MONROVIA – A General Auditing Commission (GAC) has found out Liberia’s National Bureau of Concessions, NBC, the agency tasked with overseeing multi-billion-dollar concession agreements, operated for six years without effective monitoring tools, compliance systems, or mandatory reporting.
The review by the GAC covered NBC’s monitoring and evaluation of concessions from fiscal years 2018/2019 to 2023.
In its findings, GAC concludes that the Bureau “did not effectively carry out its mandate to monitor and evaluate concession agreements in Liberia.”
The audit focused on mining and agriculture, which account for more than 85% of concession investments and contributed 56.61% of Liberia’s GDP in 2022.
Auditors said NBC lacked the basic systems needed to supervise agreements. For the entire audit period, the Bureau operated without an approved monitoring and evaluation manual, policy framework, or operational plan.
The Concessions Information Management System, CIMS, a donor-funded database meant to track performance and centralize records, was non-functional, the findings revealed.
It is discovered that legal reporting requirements were also ignored.
NBC failed to submit annual reports to the President and Legislature as required by law.
Draft executive summaries existed for 2019 and 2022, and draft annual reports for 2020 and 2024, but none were finalized or submitted. No reports were prepared at all for 2018, 2021, and 2023.
GAC said these gaps reflect broader governance weaknesses that limited NBC’s ability to promote compliance, manage stakeholder expectations, and safeguard economic and social outcomes from concessions.
Also, it is reported that risk assessments to identify high-risk concession operators were not done, and that there’s no completed compliance monitoring reports were produced for mining or agriculture.
Of 16 active concessionaires reviewed, NBC only initiated monitoring for one company – Firestone Liberia in 2021 – but never completed or issued a final report.
The Bureau also had no structured way to detect or address violations. Auditors found no register of non-compliance incidents, no documented enforcement actions, and no referral system to agencies with enforcement authority.
While NBC’s role is limited to monitoring and recommendations, weak internal controls meant alleged violations largely went unaddressed.
Beyond compliance, NBC did not assess whether concessions delivered promised benefits.
It said no evaluations were done on revenue and budget contributions, infrastructure commitments, community development obligations, environmental impacts, and
employment outcomes.
GAC called the gap “especially concerning” given recent tensions around concession operations.
The report cited protests at Bea Mountain Mining in Grand Cape Mount, demonstrations linked to Bao Chico in Gbarpolu, and labor actions at Golden Veroleum Liberia in Grand Kru over health and housing commitments.
Lawmakers have repeatedly questioned whether agreements are producing meaningful benefits for communities despite ongoing resource extraction.
NBC’s capacity was also found wanting.
According to the findings, the concessions department had only 37 staff against an approved 84, with administrative staff outnumbering technical monitors.
There was no workforce assessment, training strategy, or skills development program.
Technical staff lacked competencies in regulatory compliance, risk assessment, data analysis, impact evaluation, and stakeholder engagement.
Logistically, NBC had no dedicated budget for monitoring vehicles or field equipment between 2018 and 2023.
At review, the Bureau operated just four vehicles, mostly for senior management. Monitoring teams had no mobility and lacked GPS devices, environmental testing tools, GIS systems, or advanced analytics software. There were also no physical or cloud-based data servers.
Engagement with affected communities broke down, GAC said, addingthat of 15 Multi-Stakeholder Platforms, MSPs, across nine counties, 77% lacked legal registration and failed to meet operational requirements.
Most stopped keeping meeting records after 2019 and produced no annual plans or reports from 2020-2023.
A public complaint call center launched in 2022 shut down after six months and its toll-free lines were discontinued. NBC also lacked a functional website and consistent public communication.
GAC issued broad recommendations to rebuild NBC’s oversight function, including to establish M&E framework and operational plans, introduce risk-based compliance monitoring, create systems to track violations and enforcement referrals.
.Others include to expand tools to measure economic and social outcomes, conduct staffing and training assessments, invest in vehicles, equipment, and ICT infrastructure, strengthen stakeholder engagement and reopen complaint channels, and institutionalize annual reporting to the President, Legislature, and Auditor General.
Auditor General Jackson concluded that weaknesses in planning, staffing, logistics, reporting, and engagement created major governance gaps around Liberia’s concession sector.
“Without effective monitoring and evaluation, government authorities and affected communities lack the evidence needed to enforce obligations or determine whether concession agreements are delivering the development outcomes promised to Liberians,” the report warned.
NBC was given the chance to respond to all findings, and its responses were incorporated where available. GAC said it will conduct a follow-up audit to check if recommendations are implemented.
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