collects revenue through a wide range of mechanisms.
Liberians and businesses pay personal income taxes, corporate taxes, withholding taxes, goods and services taxes, customs duties, excise taxes, property taxes and other statutory charges.
The government also receives revenues from natural resources, including mining-related taxes and royalties.
Customs revenue is collected at ports of entry, airports and land borders, while domestic taxes are collected from businesses and individuals across the country.
With so many revenue streams, the public has a right to know which accounts receive these funds before they reach the government’s central accounts.
If revenue is deposited into a transitory account, how long does it remain there?
Who reconciles the account?
Who authorizes transfers?
Who signs for the account?
How frequently are the balances reconciled?
And are all collections ultimately swept into the Consolidated Fund?
The Treasury Single Account question
The government’s move toward a Treasury Single Account is intended to improve control over public cash.
The IMF has said that a fully functioning TSA would allow the government to exercise effective daily control over available cash balances. The government committed to closing accounts outside the TSA framework, subject to legitimate exceptions.
But this creates another important question for Liberia:
How many of the 1,253 accounts were supposed to remain open, and how many were supposed to be closed?
And, more importantly, how many have actually been closed?
The public should not have to rely on estimates.
The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, the LRA and the Central Bank should be able to publish an updated inventory showing the status of every category of government account.
Information sharing must follow the money
The LRA Commissioner General’s emphasis on information sharing is therefore welcome.
But information sharing should not stop at telling the public how much revenue the LRA collected.
The public needs information about the entire revenue chain.
Liberians should be told:
How much was collected?
Where was it deposited?
Into which account?
At which bank?
Who controls that account?
How much was transferred to the Consolidated Fund?
When was it transferred?
What balance remained?
And how was the money eventually spent?
These are reasonable questions in a democratic society.
A call for the Government to publish the accounts
The Government of Liberia should therefore publish an updated Government Bank Account Inventory.
That disclosure should identify the number of government accounts currently open at the CBL and commercial banks, the purpose of each category of account, the legal authority for maintaining it, whether it falls within or outside the TSA, and whether it is active, dormant or scheduled for closure.
For revenue accounts, the government should go further.
It should publish the amounts collected and transferred, the frequency of reconciliation and the balances held in the accounts.
This would give Liberians something more valuable than a revenue-collection headline.
It would give them a money trail.
The issue is not to suggest that the existence of 1,253 accounts automatically means that money has been lost or misappropriated. The IMF report itself identifies legitimate categories, including project-related donor accounts.
The issue is transparency.
A government that asks citizens to pay taxes must also be prepared to show citizens how their money moves through the public financial system.
Liberians should not only know how much their government collects. They should know where the money goes.
And the IMF’s disclosure of 1,253 government accounts open as of December 2024 provides an important starting point for that national conversation.
The question now is simple: How many government accounts does Liberia have today—and what is the status and balance of each one?
