Liberia—Local Empowerment for Accountability and Decentralization (LEAD)

Building on the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Local Empowerment for Government Inclusion and Transparency (LEGIT) and Revenue Generation for Governance and Growth (RG3) projects led by DAI—to support decentralization, local governance, and domestic resource mobilization in Liberia, the Local Empowerment for Accountability and Decentralization (LEAD) project adds to this legacy a new component focused on budget transparency, anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability.

LEAD works to improve the capacities of select Government of Liberia ministries, agencies, and commissions to formulate and administer sound tax policies, improve budget transparency, deepen decentralization, and deliver high-quality services at the sub-national level. It will focus particularly on enhancing citizen participation to improve bottom-up and top-down transparency and accountability in governance at the national level and in three counties to be selected with USAID.

At the end of five years, LEAD will have helped to establish the systems, implementation frameworks, and capacity for effective domestic resource mobilization, budget transparency, and decentralized governance. Citizens also will be more engaged in ensuring that their taxes are accounted for, and collectively these improvements should strengthen the social contract between Liberians and their governing institutions.

Sample Activities

• Work with the government to review and tailor the Municipal Capacity Assessment Tool and the City Capacity Assessment Tool designed under LEGIT to assess county administrations’ and city corporations’ systems and capacity across the dimensions of planning and budgeting, service delivery, and local development.
• Strengthen in-house tax policy analysis capabilities of relevant ministries.
• Establish policy, legislative, regulatory, and administrative framework for a value-added tax (VAT) and train staff on how to implement the VAT.
• Strengthen the Domestic Tax Department’s capacity to fully utilize the Integrated Tax Administration System.
• Establish a framework for sub-national revenue administration.
• Strengthen the Liberia Revenue Authority’s one-way public outreach function and taxpayer communication.
• Support the passage, rollout, and implementation of key legal and regulatory instruments including the Revenue Sharing Law, draft VAT Bill, Amended Revenue Code and Amended Public Financial Management Law, and the Public Financial Management Action Plan, and Schedule of Authorities.