Did Liberia's MCC Performance Did Not Shift Strictly Along Presidential Lines?
AL
Augusta S. Lafalay
·
15 views
Claim: "Liberia consistently passed the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) scorecard from 2015 to 2018, failed every year from 2019 to 2023 under President George Weah, and began passing again in 2024, 2025, and 2026 after Weah left office."
Full Text: On November 12, 2025, Ambulah Mamay, one of the panelists on Spoon Talk, a live nighttime show, claimed that Liberia's performance on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) scorecards followed a political pattern, passing during the last years of the Sirleaf administration, failing throughout the Weah administration (2019–2023), and passing again immediately afterward (2024–2026).
MCC is a U.S. government agency that annually publishes a "Scorecard" for eligible countries that are committed to good governance, economic freedom, and investing in their citizens. Countries must pass at least half of the indicators overall and the "Control of Corruption" indicator to be considered as "passing."
The Board examines a country's performance on 20 independent and transparent policy indicators and selects countries based on policy performance.
The post attracted 1.3K reactions, 959 comments, and 58 shares as of the time of publication.
Verification: To fact-check this claim, we conducted an online search to determine the facts.
According to MCC's official website, Liberia passed multiple scorecards during Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's administration, including FY2015, FY2016, and FY2017.
Thus, although Liberia failed most scorecards during the Weah years, it did not fail "every year." It passed FY2018 and FY2023.
Post-2023 Performance
For FY2024, FY2025, and FY2026, Liberia has a record of passing consistently.
However, MCC performance depends on indicators, not presidential terms. Some improvements behind the 2024 and 2025 passes began during the Weah administration, especially reforms in fiscal policy, health, and regulatory quality.
Conclusion: The claim contains elements of truth but presents the data in a politically selective manner. Liberia did pass MCC scorecards repeatedly under Sirleaf. However, Liberia did not fail every year under Weah—it passed FY2018 and FY2023.
Post-2023 scorecard improvements cannot be solely attributed to a change in administration because MCC indicators rely on data from previous years. Therefore, the narrative that Liberia "failed under Weah and began passing only after he left office" is oversimplified and misleading.
The scorecard trends reflect multi-year policy effects, not abrupt political shifts.
