By Contributing Writer
MONROVIA – P. Garswa Jackson has disclosed that the General Auditing Commission (GAC), in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, has begun enforcing punitive measures against heads and comptrollers of government institutions that fail to submit financial statements on time for audits.
Speaking Monday, May 11, 2026, on the state broadcaster ELBC, Jackson said the move is aimed at compelling compliance with Liberia’s Public Financial Management (PFM) Law, which requires every government ministry and agency to prepare and submit financial statements to the offices of the Auditor General and Comptroller General within two months after the close of each fiscal year.
According to Jackson, the law was repeatedly ignored by many public institutions before he assumed leadership of the GAC, undermining efforts to strengthen accountability and transparency in government spending. He stressed that timely submission of financial statements remains a key requirement for ensuring that public officials account for resources entrusted to them.
Jackson revealed that before his administration took over the GAC, only about 40 percent of ministries and agencies regularly submitted their financial statements within the required timeframe. He described the situation as a major obstacle to the effective conduct of audits across government institutions.
To address the persistent delays, Jackson said the GAC established stronger cooperation with the Ministry of Finance to impose sanctions on non-compliant officials. “We built a relationship with the Ministry of Finance to ensure that salaries of heads and comptrollers of government ministries and agencies are withheld for delaying the submission of financial statements,” he explained.
The Auditor General noted that after ministries and agencies submit their reports, the offices of the Auditor General and Comptroller General consolidate the documents into national financial statements for comprehensive audits of the Government of Liberia.
Although the GAC has not yet completed all of the nearly 300 audits under its mandate, Jackson emphasized that his administration has succeeded in regularizing audits of the government’s consolidated financial statements annually. He described this as one of the commission’s most significant achievements in recent years.
“Before I became Auditor General, the consolidated financial statements were unaudited for two years. This was not the fault of the GAC because the Ministry of Finance was not preparing and submitting those statements to the office of the Auditor General,” Jackson stated during the interview.
Jackson further highlighted what he described as unprecedented audits carried out under the current administration, including audits of the Office of the President through the Ministry of State for Presidential Affairs, the National Legislature, the Judiciary, the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL), the Civil Service payroll, domestic debts, and revenue reconciliation systems.
He said the audit of the Office of the President marked a historic milestone for the commission. “This is the first time the GAC has been able to perform this audit on the office of the President at the Ministry of State. This sets a precedent that absolutely no office or public official in the country is exempt from accounting for what they used from public resources,” Jackson asserted.
Responding to criticisms that audit reports often fail to result in action, Jackson clarified that the GAC’s responsibility is limited to conducting audits and submitting findings. He explained that audit reports are forwarded to the National Legislature through its Public Accounts Committee for hearings and recommendations to the President, while the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) also has the authority to investigate and prosecute cases arising from the reports.
Jackson maintained that audits are critical to ensuring public funds intended for services such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure are properly managed. While acknowledging that some government institutions continue to ignore recommendations from audit reports, he said many others have shown increasing cooperation with the commission.
He warned, however, that institutions refusing to act on audit findings will eventually face public exposure. “We will name and shame those institutions that are failing to implement audit recommendations at the appropriate time,” Jackson vowed.
