MONROVIA, Liberia, Nov. 13 -- In Liberia's county capitals, paved streets have been promised many times. This year, the money was finally set aside. The pavement has not followed.

By Rodney D. Sieh

By September 30, the government had recorded more than $10 million against 15 city street projects, in towns from Buchanan on the Atlantic coast to Zwedru near the Ivorian border. The figures appear in the Ministry of Public Works' pages of the draft national budget for 2027. On Thursday, the ministry said not one contractor had been paid.

The money, it said, is caught in the paperwork of the Ministry of Finance, at the purchase-order stage, a step short of the vouchers that release cash. Contractors will not move equipment onto sites until ...