22/09/2026
Montserrado County District 3 Representative Hon. Sumo K. Mulbah writes:
To the Joint Committees on Ways, Means, and Finance, The Legislature of the Republic of Liberia
Subject: A Legislative Manifesto for Structural Wage Reform, Labor Unification, and Fiscal Accountability in the 2027 National Budget
Distinguished Colleagues,
We stand at a historic crossroads. We are 103 lawmakers cloaked with the constitutional mandate to steer this Republic, yet the hard reality of our legislative committee architecture dictates that a selective body of about 23 of you sitting on these joint committees hold the immediate, disproportionate power to alter our national trajectory. As we approach the formulation and scrutiny period for the 2027 national budget, the weight of posterity sits heavily upon your shoulders.
Our government has done a brilliant, tedious, and profoundly commendable job of reforming revenue collection and expanding our domestic fiscal space. We are on the precipice of hitting a historic $1 billion budget threshold, with every structural indicator proving that our national revenue is on an upward, ascending trajectory year after year. However, a skyrocketing national budget is a hollow, macroscopic vanity metric if it fails to translate into a tangible, measurable, and microscopic improvement in the daily bread, dignity, and livelihood of the ordinary Liberian citizen.For over 50 years now, our country has trapped itself in a repetitive, unyielding fiscal cycle.
For more than half a century, we have performatively funneled millions into education, health, and agriculture, yet across five decades of successive governments, those sectorial improvements have yielded negligible impacts on the livelihood of our people. To break this generational curse of economic stagnation and sustain a record-breaking billion-dollar revenue stream, we must acknowledge a fundamental law of macroeconomics: true revenue generation relies on domestic economic velocity, and velocity requires a well-paid national workforce.
When we return from recess, the choices you make within these committee rooms will either move this country forward into a modern era or drag us backward into the agonizing economic disparity that has plagued us for decades. For the 2027 budget cycle, we must flatly refuse to allow this fiscal package to simply pass through as usual via closed-door, expedited maneuvers. Let it be a strict, unyielding policy that this budget is passed only through an open, transparent public hearing, where lawmakers vote through statements and not a mere headcount, forcing every elected official to place their precise positions on the record for the public and posterity to judge.
Therefore, I strongly urge the Committees to prioritize and tie budget approvals to the following statutory and structural transformations:
(1.) Rescue and Enactment of the Chapter 16.1 Minimum Wage Amendment: We must treat my amendment to the minimum wage under Chapter 16.1 with the utmost legislative gravity. It is a moral stains on our conscience that this crucial piece of legislation has been left to gather dust in the Senate trash room. We must retrieve it and formally enact it into law. If Senators, Representatives, and Executive heads are heavily compensated to manage the affairs of state, the ordinary citizens who clean our offices, secure our gates, and build our infrastructure deserve matching economic dignity.
(2.) The Unification of a Fractured Labor Framework: Liberia currently operates under a problematic "One Country, Two Labor Laws" system. We cannot continue to maintain conflicting laws that actively contradict each other, granting protections to one class of citizens while stripping them from another. We must formally resolve the legal friction between the private-sector-focused Decent Work Act of 2015 and the public-sector-focused Civil Service Agency (CSA) Standing Orders. We urgently need one unified labor law that seamlessly protects both the public and private sectors, standardizing employee rights universally.
(3.) De-presidentializing Wage Stabilization via Permanent Policy: The harmonization of salaries must never be left to covert administrative actions, arbitrary payroll deductions, or temporary presidential mandates. It must be policy-based, grounded strictly in statutory law, and fully insulated from political manipulation. Let us craft a permanent law that every future administration will be legally bound to live with, protecting the civil service from institutional instability.
(4.) Legally Mandated Liveable Wages Across All Sectors: We must legally uplift the minimum wage standard—moving past the historical baselines like the private sector's $143 monthly minimum established under the Decent Work Act, and uniformly expand a livable wage floor to include civil servants, cleaners, security officers, and skilled professionals alike.
When our citizens are paid a fair, liveable wage, they do not hoard capital; they reinvest it directly into their communities. Higher purchasing power boosts local businesses, drives domestic job creation, and creates a healthy tax base that naturally generates even higher domestic revenue for the state.
Let the milestone of a $1 billion budget be remembered not for the heavy equipment purchased for a privileged few, but as the turning point when the 23 leaders of this committee chose to let the budget alter the lives of the millions we represent. I look forward to your courageous leadership during this scrutiny period.
Sincerely
