Monrovia, May 19, 2026: Nearly a month ago, the Auditor General released the General Auditing Commission’s “Compliance Audit Report on the Government of Liberia Revenue Collection and Reconciliation Processes for the Period July 1, 2018 to December 31, 2024.” This audit marks an important milestone in the Government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen transparency, accountability, and public financial integrity.

Cestos, Rivercess County - The Government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) and its partners, has launched a major initiative to ring-fence rural county allotments as part of efforts to accelerate the country’s fiscal decentralization program.

Honorable Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah, Minister of Youth and Sports; Officials of government from across the 15 counties,Development Partners,Our distinguished cadets,Parents and Guardians of the cadets,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:

Let me begin by thanking the young and dynamic Honorable Cornelia Wonkerleh Kruah, Minister of Youth and Sports and her team at the Ministry for the kind invitation extended to me to serve as Chief Launcher of this inaugural National Cadet Program.

In November 1988, a very significant thing happened in my life – I began a six-month internship program in the Comptroller’s Department at the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company. I had just passed to the senior class at the Booker Washington Institute (BWI) and successful completion of a six-month internship was then one of the hard requirements for obtaining a diploma from BWI. So, from November 1, 1988 to  April 30, 1989, I had the privilege and the honor of not only donning an ID card issued by LPRC and riding to and from work in one of the company’s large, elegant, air-conditioned buses,  I also saw in real-life the practical application of some of the Accounting concepts and principles I had learned in BWI classrooms. I developed hard and soft skills and learned from great and accommodating bosses.  When I returned to school in May 1989 to complete my senior class studies and earn a high school diploma months later, I was a stronger, a smarter, a more practical person than what I was when I began the internship/cadet program. Later in life, I would work and succeed in multiple jobs, thanks in no small measure to the solid professional experience I acquired as an intern/cadet during that formative, impressionable period of my life.  

Fast forward to May 15, 2026, time and propitious circumstances have given me the privilege of serving as Chief Launcher of the National Cadet Program of the Government of Liberia in which more than 1000 university graduates or graduating seniors will be assigned at various government and private institutions over a six-month period to acquire practical skills that would eventually and hopefully ease their transition to the work place.