Two Audits, One Office, Opposite Answers: Questioning the Auditor's Credibility
- Michael T
- Oct 21
- 2 min read
MONROVIA — Two government audits. Same office. Same Auditor General. Opposite verdicts on nearly identical periods of Liberia's domestic debt. And zero public accounting for why. The General Auditing Commission's latest report has triggered something far more controversial. But beneath the partisan blame game lies a more fundamental problem: Liberia now has two official versions of its own debt history, and no one in authority has bothered to reconcile them.
In December 2022, under the CDC government, the GAC validated $775.36 million of $1.15 billion in domestic debt claims dating back to 1980. Those figures underpinned debt payments and satisfied IMF program requirements. Fast forward to June 2025, under the Unity Party administration, and the same institution—led by the same Auditor General—rejected 88% of claims covering virtually the same period, validating just $93.52 million out of $798.20 million. A complete reversal of institutional judgment, with no methodology change disclosed, no reconciliation published, and no independent review conducted.
The reaction split predictably along party lines.
Here's where the contradiction becomes dangerous. The 2025 audit rejected hundreds of millions in claims for lacking documentation, contracts, or legal basis—many dating to the 1980s and 1990s. The Central Bank of Liberia alone saw $376.5 million of $394.8 million in loan claims rejected. But if those records were missing or fraudulent, why did the 2022 audit validate them? If the records existed in 2022, where did they go by 2025? And if the debts were paid based on the earlier validation, what happens to creditors now told their claims were never legitimate?
Liberia's total public debt now exceeds 52% of GDP, well above the IMF's recommended 50% threshold for developing countries. The domestic portion alone represents roughly $1 billion, or 40% of total debt. Uncertainty about which debts are real creates cascading risks: budget chaos, creditor lawsuits, IMF program jeopardy, and investor flight. Whether that happened under CDC, Unity Party, or both remains unclear. What's certain is that the absence of reconciliation perpetuates the vulnerability.
International audit standards require transparent methodology, independent review, and reconciliation of conflicting findings. The GAC has provided none of those. Instead, Liberia is left with dueling narratives and a supreme audit institution whose credibility is now in question regardless of which report is accurate.
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