Doing Business 2018 Liberia Economy Pro le of Liberia Doing Business 2018 Indicators (in order of appearance in the document) Starting a business Procedures, time, cost and paid-in minimum capital to start a limited liability company Dealing with construction Procedures, time and cost to complete all formalities to build a warehouse and the quality control and permits safety mechanisms in the construction permitting system Getting electricity Procedures, time and cost to get connected to the electrical grid, the reliability of the electricity supply and the transparency of tariffs Registering property Procedures, time and cost to transfer a property and the quality of the land administration system Getting credit Movable collateral laws and credit information systems Protecting minority investors Minority shareholders’ rights in related-party transactions and in corporate governance Paying taxes Payments, time and total tax rate for a firm to comply with all tax regulations as well as post-filing processes Trading across borders Time and cost to export the product of comparative advantage and import auto parts Enforcing contracts Time and cost to resolve a commercial dispute and the quality of judicial processes Resolving insolvency Time, cost, outcome and recovery rate for a commercial insolvency and the strength of the legal framework for insolvency Labor market regulation Flexibility in employment regulation and aspects of job quality About Doing Business The Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. The Doing Business project, launched in 2002, looks at domestic small and medium-size companies and measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle. Doing Business captures several important dimensions of the regulatory environment as it applies to local rms. It provides quantitative indicators on regulation for starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation. Although Doing Business does not present rankings of economies on the labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business, it does present the data for these indicators. By gathering and analyzing comprehensive quantitative data to compare business regulation environments across economies and over time, Doing Business encourages economies to compete towards more e cient regulation; o ers measurable benchmarks for reform; and serves as a resource for academics, journalists, private sector researchers and others interested in the business climate of each economy. In addition, Doing Business o ers detailed subnational reports, which exhaustively cover business regulation and reform in di erent cities and regions within a nation. These reports provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. Selected cities can compare their business regulations with other cities in the economy or region and with the 190 economies that Doing Business has ranked. The rst Doing Business report, published in 2003, covered 5 indicator sets and 133 economies. This year’s report covers 11 indicator sets and 190 economies. Most indicator sets refer to a case scenario in the largest business city of each economy, except for 11 economies that have a population of more than 100 million as of 2013 (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and the United States) where Doing Business, also collected data for the second largest business city. The data for these 11 economies are a population-weighted average for the 2 largest business cities. The project has bene ted from feedback from governments, academics, practitioners and reviewers. The initial goal remains: to provide an objective basis for understanding and improving the regulatory environment for business around the world. Page 2   for insolvency Doing Business Labor market 2018 regulation Liberia Flexibility in employment regulation and aspects of job quality About Doing Business The Doing Business project provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 190 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level. The Doing Business project, launched in 2002, looks at domestic small and medium-size companies and measures the regulations applying to them through their life cycle. Doing Business captures several important dimensions of the regulatory environment as it applies to local rms. It provides quantitative indicators on regulation for starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures features of labor market regulation. Although Doing Business does not present rankings of economies on the labor market regulation indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business, it does present the data for these indicators. By gathering and analyzing comprehensive quantitative data to compare business regulation environments across economies and over time, Doing Business encourages economies to compete towards more e cient regulation; o ers measurable benchmarks for reform; and serves as a resource for academics, journalists, private sector researchers and others interested in the business climate of each economy. In addition, Doing Business o ers detailed subnational reports, which exhaustively cover business regulation and reform in di erent cities and regions within a nation. These reports provide data on the ease of doing business, rank each location, and recommend reforms to improve performance in each of the indicator areas. Selected cities can compare their business regulations with other cities in the economy or region and with the 190 economies that Doing Business has ranked. The rst Doing Business report, published in 2003, covered 5 indicator sets and 133 economies. This year’s report covers 11 indicator sets and 190 economies. Most indicator sets refer to a case scenario in the largest business city of each economy, except for 11 economies that have a population of more than 100 million as of 2013 (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and the United States) where Doing Business, also collected data for the second largest business city. The data for these 11 economies are a population-weighted average for the 2 largest business cities. The project has bene ted from feedback from governments, academics, practitioners and reviewers. The initial goal remains: to provide an objective basis for understanding and improving the regulatory environment for business around the world. The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the “frontier,” which represents the best performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies in the Doing Business sample since 2005. An economy’s distance to frontier is re ected on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 represents the frontier. The ease of doing business ranking ranges from 1 to 190. The ranking of 190 economies is determined by sorting the aggregate distance to frontier scores, rounded to two decimals. More about Doing Business (PDF, 5MB) Ease of Doing Business in Region Sub-Saharan Africa DB 2018 Rank 190 1 Liberia Income Category Low income 172 Population 4,613,823 DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) GNI Per Capita (US$) 370 0 100 43.55 City Covered Monrovia DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 73.40: Rwanda (Rank: 41) 65.15: Kenya (Rank: 80) 57.24: Ghana (Rank: 120) 50.43: Regional Average (Sub­Saharan Africa) 48.18: Sierra Leone (Rank: 160) Page 3   43.55: Liberia (Rank: 172) aggregate distance to frontier scores, rounded to two decimals. More Doingabout 2018 (PDF, Doing Business Business 5MB) Liberia Ease of Doing Business in Region Sub-Saharan Africa DB 2018 Rank 190 1 Liberia Income Category Low income 172 Population 4,613,823 DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) GNI Per Capita (US$) 370 0 100 43.55 City Covered Monrovia DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 73.40: Rwanda (Rank: 41) 65.15: Kenya (Rank: 80) 57.24: Ghana (Rank: 120) 50.43: Regional Average (Sub­Saharan Africa) 48.18: Sierra Leone (Rank: 160) 43.55: Liberia (Rank: 172) Note: The distance to frontier (DTF) measure shows the distance of each economy to the “frontier,” which represents the best performance observed on each of the indicators across all economies in the Doing Business sample since 2005. An economy’s distance to frontier is re ected on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest performance and 100 represents the frontier. The ease of doing business ranking ranges from 1 to 190. Rankings on Doing Business topics - Liberia 1 28 54 55 69 82 Rank 105 106 109 136 163 176 174 177 177 184 183 190 Starting Dealing Getting Registering Getting Protecting Paying Trading Enforcing Resolving a with Electricity Property Credit Minority Taxes across Contracts Insolvency Business Construction Investors Borders Permits Distance to Frontier (DTF) on Doing Business topics - Liberia 100 90.77 80 76.70 60 DTF 45.00 40.43 40 32.95 35.23 28.94 31.04 26.67 27.77 20 0 Starting Dealing Getting Registering Getting Protecting Paying Trading Enforcing Resolving a with Electricity Property Credit Minority Taxes across Contracts Insolvency Business Construction Change:-0.33 Change:-0.05 Change:0.00 Investors Change:0.00 Borders Change:0.00 Change:+31.25 Change:+0.13 Permits Change:0.00 Change:0.00 Change:0.00 Starting a Business Page 4   This topic measures the paid-in minimum capital requirement, number of procedures, time and cost for a small- to medium-sized a with Electricity Property Credit Minority Taxes across Contracts Insolvency Business Construction Change:-0.33 Change:-0.05 Change:0.00 Investors Change:0.00 Borders Change:0.00 Change:+31.25 Change:+0.13 Permits Change:0.00 Change:0.00 Doing Business 2018 Liberia Change:0.00 Starting a Business This topic measures the paid-in minimum capital requirement, number of procedures, time and cost for a small- to medium-sized limited liability company to start up and formally operate in economy’s largest business city. To make the data comparable across 190 economies, Doing Business uses a standardized business that is 100% domestically owned, has start-up capital equivalent to 10 times income per capita, engages in general industrial or commercial activities and employs between 10 and 50 people one month after the commencement of operations, all of whom are domestic nationals. Starting a Business considers two types of local limited liability companies that are identical in all aspects, except that one company is owned by 5 married women and the other by 5 married men. The distance to frontier score for each indicator is the average of the scores obtained for each of the component indicators. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to legally start and operate a To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions company (number) about the business and the procedures are used. It is assumed that any required information is readily available and that the entrepreneur will pay Pre-registration (for example, name verification no bribes. or reservation, notarization) Registration in economy’s largest business city The business: - Is a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent). If there is more than Post-registration (for example, social security one type of limited liability company in the economy, the most common registration, company seal) among domestic rms is chosen. Information on the most common form is Obtaining approval from spouse to start business obtained from incorporation lawyers or the statistical o ce. or leave home to register company - Operates in the economy’s largest business city and the entire o ce Obtaining any gender-specific permission that space is approximately 929 square meters (10,000 square feet). For 11 can impact company registration, company economies the data are also collected for the second largest business city. operations and process of getting national - Is 100% domestically owned and has ve owners, none of whom is a legal identity card entity; and has a start-up capital of 10 times income per capita and has a Time required to complete each procedure turnover of at least 100 times income per capita. (calendar days) - Performs general industrial or commercial activities, such as the production or sale of goods or services to the public. The business does Does not include time spent gathering not perform foreign trade activities and does not handle products subject information to a special tax regime, for example, liquor or tobacco. It does not use Each procedure starts on a separate day (2 heavily polluting production processes. procedures cannot start on the same day) - Leases the commercial plant or o ces and is not a proprietor of real Procedures fully completed online are recorded estate and the amount of the annual lease for the o ce space is equivalent as ½ day to 1 times income per capita. Procedure is considered completed once final - Does not qualify for investment incentives or any special bene ts. document is received - Has at least 10 and up to 50 employees one month after the commencement of operations, all of whom are domestic nationals. No prior contact with officials - Has a company deed 10 pages long. Cost required to complete each procedure (% of The owners: income per capita) - Have reached the legal age of majority. If there is no legal age of majority, Official costs only, no bribes they are assumed to be 30 years old. No professional fees unless services required by - Are sane, competent, in good health and have no criminal record. law or commonly used in practice - Are married and the marriage is monogamous and registered with the authorities. Paid-in minimum capital (% of income per capita) - Where the answer di ers according to the legal system applicable to the Funds deposited in a bank or with third party woman or man in question (as may be the case in economies where there before registration or up to 3 months after is legal plurality), the answer used will be the one that applies to the incorporation majority of the population. Standardized Company Page 5   before registration or up to 3 months after is legal plurality), the answer used will be the one that applies to the incorporation majority of the population. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Standardized Company Legal form Private Limited Company Paid-in minimum capital requirement LRD 0 City Covered Monrovia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Procedure – Men (number) 5 7.6 4.9 1.00 (New Zealand) Time – Men (days) 6 24.0 8.5 0.50 (New Zealand) Cost – Men (% of income per capita) 15.7 49.9 3.1 0.00 (United Kingdom) Procedure – Women (number) 5 7.7 4.9 1.00 (New Zealand) Time – Women (days) 6 24.1 8.5 0.50 (New Zealand) Cost – Women (% of income per capita) 15.7 49.9 3.1 0.00 (United Kingdom) Paid-in min. capital (% of income per capita) 0.0 25.6 8.7 0.00 (113 Economies) Figure – Starting a Business in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 90.77: Liberia (Rank: 54) 87.66: Rwanda (Rank: 78) 86.95: Sierra Leone (Rank: 83) 84.02: Ghana (Rank: 110) 83.20: Kenya (Rank: 117) 76.82: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of starting a business is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for starting a business. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the component indicators. Figure – Starting a Business in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost Time Cost 6 14 12 5 ost (% of income per capita) 10 4 Time (days) 8 3 6 2 Page 6   4 starting a business. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the component indicators. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Figure – Starting a Business in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost Time Cost 6 14 12 5 Cost (% of income per capita) 10 4 Time (days) 8 3 6 2 4 1 2 0 0 1 *2 *3 4 5 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a di erent procedure list for men and women, the graph shows the time for women. For more information on methodology, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology). For details on the procedures re ected here, see the summary below. Details – Starting a Business in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Reserve a unique company name 1 day LRD 1,400 Agency : Liberia Business Registry The applicant can search the name online or at the Liberian Business Registry (LBR) helpdesk. The reservation of the name costs LRD 1,400 and lasts for 120 days. 2 Register at the Liberia Business Registry 1 day no charge Agency : Liberia Business Registry (simultaneous with previous The entrepreneur submits the company registration application to the procedure) Liberia Business Registry (LBR) o ce. The application must include the following documents: Consolidated application for a limited liability company contains: 1. Registration Form (RF – 001) 2. Articles of incorporation 3. Copy of ID documents as attachments to forms A or B 4. Additional parts: - Empowered person form (A) or Registered agent form (B) in case of a company representative - Incorporator(s) form (E) - Shares and shareholder(s) form (F) - Information for TAX authority form (Q) LBR o cers review the application and request the Tax Identi cation Number (TIN) and BPS from the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the entrepreneur. Page 7   (http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology). For details on the procedures re ected here, see the summary below. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Starting a Business in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Reserve a unique company name 1 day LRD 1,400 Agency : Liberia Business Registry The applicant can search the name online or at the Liberian Business Registry (LBR) helpdesk. The reservation of the name costs LRD 1,400 and lasts for 120 days. 2 Register at the Liberia Business Registry 1 day no charge Agency : Liberia Business Registry (simultaneous with previous The entrepreneur submits the company registration application to the procedure) Liberia Business Registry (LBR) o ce. The application must include the following documents: Consolidated application for a limited liability company contains: 1. Registration Form (RF – 001) 2. Articles of incorporation 3. Copy of ID documents as attachments to forms A or B 4. Additional parts: - Empowered person form (A) or Registered agent form (B) in case of a company representative - Incorporator(s) form (E) - Shares and shareholder(s) form (F) - Information for TAX authority form (Q) LBR o cers review the application and request the Tax Identi cation Number (TIN) and BPS from the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the entrepreneur. 3 Pay fees and obtain proof of payment 1 day LRD 4,000 Agency : Liberia Business Registry (Central Bank window) (simultaneous with previous The entrepreneur proceeds to the bank window in order to pay the procedure) associated registration fees. Upon payment of the fee, the Bank o cer issues a ag receipt of the Government of Liberia as proof of payment. This receipt has to be returned to the initial o cer who accepted the application. 4 Receive the Business Registration Certi cate 2 days no charge Agency : Liberia Business Registry The entrepreneur returns to the Liberia Business Registry o ce to submit the proof of fee payment. The o cer then journalizes the dossier and provides the entrepreneur with the receipt slip, thereby approving the dossier for processing. The entrepreneur can track the status of the application online; and upon approval, the company receives a Business Registration Certi cate. The amount of LRD 4,000 is charged for business registration. As of June 27 2012, companies no longer need to pay a fee of LRD 4,200 for the business license. 5 Registration with the National Association of Social Security 1 day no charge Agency : National Association of Social Security (NASSCORP) Applies to women only. Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Page 8   Doing to women2018 Business Applies only. Liberia Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Dealing with Construction Permits This topic tracks the procedures, time and cost to build a warehouse—including obtaining necessary the licenses and permits, submitting all required noti cations, requesting and receiving all necessary inspections and obtaining utility connections. In addition, the Dealing with Construction Permits indicator measures the building quality control index, evaluating the quality of building regulations, the strength of quality control and safety mechanisms, liability and insurance regimes, and professional certi cation requirements. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to legally build a warehouse (number) To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions about the construction company, the warehouse project and the utility Submitting all relevant documents and obtaining connections are used. all necessary clearances, licenses, permits and certificates The construction company (BuildCo): Submitting all required notifications and - Is a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent) and operates in the receiving all necessary inspections economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the second largest business city. Obtaining utility connections for water and - Is 100% domestically and privately owned; has ve owners, none of whom sewerage is a legal entity. Has a licensed architect and a licensed engineer, both Registering and selling the warehouse after its registered with the local association of architects or engineers. BuildCo is completion not assumed to have any other employees who are technical or licensed Time required to complete each procedure experts, such as geological or topographical experts. (calendar days) - Owns the land on which the warehouse will be built and will sell the warehouse upon its completion. Does not include time spent gathering information The warehouse: Each procedure starts on a separate day— - Will be used for general storage activities, such as storage of books or though procedures that can be fully completed stationery. online are an exception to this rule - Will have two stories, both above ground, with a total constructed area of Procedure is considered completed once final approximately 1,300.6 square meters (14,000 square feet). Each oor will document is received be 3 meters (9 feet, 10 inches) high and will be located on a land plot of No prior contact with officials approximately 929 square meters (10,000 square feet) that is 100% owned by BuildCo, and the warehouse is valued at 50 times income per capita. Cost required to complete each procedure (% of - Will have complete architectural and technical plans prepared by a warehouse value) licensed architect. If preparation of the plans requires such steps as Official costs only, no bribes obtaining further documentation or getting prior approvals from external Building quality control index (0-15) agencies, these are counted as procedures. - Will take 30 weeks to construct (excluding all delays due to administrative Sum of the scores of six component indices: and regulatory requirements). Quality of building regulations (0-2) The water and sewerage connections: Quality control before construction (0-1) - Will be 150 meters (492 feet) from the existing water source and sewer Quality control during construction (0-3) tap. If there is no water delivery infrastructure in the economy, a borehole Quality control after construction (0-3) will be dug. If there is no sewerage infrastructure, a septic tank in the smallest size available will be installed or built. Liability and insurance regimes (0-2) - Will have an average water use of 662 liters (175 gallons) a day and an Professional certifications (0-4) average wastewater ow of 568 liters (150 gallons) a day. Will have a peak water use of 1,325 liters (350 gallons) a day and a peak wastewater ow of 1,136 liters (300 gallons) a day. - Will have a constant level of water demand and wastewater ow throughout the year; will be 1 inch in diameter for the water connection and 4 inches in diameter for the sewerage connection. Page 9   Applies to women only. Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Dealing with Construction Permits This topic tracks the procedures, time and cost to build a warehouse—including obtaining necessary the licenses and permits, submitting all required noti cations, requesting and receiving all necessary inspections and obtaining utility connections. In addition, the Dealing with Construction Permits indicator measures the building quality control index, evaluating the quality of building regulations, the strength of quality control and safety mechanisms, liability and insurance regimes, and professional certi cation requirements. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to legally build a warehouse (number) To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions about the construction company, the warehouse project and the utility Submitting all relevant documents and obtaining connections are used. all necessary clearances, licenses, permits and certificates The construction company (BuildCo): Submitting all required notifications and - Is a limited liability company (or its legal equivalent) and operates in the receiving all necessary inspections economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the second largest business city. Obtaining utility connections for water and - Is 100% domestically and privately owned; has ve owners, none of whom sewerage is a legal entity. Has a licensed architect and a licensed engineer, both Registering and selling the warehouse after its registered with the local association of architects or engineers. BuildCo is completion not assumed to have any other employees who are technical or licensed Time required to complete each procedure experts, such as geological or topographical experts. (calendar days) - Owns the land on which the warehouse will be built and will sell the warehouse upon its completion. Does not include time spent gathering information The warehouse: Each procedure starts on a separate day— - Will be used for general storage activities, such as storage of books or though procedures that can be fully completed stationery. online are an exception to this rule - Will have two stories, both above ground, with a total constructed area of Procedure is considered completed once final approximately 1,300.6 square meters (14,000 square feet). Each oor will document is received be 3 meters (9 feet, 10 inches) high and will be located on a land plot of No prior contact with officials approximately 929 square meters (10,000 square feet) that is 100% owned by BuildCo, and the warehouse is valued at 50 times income per capita. Cost required to complete each procedure (% of - Will have complete architectural and technical plans prepared by a warehouse value) licensed architect. If preparation of the plans requires such steps as Official costs only, no bribes obtaining further documentation or getting prior approvals from external Building quality control index (0-15) agencies, these are counted as procedures. - Will take 30 weeks to construct (excluding all delays due to administrative Sum of the scores of six component indices: and regulatory requirements). Quality of building regulations (0-2) The water and sewerage connections: Quality control before construction (0-1) - Will be 150 meters (492 feet) from the existing water source and sewer Quality control during construction (0-3) tap. If there is no water delivery infrastructure in the economy, a borehole Quality control after construction (0-3) will be dug. If there is no sewerage infrastructure, a septic tank in the smallest size available will be installed or built. Liability and insurance regimes (0-2) - Will have an average water use of 662 liters (175 gallons) a day and an Professional certifications (0-4) average wastewater ow of 568 liters (150 gallons) a day. Will have a peak water use of 1,325 liters (350 gallons) a day and a peak wastewater ow of 1,136 liters (300 gallons) a day. - Will have a constant level of water demand and wastewater ow throughout the year; will be 1 inch in diameter for the water connection and 4 inches in diameter for the sewerage connection. Standardized Warehouse Page 10   and 4 inches in diameter for the sewerage connection. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Standardized Warehouse Estimated value of warehouse LRD 1,718,835.00 City Covered Monrovia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Procedures (number) 25 14.8 12.5 7.00 (Denmark) Time (days) 87 147.5 154.6 27.5 (Korea, Rep.) Cost (% of warehouse value) 39.1 9.9 1.6 0.10 (5 Economies) Building quality control index (0-15) 2.0 8.0 11.4 15.00 (3 Economies) Figure – Dealing with Construction Permits in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 65.56: Rwanda (Rank: 112) 63.16: Kenya (Rank: 124) 61.90: Ghana (Rank: 131) 56.91: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) 38.43: Sierra Leone (Rank: 182) 28.94: Liberia (Rank: 184) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of dealing with construction permits is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for dealing with construction permits. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the component indicators. Figure – Dealing with Construction Permits in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost Time Cost 20 80 70 Cost (% of warehouse value) 15 60 Time (days) 50 10 40 30 20 5 10 0 0 1 *2 *3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 * 21 22 23 24 25 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Page 11   component indicators. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Figure – Dealing with Construction Permits in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost Time Cost 20 80 70 Cost (% of warehouse value) 15 60 Time (days) 50 10 40 30 20 5 10 0 0 1 *2 *3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 * 21 22 23 24 25 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a di erent procedure list for men and women, the graph shows the time for women. For more information on methodology, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology). For details on the procedures re ected here, see the summary below. Figure – Dealing with Construction Permits in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 16 14.0 14 12 Index score 10 9.0 9.0 8.0 8 7.0 6 4 2.0 2 0 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Dealing with Construction Permits in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Obtain an environmental clearance 13 days USD 1,125 Agency : Environmental Protection Agency The environmental clearance must be obtained before requesting the building plans approval by the Ministry of Public Works. 2 Obtain a geo-technical study/soil test 11 days USD 788 Agency : Private rm A geo-technical study / soil test is mandatory to obtain a building permit in Monrovia 3 Obtain a topographical survey of the land 2 days USD 725 Page 12   Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Dealing with Construction Permits in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Obtain an environmental clearance 13 days USD 1,125 Agency : Environmental Protection Agency The environmental clearance must be obtained before requesting the building plans approval by the Ministry of Public Works. 2 Obtain a geo-technical study/soil test 11 days USD 788 Agency : Private rm A geo-technical study / soil test is mandatory to obtain a building permit in Monrovia 3 Obtain a topographical survey of the land 2 days USD 725 Agency : Private surveyor A topographical survey is done to study the slope of the land for the design of the building plans, mainly the water and sewage. 4 Submit plans to Ministry of Public Works 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) The application le should include 2 copies of the site plan; letter of request addressed to the Deputy Minister; the land deed; and the architectural, structural, and mechanical drawings. These documents are passed from one o cial to another for approval at the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) before the building permit is issued. Physically all departments are located in di erent parts of the city which may delay the approval. The documents are submitted internally at the MPW in the following order: • O ce of the Deputy Minister, Technical Services • O ce of the Assistant Minister, Technical Services (initial recipient) • Land-Use Planning and Zoning Division (initial site plan and document review). There are no thorough checks with the National Archives on the authenticity of the land documents, ensuring that is the responsibility of the owner of the warehouse. • Chief of Zoning (physical site approval) • Chief of Architecture (design approval) • Chief of Electromechanical Engineering (electrical and mechanical approval) • Chief of Engineering (structural approval and billing) • Finance Section (payments) • Land-Use Planning and Programming (signature on permit) • O ce of the Deputy Minister, Technical Services (permit attached) A temporary building permit can be granted after the second step above, when the Land-Use Planning and Zoning Division conducts an initial site plan and document review. This temporary permit can be obtained within one week. It is granted for a maximum of 90 days, but this is an exception rather than the rule. In practice, a permit is accorded after all steps mentioned above have been completed. As a result of the weak enforcement of building regulations, partly a result of the post-con ict situation, many private construction projects take place without following the o cial guidelines. 5 Receive inspection from Ministry of Public Works (Zoning Division) 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (Zoning Division) Page 13   It takes about 3 days for the Zoning Division to process an application. The regulations, partly a result of the post-con ict situation, many private Doing construction Business 2018 take place without following the o cial guidelines. projectsLiberia 5 Receive inspection from Ministry of Public Works (Zoning Division) 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (Zoning Division) It takes about 3 days for the Zoning Division to process an application. The Zoning Division will contact the applicant to inform them that they will need an inspection. There are only 4 inspectors and resources are limited, so the applicant has to provide transportation for them. 6 Obtain payment slip from the Ministry of Public Works 1 day USD 700 Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) Once all the technical departments have reviewed the application, the Finance Department creates a payment slip. BuildCo must pick up the payment slip and then go the Central Bank to pay the fees. The fee for design approval for commercial buildings is USD 0.05 per sq. ft. 7 Obtain construction permit from the Ministry of Public Works 28 days no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) BuildCo must return to the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) with the payment receipt and the application is then processed for nal approval. The process at the MPW from submission of plans (procedure 1) to approval used to take 3 months, but reforms introduced in 2008 reduced the processing time for simple building permits to 1 month. The MPW established a 30-day statutory time limit for the issuance of building permits. The MPW also introduced a checklist to clearly de ne all of the documents required to complete the application. Now all applications are scrutinized on submission to check for completeness and accuracy before being forwarded for processing. The reform eliminated the Minister’s signature on building permits for simple construction projects. By rule, the Minister's consent is only required for projects with a value greater than USD 1 million or that involve a foreign government. However, in practice the Minister or Deputy Minister still approves projects that are less than USD 1 million in value. 8 Obtain construction clearance from the City Corporation of Monrovia 2 days USD 560 Agency : City Corporation of Monrovia After obtaining the design approval from the MPW, BuildCo must obtain a separate construction clearance from the Planning Department at the City Corporation of Monrovia. The Planning Department takes 1 day to review the plans and then prepares a payment slip which is usually paid the next day. City Corporation of Monrovia as of May 1, 2009 abolished 3% fee charge, based on project value, for issuing a building permit and replaced it with a xed fee of USD 0.04 per sq. ft. for new commercial and industrial construction projects. However, practitioners note that this fee is "negotiable". Applicants can pay a less amount, which is o cial, for a clearance that will last for a shorter period of time. There are no fee schedules posted at the City Corporation and often, builders are asked to pay much higher fees. 9 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - I 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) The construction of the warehouse can commence after the building permit is obtained. There is no requirement to request inspections at any stage of the construction process. However, building inspectors and engineers are often dispatched from the Ministry of Public Works to inspect construction sites to see to what extent the construction conforms with the originally Page 14   submitted drawings. Over the course of 6 -- 7 months, inspections occur period of time. There are no fee schedules posted at the City Corporation Doing and 2018 are often, builders Business asked to pay much higher fees. Liberia 9 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - I 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) The construction of the warehouse can commence after the building permit is obtained. There is no requirement to request inspections at any stage of the construction process. However, building inspectors and engineers are often dispatched from the Ministry of Public Works to inspect construction sites to see to what extent the construction conforms with the originally submitted drawings. Over the course of 6 -- 7 months, inspections occur randomly at a rate of every 3 weeks or as often as every week. Construction work stops only if the plans have not been complied with. 10 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - II 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 11 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - III 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 12 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - IV 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 13 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - V 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 14 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - Vl 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 15 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - VII 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 16 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - VIII 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 17 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - IX 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 18 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - X 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 19 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - XI 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) 20 Receive inspection from the Ministry of Public Works - XII 1 day no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) Install the septic tank 1 day USD 3,281 21 Agency : Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) 22 Receive inspection from the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation 1 day no charge Agency : Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) The Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation inspects the site to prepare a cost Page 15   estimate for the pipes and installation. Install the septic tank 1 day USD 3,281 21 Agency : Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) Doing Business 2018 Liberia 22 Receive inspection from the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation 1 day no charge Agency : Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) The Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation inspects the site to prepare a cost estimate for the pipes and installation. 23 Obtain water and sewage connection 14 days USD 54 Agency : Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) Water connections can be made if existing pipelines pass through the construction site. If that is the case, then the water connection should take 1 -- 2 weeks. The cost for water connection includes LRD 250.00 for the connection itself and USD 50.00 for the meter. If a water pipeline does not pass through the area, then BuildCo must buy all the necessary materials to extend an existing pipeline to the construction site before the connection is made. This will inevitably add cost and time to the utility connection process. 24 Request and obtain occupancy permit 10 days no charge Agency : Ministry of Public Works (MPW) In the recent year the Ministry of Public Works started more rigorously enforcing the regulations of the Zoning Law. According to article 5. A of the Zoning Law all new building must obtain an occupancy permit before being used. Stricter enforcement has led to wider practice by companies to obtain the occupancy permit. This is issued within 10 days. 25 Register the building at the Probate Court 3 days LRD 300 Agency : Probate Court This registration of the completed building occurs in two stages. First BuildCo must register the building with the Probate Court, similar to a notarization procedure. Registration at the Probate Court takes 3 days and costs LRD 300.00. The case considered here assumes that BuildCo does not employ a lawyer (lawyer’s fees would amount to USD 250.00). Registration is not required, but companies do so to increase the resale value. Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Details – Dealing with Construction Permits in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Building quality control index (0-15) 2.0 Quality of building regulations index (0-2) 0.0 How accessible are building laws and regulations in your economy? (0-1) Not easily 0.0 accessible. Which requirements for obtaining a building permit are clearly speci ed in the building List of required 0.0 regulations or on any accessible website, brochure or pamphlet? (0-1) documents; Fees to be paid. Quality control before construction index (0-1) 1.0 Which third-party entities are required by law to verify that the building plans are in Licensed 1.0 compliance with existing building regulations? (0-1) architect; Licensed engineer. Page 16   Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Dealing with Construction Permits in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Building quality control index (0-15) 2.0 Quality of building regulations index (0-2) 0.0 How accessible are building laws and regulations in your economy? (0-1) Not easily 0.0 accessible. Which requirements for obtaining a building permit are clearly speci ed in the building List of required 0.0 regulations or on any accessible website, brochure or pamphlet? (0-1) documents; Fees to be paid. Quality control before construction index (0-1) 1.0 Which third-party entities are required by law to verify that the building plans are in Licensed 1.0 compliance with existing building regulations? (0-1) architect; Licensed engineer. Quality control during construction index (0-3) 0.0 What types of inspections (if any) are required by law to be carried out during Unscheduled 0.0 construction? (0-2) inspections. Do legally mandated inspections occur in practice during construction? (0-1) Mandatory 0.0 inspections are not always done in practice during construction; Mandatory inspections are done most of the time during construction. Quality control after construction index (0-3) 0.0 Is there a nal inspection required by law to verify that the building was built in Final inspection 0.0 accordance with the approved plans and regulations? (0-2) is not required by law. Do legally mandated nal inspections occur in practice? (0-1) Final inspection 0.0 does not always occur in practice. Liability and insurance regimes index (0-2) 0.0 Which parties (if any) are held liable by law for structural aws or problems in the No party is held 0.0 building once it is in use (Latent Defect Liability or Decennial Liability)? (0-1) liable under the law. Which parties (if any) are required by law to obtain an insurance policy to cover No party is 0.0 possible structural aws or problems in the building once it is in use (Latent Defect required by law Liability Insurance or Decennial Insurance)? (0-1) to obtain insurance . Page 17   building once it is in use (Latent Defect Liability or Decennial Liability)? (0-1) liable under the Doing Business 2018 Liberia law. Which parties (if any) are required by law to obtain an insurance policy to cover No party is 0.0 possible structural aws or problems in the building once it is in use (Latent Defect required by law Liability Insurance or Decennial Insurance)? (0-1) to obtain insurance . Professional certi cations index (0-4) 1.0 What are the quali cation requirements for the professional responsible for verifying University 1.0 that the architectural plans or drawings are in compliance with existing building degree in regulations? (0-2) architecture or engineering; Being a registered architect or engineer. What are the quali cation requirements for the professional who supervises the Being a 0.0 construction on the ground? (0-2) registered architect or engineer. Getting Electricity This topic measures the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection for a newly constructed warehouse. Additionally, the reliability of supply and transparency of tari s index measures reliability of supply, transparency of tari s and the price of electricity. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to obtain an electricity connection To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions are (number) used. Submitting all relevant documents and obtaining The warehouse: all necessary clearances and permits - Is owned by a local entrepreneur and is used for storage of goods. Completing all required notifications and - Is located in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the receiving all necessary inspections data are also collected for the second largest business city. Obtaining external installation works and possibly - Is located in an area where similar warehouses are typically located and is purchasing material for these works in an area with no physical constraints. For example, the property is not Concluding any necessary supply contract and near a railway. obtaining final supply - Is a new construction and is being connected to electricity for the rst time. Time required to complete each procedure - Has two stories with a total surface area of approximately 1,300.6 square (calendar days) meters (14,000 square feet). The plot of land on which it is built is 929 Is at least 1 calendar day square meters (10,000 square feet). Each procedure starts on a separate day Does not include time spent gathering The electricity connection: information - Is a permanent one with a three-phase, four-wire Y connection with a subscribed capacity of 140-kilo-volt-ampere (kVA) with a power factor of 1, Reflects the time spent in practice, with little when 1 kVA = 1 kilowatt (kW). follow-up and no prior contact with officials - Has a length of 150 meters. The connection is to either the low- or Cost required to complete each procedure (% of medium-voltage distribution network and is either overhead or income per capita) underground, whichever is more common in the area where the warehouse is located and requires works that involve the crossing of a 10- Official costs only, no bribes meter road (such as by excavation or overhead lines) but are all carried out Value added tax excluded on public land. There is no crossing of other owners’ private property Page 18   The reliability of supply and transparency of because the warehouse has access to a road. architect or engineer. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Getting Electricity This topic measures the procedures, time and cost required for a business to obtain a permanent electricity connection for a newly constructed warehouse. Additionally, the reliability of supply and transparency of tari s index measures reliability of supply, transparency of tari s and the price of electricity. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to obtain an electricity connection To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions are (number) used. Submitting all relevant documents and obtaining The warehouse: all necessary clearances and permits - Is owned by a local entrepreneur and is used for storage of goods. Completing all required notifications and - Is located in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the receiving all necessary inspections data are also collected for the second largest business city. Obtaining external installation works and possibly - Is located in an area where similar warehouses are typically located and is purchasing material for these works in an area with no physical constraints. For example, the property is not Concluding any necessary supply contract and near a railway. obtaining final supply - Is a new construction and is being connected to electricity for the rst time. Time required to complete each procedure - Has two stories with a total surface area of approximately 1,300.6 square (calendar days) meters (14,000 square feet). The plot of land on which it is built is 929 Is at least 1 calendar day square meters (10,000 square feet). Each procedure starts on a separate day Does not include time spent gathering The electricity connection: information - Is a permanent one with a three-phase, four-wire Y connection with a subscribed capacity of 140-kilo-volt-ampere (kVA) with a power factor of 1, Reflects the time spent in practice, with little when 1 kVA = 1 kilowatt (kW). follow-up and no prior contact with officials - Has a length of 150 meters. The connection is to either the low- or Cost required to complete each procedure (% of medium-voltage distribution network and is either overhead or income per capita) underground, whichever is more common in the area where the warehouse is located and requires works that involve the crossing of a 10- Official costs only, no bribes meter road (such as by excavation or overhead lines) but are all carried out Value added tax excluded on public land. There is no crossing of other owners’ private property The reliability of supply and transparency of because the warehouse has access to a road. tari s index (0-8) - Does not require work to install the internal wiring of the warehouse. This has already been completed up to and including the customer’s service Duration and frequency of power outages (0–3) panel or switchboard and the meter base. Tools to monitor power outages (0–1) Tools to restore power supply (0–1) The monthly consumption: Regulatory monitoring of utilities’ performance - It is assumed that the warehouse operates 30 days a month from 9:00 (0–1) a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (8 hours a day), with equipment utilized at 80% of capacity Financial deterrents limiting outages (0–1) on average and that there are no electricity cuts (assumed for simplicity reasons) and the monthly energy consumption is 26,880 kilowatt-hours Transparency and accessibility of tariffs (0–1) (kWh); hourly consumption is 112 kWh. Price of electricity (cents per kilowatt-hour)* - If multiple electricity suppliers exist, the warehouse is served by the Price based on monthly bill for commercial cheapest supplier. warehouse in case study - Tari s e ective in March of the current year are used for calculation of the price of electricity for the warehouse. Although March has 31 days, for * N o t e : Doing Business m e a s u r e s t h e p r i c e o f calculation purposes only 30 days are used. electricity, but it is not included in the distance to frontier score nor the ranking on the ease of getting electricity. Page 19   Standardized Connection frontier score nor the ranking on the ease of getting electricity. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Standardized Connection Price of electricity (US cents per kWh) 55.6 Name of utility Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) City Covered Monrovia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Procedures (number) 4 5.3 4.7 2 (United Arab Emirates) Time (days) 482 115.3 79.1 10 (United Arab Emirates) Cost (% of income per capita) 4174.9 3737.0 63.0 0.00 (Japan) Reliability of supply and transparency of tariff 0 0.9 7.4 8.00 (28 Economies) index (0-8) Figure – Getting Electricity in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 76.68: Kenya (Rank: 71) 60.69: Rwanda (Rank: 119) 56.81: Ghana (Rank: 136) 45.91: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) 32.95: Liberia (Rank: 176) 30.65: Sierra Leone (Rank: 178) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of getting electricity is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for getting electricity. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the component indicators. Figure – Getting Electricity in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost Time Cost 2500 400 2000 Cost (% of income per capita) 300 Time (days) 1500 200 1000 100 500 Page 20   getting electricity. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the component indicators. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Figure – Getting Electricity in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost Time Cost 2500 400 2000 Cost (% of income per capita) 300 Time (days) 1500 200 1000 100 500 0 0 1 2 3 4 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a di erent procedure list for men and women, the graph shows the time for women. For more information on methodology, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology). For details on the procedures re ected here, see the summary below. Figure – Getting Electricity in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 4.5 4 4 3.5 3 Index score 2.5 2 1.5 0.9 1 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Getting Electricity in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Submit application to LEC and await estimate 30 calendar days LRD 0 Agency : Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), Monrovia The company has to submit an application letter along with a copy of the business registration (in the future, also a photo) to the Customer Service Department. Customer service forwards the application letter to the commercial manager, who screens the application and forwards it to the Technical Department. 2 Receive external inspection by LEC 1 calendar day LRD 0 Agency : Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), Monrovia The Technical Department will come out and inspect the premises.The main Page 21   Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Getting Electricity in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Submit application to LEC and await estimate 30 calendar days LRD 0 Agency : Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), Monrovia The company has to submit an application letter along with a copy of the business registration (in the future, also a photo) to the Customer Service Department. Customer service forwards the application letter to the commercial manager, who screens the application and forwards it to the Technical Department. 2 Receive external inspection by LEC 1 calendar day LRD 0 Agency : Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), Monrovia The Technical Department will come out and inspect the premises.The main purpose of the inspection (as with most business-activity-related inspections in Liberia) is to prove that the business exists. The inspector will draw sketches of the location, etc. to determine Liberia Electricity Corporation’s capacity to deliver power. Inspectors submit a report to their department, which then gets forwarded to the Commercial Department. Once the Commercial Department approves the application, it noti es the Computer section to prepare an invoice. Once the invoice is prepared, it gets sent back to the Commercial Department and they contact the customer to come pick up the invoice. The customer comes to LEC and signs a ledger to accept payment invoice. 3 Obtain external works from LEC 75 calendar days USD 8,400 Agency : Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), Monrovia Only Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) can carry out the external works. The utility currently has the material readily available in stock, which has greatly reduced delays by many months. The works consist of expanding the overhead network by installing poles, a transformer and its accessories and extending wires to the warehouse. 4 Obtain internal wiring inspection, meter installation and nal 376 calendar days USD 7,047.14 connection from LEC Agency : Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC), Monrovia When the external works have been completed, and the electrician has nished doing the internal installation, the utility will inspect the wiring and turn on the supply. The client will need to pay a security deposit and a registration fee. The cost of the meter is included in the registration fee. Security deposit: based on one month of consumption Registration fee: There is also a registration fee equivalent to 20% of the Bill of Quantity. When the type of material and the quantity needed has been determined, and also what needs to be done, and the labor cost, the customer will be required to pay a registration fee equivalent to 20% of the Bill of Quantity. Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Page 22   Details – Getting Electricity in Liberia – Measure of Quality Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Getting Electricity in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Reliability of supply and transparency of tari index (0-8) 0 Total duration and frequency of outages per customer a year (0-3) 0 System average interruption duration index (SAIDI) .. System average interruption frequency index (SAIFI) .. What is the minimum outage time (in minutes) that the utility considers for the calculation of SAIDI/SAIFI N/A Mechanisms for monitoring outages (0-1) 0 Does the distribution utility use automated tools to monitor outages? No Mechanisms for restoring service (0-1) 0 Does the distribution utility use automated tools to restore service? No Regulatory monitoring (0-1) 0 Does a regulator—that is, an entity separate from the utility—monitor the utility’s performance on No reliability of supply? Financial deterrents aimed at limiting outages (0-1) 0 Does the utility either pay compensation to customers or face nes by the regulator (or both) if outages No exceed a certain cap? Communication of tari s and tari changes (0-1) 0 Are e ective tari s available online? No Link to the website, if available online n.a Are customers noti ed of a change in tari ahead of the billing cycle? No Note: If the duration and frequency of outages is 100 or less, the economy is eligible to score on the Reliability of supply and transparency of tari index. If the duration and frequency of outages is not available, or is over 100, the economy is not eligible to score on the index. If the minimum outage time considered for SAIDI/SAIFI is over 5 minutes, the economy is not eligible to score on the index. Registering Property This topic examines the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute. In addition, the topic also measures the quality of the land administration system in each economy. The quality of land administration index has ve dimensions: reliability of infrastructure, transparency of information, geographic coverage, land dispute resolution, and equal access to property rights. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Page 23   Procedures to legally transfer title on immovable To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Getting Electricity in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Reliability of supply and transparency of tari index (0-8) 0 Total duration and frequency of outages per customer a year (0-3) 0 System average interruption duration index (SAIDI) .. System average interruption frequency index (SAIFI) .. What is the minimum outage time (in minutes) that the utility considers for the calculation of SAIDI/SAIFI N/A Mechanisms for monitoring outages (0-1) 0 Does the distribution utility use automated tools to monitor outages? No Mechanisms for restoring service (0-1) 0 Does the distribution utility use automated tools to restore service? No Regulatory monitoring (0-1) 0 Does a regulator—that is, an entity separate from the utility—monitor the utility’s performance on No reliability of supply? Financial deterrents aimed at limiting outages (0-1) 0 Does the utility either pay compensation to customers or face nes by the regulator (or both) if outages No exceed a certain cap? Communication of tari s and tari changes (0-1) 0 Are e ective tari s available online? No Link to the website, if available online n.a Are customers noti ed of a change in tari ahead of the billing cycle? No Note: If the duration and frequency of outages is 100 or less, the economy is eligible to score on the Reliability of supply and transparency of tari index. If the duration and frequency of outages is not available, or is over 100, the economy is not eligible to score on the index. If the minimum outage time considered for SAIDI/SAIFI is over 5 minutes, the economy is not eligible to score on the index. Registering Property This topic examines the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute. In addition, the topic also measures the quality of the land administration system in each economy. The quality of land administration index has ve dimensions: reliability of infrastructure, transparency of information, geographic coverage, land dispute resolution, and equal access to property rights. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to legally transfer title on immovable Page 24   To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions If the minimum outage time considered for SAIDI/SAIFI is over 5 minutes, the economy is not eligible to score on the index. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Registering Property This topic examines the steps, time and cost involved in registering property, assuming a standardized case of an entrepreneur who wants to purchase land and a building that is already registered and free of title dispute. In addition, the topic also measures the quality of the land administration system in each economy. The quality of land administration index has ve dimensions: reliability of infrastructure, transparency of information, geographic coverage, land dispute resolution, and equal access to property rights. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Procedures to legally transfer title on immovable To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions property (number) about the parties to the transaction, the property and the procedures are used. Preregistration procedures (for example, checking for liens, notarizing sales agreement, The parties (buyer and seller): paying property transfer taxes) - Are limited liability companies (or the legal equivalent). Registration procedures in the economy's largest - Are located in the periurban area of the economy’s largest business city. business citya. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the second largest Postregistration procedures (for example, filling business city. title with municipality) - Are 100% domestically and privately owned. Time required to complete each procedure - Have 50 employees each, all of whom are nationals. (calendar days) - Perform general commercial activities. Does not include time spent gathering information The property (fully owned by the seller): - Has a value of 50 times income per capita, which equals the sale price. Each procedure starts on a separate day - though - Is fully owned by the seller. procedures that can be fully completed online - Has no mortgages attached and has been under the same ownership for are an exception to this rule the past 10 years. Procedure is considered completed once final - Is registered in the land registry or cadastre, or both, and is free of title document is received disputes. No prior contact with officials - Is located in a periurban commercial zone, and no rezoning is required. Cost required to complete each procedure (% of - Consists of land and a building. The land area is 557.4 square meters property value) (6,000 square feet). A two-story warehouse of 929 square meters (10,000 square feet) is located on the land. The warehouse is 10 years old, is in Official costs only (such as administrative fees, good condition, has no heating system and complies with all safety duties and taxes). standards, building codes and legal requirements. The property, Value Added Tax, Capital Gains Tax and illicit consisting of land and building, will be transferred in its entirety. payments are excluded - Will not be subject to renovations or additional construction following the Quality of land administration index (0-30) purchase. - Has no trees, natural water sources, natural reserves or historical Reliability of infrastructure index (0-8) monuments of any kind. Transparency of information index (0–6) - Will not be used for special purposes, and no special permits, such as for Geographic coverage index (0–8) residential use, industrial plants, waste storage or certain types of agricultural activities, are required. Land dispute resolution index (0–8) - Has no occupants, and no other party holds a legal interest in it. Equal access to property rights index (-2–0) Standard Property Transfer Property value LRD 1,718,835.00 City Covered Monrovia Page 25   Sub-Saharan OECD high Doing Business 2018 Liberia Standard Property Transfer Property value LRD 1,718,835.00 City Covered Monrovia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Procedures (number) 10 6.2 4.6 1.00 (4 Economies) Time (days) 44 59.3 22.3 1.00 (3 Economies) Cost (% of property value) 13.8 7.8 4.2 0.00 (5 Economies) Quality of the land administration index (0-30) 3.5 8.6 22.7 29.00 (Singapore) Figure – Registering Property in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 93.26: Rwanda (Rank: 2) 55.50: Ghana (Rank: 119) 54.49: Kenya (Rank: 125) 51.71: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) 43.27: Sierra Leone (Rank: 165) 31.04: Liberia (Rank: 183) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of registering property is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for registering property. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the component indicators. Figure – Registering Property in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost Time Cost 14 40 12 35 Cost (% of property value) 10 30 Time (days) 25 8 20 6 15 4 10 2 5 0 0 1 2 *3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Page 26   Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a di erent procedure list for registering property. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the component indicators. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Figure – Registering Property in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost Time Cost 14 40 12 35 Cost (% of property value) 10 30 Time (days) 25 8 20 6 15 4 10 2 5 0 0 1 2 *3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Procedures (number) * This symbol is shown beside procedure numbers that take place simultaneously with the previous procedure. Note: Online procedures account for 0.5 days in the total time calculation. For economies that have a di erent procedure list for men and women, the graph shows the time for women. For more information on methodology, see the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org/methodology). For details on the procedures re ected here, see the summary below. Figure – Registering Property in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 30 28.0 25 20 Index score 16.0 15 10 8.0 8.6 6.5 5 3.5 0 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Registering Property in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Obtain a Transfer deed form 1 day USD 4 Agency : Shop The parties obtain a Transfer deed form to provide to the surveyor who will be conducting the survey of that property. At that time, the seller will also provide a copy of his deed to the new owner. The transfer deed can be obtained in shops. 2 Buyer contacts a surveyor to conduct the survey of the property 21 days USD 125 Agency : Private licensed surveyor (simultaneous with Procedure 3) One of the requirements prior to transferring a property in Liberia is to conduct a survey of that property by a licensed surveyor. The potential Page 27   Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Registering Property in Liberia – Procedure, Time and Cost No. Procedure Time to Complete Associated Costs 1 Obtain a Transfer deed form 1 day USD 4 Agency : Shop The parties obtain a Transfer deed form to provide to the surveyor who will be conducting the survey of that property. At that time, the seller will also provide a copy of his deed to the new owner. The transfer deed can be obtained in shops. 2 Buyer contacts a surveyor to conduct the survey of the property 21 days USD 125 Agency : Private licensed surveyor (simultaneous with Procedure 3) One of the requirements prior to transferring a property in Liberia is to conduct a survey of that property by a licensed surveyor. The potential buyer will contact a certi ed surveyor to conduct the survey of the property to be transferred. The property cannot be surveyed during the notice period. Any person wishing to introduce a claim of ownership on that property must come forward during the notice period. If there are no disputes recorded after the notice period, then the surveyor will conduct the survey of the property with the potential buyer as a witness, and anyone else who wishes to be present. 3 Publication of survey in newspaper and radio by surveyor 1 day included in Agency : Newspaper/radio (simultaneous with Procedure 2 Procedure 2) By law, the surveyor must inform the public that the survey or re-survey of a particular property will be conducted on a set date. The notice will also provide the location of that property. The notice is published in local newspapers and is also aired for a period of 15 days. But the law is silent as to the length of this notice. 4 Parties contract a lawyer to start o cial transfer process 2 days 10 - 15% property Agency : Lawyer value The parties give the lawyer the deed on which the sketch of the property has been done by the licensed surveyor. The transfer process will then start. 5 Lawyer visits Registry to check the status and ownership of the property 4 days 85 USD Agency : Center for National Documents & Records / National Archives (CNDRA) The records are kept in ledgers and the search for ownership is done manually by checking the ledgers. An application for search for Deeds/Titles document is completed. It takes a week for CNDRA to search for the deeds. CNDRA will contact MOFA in case they do not have the entire le. 6 Lawyer visits Bureau of Internal Revenue of the Ministry of Finance 3 days no cost (Real Estate Division) to check for outstanding taxes on the property Agency : Bureau of Internal Revenue at the Ministry of Finance Bureau of Internal Revenue (Real Estate Tax Division) at the Ministry of Finance Comments: The Real Estate Tax division will issue an o cial Tax Receipt evidencing that all delinquent real property taxes have been paid in full. This Tax Receipt is mandatory, as of June 1st, 2009 in order to have the deed probated at the Probate Court. 7 Parties sign the deed form at the lawyer's o ce 1 day no cost Page 28   document is completed. It takes a week for CNDRA to search for the deeds. Doing CNDRA 2018 MOFA will contact Business in case they do not have the entire le. Liberia 6 Lawyer visits Bureau of Internal Revenue of the Ministry of Finance 3 days no cost (Real Estate Division) to check for outstanding taxes on the property Agency : Bureau of Internal Revenue at the Ministry of Finance Bureau of Internal Revenue (Real Estate Tax Division) at the Ministry of Finance Comments: The Real Estate Tax division will issue an o cial Tax Receipt evidencing that all delinquent real property taxes have been paid in full. This Tax Receipt is mandatory, as of June 1st, 2009 in order to have the deed probated at the Probate Court. 7 Parties sign the deed form at the lawyer's o ce 1 day no cost Agency : Lawyer Once all veri cations are done by the lawyer to ensure that the property is free of all encumbrances and established the rightful ownership of the property, both parties can now sign the deed, which will be probated at the Probate Court. The deed must have a vivid description of the building. 8 Lawyer visits Probate Court to request the transfer 7 days no cost Agency : Probate Court The lawyer visits the Probate Court to request the transfer (1 business day). The Court will then publish a notice of the transaction for 4 business days. If there are no objections, on the fth business day, the lawyer can pick up the deed with the seal of approval from the Court. The Probate court rules state that only lawyers are allowed to submit the deed for probate. 9 Parties register the deed at the Registry 4 days 25 USD Agency : Land Registry The buyer will complete the Registration Form for Deeds and Titles Documents. A bill form will be provided at that time and payment is made at the MOF. Documents to be provided at time of registration: 1. A copy of the Real Estate Tax receipt (obtained in procedure 5) 2. Flag receipt from the Ministry of Finance as proof of payment 3. Original and Two copies of Bill form 4. Probated Deed 10 Seller goes to Bureau of Internal Revenues to change the owner’s name 1 day no cost on the property Agency : Bureau of Internal Revenues The parties will change the ownership name at the Bureau of Internal Revenues. It is in the interest of the seller to ensure that the name is changed so that the new owner is responsible for future taxes. Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Details – Registering Property in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Quality of the land administration index (0-30) 3.5 Reliability of infrastructure index (0-8) 0.0 What is the institution in charge of immovable property registration? CENDRA Page 29   Takes place simultaneously with previous procedure. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Registering Property in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Quality of the land administration index (0-30) 3.5 Reliability of infrastructure index (0-8) 0.0 What is the institution in charge of immovable property registration? CENDRA In what format are the majority of title or deed records kept in the largest business city Paper 0.0 —in a paper format or in a computerized format (scanned or fully digital)? Is there an electronic database for checking for encumbrances (liens, mortgages, No 0.0 restrictions and the like)? Institution in charge of the plans showing legal boundaries in the largest business city: Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy In what format are the majority of maps of land plots kept in the largest business city— Paper 0.0 in a paper format or in a computerized format (scanned or fully digital)? Is there an electronic database for recording boundaries, checking plans and providing No 0.0 cadastral information (geographic information system)? Is the information recorded by the immovable property registration agency and the Separate 0.0 cadastral or mapping agency kept in a single database, in di erent but linked databases databases or in separate databases? Do the immovable property registration agency and cadastral or mapping agency use No 0.0 the same identi cation number for properties? Transparency of information index (0–6) 1.0 Who is able to obtain information on land ownership at the agency in charge of Only 0.0 immovable property registration in the largest business city? intermediaries and interested parties Is the list of documents that are required to complete any type of property transaction Yes, on public 0.5 made publicly available–and if so, how? boards Link for online access: Is the applicable fee schedule for any property transaction at the agency in charge of Yes, online 0.5 immovable property registration in the largest business city made publicly available– and if so, how? Link for online access: http://cndra.gov.l r/doc/CSC- COST.pdf Does the agency in charge of immovable property registration commit to delivering a Yes, in person 0.0 legally binding document that proves property ownership within a speci c time frame– and if so, how does it communicate the service standard? Link for online access: Is there a speci c and separate mechanism for ling complaints about a problem that No 0.0 Page 30   legally binding document that proves property ownership within a speci c time frame– and if Doing so, how does Business Liberia the service standard? it communicate 2018 Link for online access: Is there a speci c and separate mechanism for ling complaints about a problem that No 0.0 occurred at the agency in charge of immovable property registration? Contact information: Are there publicly available o cial statistics tracking the number of transactions at the No 0.0 immovable property registration agency? Number of property transfers in the largest business city in 2015: Who is able to consult maps of land plots in the largest business city? Only 0.0 intermediaries and interested parties Is the applicable fee schedule for accessing maps of land plots made publicly available No 0.0 —and if so, how? Link for online access: Does the cadastral or mapping agency commit to delivering an updated map within a No 0.0 speci c time frame—and if so, how does it communicate the service standard? Link for online access: Is there a speci c and separate mechanism for ling complaints about a problem that No 0.0 occurred at the cadastral or mapping agency? Contact information: Geographic coverage index (0–8) 0.0 Are all privately held land plots in the economy formally registered at the immovable No 0.0 property registry? Are all privately held land plots in the largest business city formally registered at the No 0.0 immovable property registry? Are all privately held land plots in the economy mapped? No 0.0 Are all privately held land plots in the largest business city mapped? No 0.0 Land dispute resolution index (0–8) 2.5 Does the law require that all property sale transactions be registered at the immovable Yes 1.5 property registry to make them opposable to third parties? Is the system of immovable property registration subject to a state or private No 0.0 guarantee? Is there a speci c compensation mechanism to cover for losses incurred by parties who Yes 0.5 engaged in good faith in a property transaction based on erroneous information certi ed by the immovable property registry? Does the legal system require a control of legality of the documents necessary for a Yes 0.5 property transaction (e.g., checking the compliance of contracts with requirements of the law)? Page 31   If yes, who is responsible for checking the legality of the documents? Registrar. engaged in good faith in a property transaction based on erroneous information ed by the immovable certi Business Doing property registry? 2018 Liberia Does the legal system require a control of legality of the documents necessary for a Yes 0.5 property transaction (e.g., checking the compliance of contracts with requirements of the law)? If yes, who is responsible for checking the legality of the documents? Registrar. Does the legal system require veri cation of the identity of the parties to a property No 0.0 transaction? If yes, who is responsible for verifying the identity of the parties? . Is there a national database to verify the accuracy of identity documents? No 0.0 For a standard land dispute between two local businesses over tenure rights of a Magisteral property worth 50 times gross national income (GNI) per capita and located in the Courts largest business city, what court would be in charge of the case in the rst instance? How long does it take on average to obtain a decision from the rst-instance court for More than 3 0.0 such a case (without appeal)? years Are there any statistics on the number of land disputes in the rst instance? No 0.0 Number of land disputes in the largest business city in 2015: Equal access to property rights index (-2–0) 0.0 Do unmarried men and unmarried women have equal ownership rights to property? Yes 0.0 Do married men and married women have equal ownership rights to property? Yes 0.0 Getting Credit This topic explores two sets of issues—the strength of credit reporting systems and the e ectiveness of collateral and bankruptcy laws in facilitating lending. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Strength of legal rights index (0–12) Doing Business assesses the sharing of credit information and the legal rights of borrowers and lenders with respect to secured transactions Rights of borrowers and lenders through through 2 sets of indicators. The depth of credit information index collateral laws (0-10) measures rules and practices a ecting the coverage, scope and Protection of secured creditors’ rights through accessibility of credit information available through a credit registry or a bankruptcy laws (0-2) credit bureau. The strength of legal rights index measures the degree to Depth of credit information index (0–8) which collateral and bankruptcy laws protect the rights of borrowers and lenders and thus facilitate lending. For each economy it is first determined Scope and accessibility of credit information whether a unitary secured transactions system exists. Then two case distributed by credit bureaus and credit scenarios, case A and case B, are used to determine how a nonpossessory registries (0-8) security interest is created, publicized and enforced according to the law. Credit bureau coverage (% of adults) Special emphasis is given to how the collateral registry operates (if Number of individuals and firms listed in largest registration of security interests is possible). The case scenarios involve a credit bureau as a percentage of adult population secured borrower, company ABC, and a secured lender, BizBank. Credit registry coverage (% of adults) In some economies the legal framework for secured transactions will allow Number of individuals and firms listed in credit only case A or case B (not both) to apply. Both cases examine the same set registry as a percentage of adult population of legal provisions relating to the use of movable collateral. Several assumptions about the secured borrower (ABC) and Page 32   lender Do married men and married women have equal ownership rights to property? Yes 0.0 Doing Business 2018 Liberia Getting Credit This topic explores two sets of issues—the strength of credit reporting systems and the e ectiveness of collateral and bankruptcy laws in facilitating lending. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Strength of legal rights index (0–12) Doing Business assesses the sharing of credit information and the legal rights of borrowers and lenders with respect to secured transactions Rights of borrowers and lenders through through 2 sets of indicators. The depth of credit information index collateral laws (0-10) measures rules and practices a ecting the coverage, scope and Protection of secured creditors’ rights through accessibility of credit information available through a credit registry or a bankruptcy laws (0-2) credit bureau. The strength of legal rights index measures the degree to Depth of credit information index (0–8) which collateral and bankruptcy laws protect the rights of borrowers and lenders and thus facilitate lending. For each economy it is first determined Scope and accessibility of credit information whether a unitary secured transactions system exists. Then two case distributed by credit bureaus and credit scenarios, case A and case B, are used to determine how a nonpossessory registries (0-8) security interest is created, publicized and enforced according to the law. Credit bureau coverage (% of adults) Special emphasis is given to how the collateral registry operates (if Number of individuals and firms listed in largest registration of security interests is possible). The case scenarios involve a credit bureau as a percentage of adult population secured borrower, company ABC, and a secured lender, BizBank. Credit registry coverage (% of adults) In some economies the legal framework for secured transactions will allow Number of individuals and firms listed in credit only case A or case B (not both) to apply. Both cases examine the same set registry as a percentage of adult population of legal provisions relating to the use of movable collateral. Several assumptions about the secured borrower (ABC) and lender (BizBank) are used: - ABC is a domestic limited liability company (or its legal equivalent). - ABC has up to 50 employees. - ABC has its headquarters and only base of operations in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the second largest business city. - Both ABC and BizBank are 100% domestically owned. The case scenarios also involve assumptions. In case A, as collateral for the loan, ABC grants BizBank a nonpossessory security interest in one category of movable assets, for example, its machinery or its inventory. ABC wants to keep both possession and ownership of the collateral. In economies where the law does not allow nonpossessory security interests in movable property, ABC and BizBank use a fiduciary transfer-of-title arrangement (or a similar substitute for nonpossessory security interests). In case B, ABC grants BizBank a business charge, enterprise charge, floating charge or any charge that gives BizBank a security interest over ABC’s combined movable assets (or as much of ABC’s movable assets as possible). ABC keeps ownership and possession of the assets. Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Strength of legal rights index (0-12) 9 5.1 6.0 12.00 (4 Economies) Depth of credit information index (0-8) 0 3.0 6.6 8.00 (34 Economies) Page 33   Credit registry coverage (% of adults) 1.9 6.3 18.3 100.00 (3 Economies) possible). ABC keeps ownership and possession of the assets. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Strength of legal rights index (0-12) 9 5.1 6.0 12.00 (4 Economies) Depth of credit information index (0-8) 0 3.0 6.6 8.00 (34 Economies) Credit registry coverage (% of adults) 1.9 6.3 18.3 100.00 (3 Economies) Credit bureau coverage (% of adults) 0.0 8.2 63.7 100.00 (23 Economies) Figure – Getting Credit in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 90.00: Rwanda (Rank: 6) 75.00: Kenya (Rank: 29) 65.00: Ghana (Rank: 55) 45.00: Liberia (Rank: 105) 40.73: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) 25.00: Sierra Leone (Rank: 159) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of getting credit is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for getting credit. These scores are the distance to frontier score for the sum of the strength of legal rights index and the depth of credit information index. Figure – Legal Rights in Liberia and comparator economies 12 10 10 9 8 Index score 7 7 6 5 5.1 4 2 0 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Legal Rights in Liberia Strength of legal rights index (0-12) 9 Does an integrated or uni ed legal framework for secured transactions that extends to the creation, publicity and Yes enforcement of functional equivalents to security interests in movable assets exist in the economy? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in a single category of movable assets, without Yes requiring a speci c description of collateral? Page 34   Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Legal Rights in Liberia Strength of legal rights index (0-12) 9 Does an integrated or uni ed legal framework for secured transactions that extends to the creation, publicity and Yes enforcement of functional equivalents to security interests in movable assets exist in the economy? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in a single category of movable assets, without Yes requiring a speci c description of collateral? Does the law allow businesses to grant a non possessory security right in substantially all of its assets, without requiring Yes a speci c description of collateral? May a security right extend to future or after-acquired assets, and does it extend automatically to the products, proceeds Yes or replacements of the original assets? Is a general description of debts and obligations permitted in collateral agreements; can all types of debts and Yes obligations be secured between parties; and can the collateral agreement include a maximum amount for which the assets are encumbered? Is a collateral registry in operation for both incorporated and non-incorporated entities, that is uni ed geographically Yes and by asset type, with an electronic database indexed by debtor's name? Does a notice-based collateral registry exist in which all functional equivalents can be registered? Yes Does a modern collateral registry exist in which registrations, amendments, cancellations and searches can be Yes performed online by any interested third party? Are secured creditors paid rst (i.e. before tax claims and employee claims) when a debtor defaults outside an insolvency Yes procedure? Are secured creditors paid rst (i.e. before tax claims and employee claims) when a business is liquidated? No Are secured creditors subject to an automatic stay on enforcement when a debtor enters a court-supervised No reorganization procedure? Does the law protect secured creditors’ rights by providing clear grounds for relief from the stay and/or sets a time limit for it? Does the law allow parties to agree on out of court enforcement at the time a security interest is created? Does the law No allow the secured creditor to sell the collateral through public auction or private tender, as well as, for the secured creditor to keep the asset in satisfaction of the debt? Figure – Credit Information in Liberia and comparator economies 10 8 8 8 Index score 6 6 4 3.0 2 0 0 0 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Credit Information in Liberia Page 35   0 0 0 Liberia Doing Business 2018 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Credit Information in Liberia Credit Credit Depth of credit information index (0-8) bureau registry Score Are data on both firms and individuals distributed? No No 0 Are both positive and negative credit data distributed? No No 0 Are data from retailers or utility companies - in addition to data from banks and financial institutions - No No 0 distributed? Are at least 2 years of historical data distributed? (Credit bureaus and registries that distribute more No No 0 than 10 years of negative data or erase data on defaults as soon as they are repaid obtain a score of 0 for this component.) Are data on loan amounts below 1% of income per capita distributed? No No 0 By law, do borrowers have the right to access their data in the credit bureau or credit registry? No No 0 Can banks and financial institutions access borrowers’ credit information online (for example, No No 0 through an online platform, a system-to-system connection or both)? Are bureau or registry credit scores offered as a value-added service to help banks and financial No No 0 institutions assess the creditworthiness of borrowers? Score ("yes" to either public bureau or private registry) 0 Note: An economy receives a score of 1 if there is a "yes" to either bureau or registry. If the credit bureau or registry is not operational or covers less than 5% of the adult population, the total score on the depth of credit information index is 0. Coverage Credit bureau Credit registry Number of individuals 0 N/A Number of firms 0 N/A Total 0 48,169 Percentage of adult population 0.0 1.9 Protecting Minority Investors This topic measures the strength of minority shareholder protections against misuse of corporate assets by directors for their personal gain as well as shareholder rights, governance safeguards and corporate transparency requirements that reduce the risk of abuse. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Extent of disclosure index (0–10): Review and To make the data comparable across economies, a case study uses several approval requirements for related-party assumptions about the business and the transaction. transactions; Disclosure requirements for related-party transactions The business (Buyer): Extent of director liability index (0–10): Ability of - Is a publicly traded corporation listed on the economy’s most important minority shareholders to sue and hold interested stock exchange. If the number of publicly traded companies listed on that directors liable for prejudicial related-party exchange is less than 10, or if there is no stock exchange in the economy, it is assumed that Buyer is a large private company with multiple Page 36   transactions; Available legal remedies (damages, Percentage of adult population 0.0 1.9 Doing Business 2018 Liberia Protecting Minority Investors This topic measures the strength of minority shareholder protections against misuse of corporate assets by directors for their personal gain as well as shareholder rights, governance safeguards and corporate transparency requirements that reduce the risk of abuse. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Extent of disclosure index (0–10): Review and To make the data comparable across economies, a case study uses several approval requirements for related-party assumptions about the business and the transaction. transactions; Disclosure requirements for related-party transactions The business (Buyer): Extent of director liability index (0–10): Ability of - Is a publicly traded corporation listed on the economy’s most important minority shareholders to sue and hold interested stock exchange. If the number of publicly traded companies listed on that directors liable for prejudicial related-party exchange is less than 10, or if there is no stock exchange in the economy, it transactions; Available legal remedies (damages, is assumed that Buyer is a large private company with multiple disgorgement of profits, fines, imprisonment, shareholders. rescission of the transaction) - Has a board of directors and a chief executive o cer (CEO) who may legally act on behalf of Buyer where permitted, even if this is not speci cally Ease of shareholder suits index (0–10): Access to required by law. internal corporate documents; Evidence - Has a supervisory board (applicable to economies with a two-tier board obtainable during trial and allocation of legal system) on which 60% of the shareholder-elected members have been expenses appointed by Mr. James, who is Buyer’s controlling shareholder and a Extent of conflict of interest regulation index member of Buyer’s board of directors. (0–10): Simple average of the extent of disclosure, - Has not adopted any bylaws or articles of association that di er from extent of director liability and ease of default minimum standards and does not follow any nonmandatory codes, shareholder indices principles, recommendations or guidelines relating to corporate Extent of shareholder rights index (0-10): governance. Shareholders’ rights and role in major corporate - Is a manufacturing company with its own distribution network. decisions Extent of ownership and control index (0-10): The transaction involves the following details: Governance safeguards protecting shareholders - Mr. James owns 60% of Buyer and elected two directors to Buyer’s ve- from undue board control and entrenchment member board. Extent of corporate transparency index (0-10): - Mr. James also owns 90% of Seller, a company that operates a chain of Corporate transparency on ownership stakes, retail hardware stores. Seller recently closed a large number of its stores. compensation, audits and financial prospects - Mr. James proposes that Buyer purchase Seller’s unused eet of trucks to expand Buyer’s distribution of its food products, a proposal to which Buyer Extent of shareholder governance index (0–10): agrees. The price is equal to 10% of Buyer’s assets and is higher than the Simple average of the extent of shareholders market value. rights, extent of ownership and control and - The proposed transaction is part of the company’s ordinary course of extent of corporate transparency indices business and is not outside the authority of the company. Strength of minority investor protection index - Buyer enters into the transaction. All required approvals are obtained, (0–10): Simple average of the extent of conflict of and all required disclosures made (that is, the transaction is not interest regulation and extent of shareholder fraudulent). governance indices - The transaction causes damages to Buyer. Shareholders sue Mr. James and the other parties that approved the transaction. Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Extent of conflict of interest regulation index (0- 3.7 4.8 6.4 9.3 (New Zealand) 10) Extent of shareholder governance index (0-10) 1.7 4.0 6.4 Page 37   9.00 (Kazakhstan) and the other parties that approved the transaction. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Extent of conflict of interest regulation index (0- 3.7 4.8 6.4 9.3 (New Zealand) 10) Extent of shareholder governance index (0-10) 1.7 4.0 6.4 9.00 (Kazakhstan) Figure – Protecting Minority Investors in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 73.33: Rwanda (Rank: 16) 58.33: Kenya (Rank: 62) 55.00: Sierra Leone (Rank: 81) 51.67: Ghana (Rank: 96) 43.72: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) 26.67: Liberia (Rank: 177) Note: The ranking of economies on the strength of minority investor protections is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for protecting minority investors. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for the extent of con ict of interest regulation index and the extent of shareholder governance index. Figure – Protecting Minority Investors in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality Liberia 1 1 4 1 3 6 Ghana 3 5 7 3 6 7 Kenya 4 5 6 6 5 9 Rwanda 7 9 7 8 8 5 Sierra Leone 6 8 6 2 5 6 OECD high income 7.3 5.6 6.5 5.2 6.3 7.4 Sub-Saharan Africa 4.2 3.5 5.5 3.3 4.6 5.6 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Sub-Indicator Score Extent of corporate transparency index (0­10) Extent of director liability index (0­10) Extent of disclosure index (0­10) Extent of ownership and control index (0­10) Extent of shareholder rights index (0­10) Ease of shareholder suits index (0­10) Details – Protecting Minority Investors in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Page 38   Extent of ownership and control index (0­10) Extent of shareholder rights index (0­10) Ease of shareholder suits index (0­10) Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Protecting Minority Investors in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Extent of con ict of interest regulation index (0-10) 3.7 Extent of disclosure index (0-10) 4 Which corporate body is legally su cient to approve the Buyer-Seller transaction? (0-3) Board of 2.0 directors excluding interested members Must an external body review the terms of the transaction before it takes place? (0-1) No 0.0 Must Mr. James disclose his con ict of interest to the board of directors? (0-2) Full disclosure of 2.0 all material facts Must Buyer disclose the transaction in published periodic lings (annual reports)? (0-2) No disclosure 0.0 obligation Must Buyer immediately disclose the transaction to the public and/or shareholders? (0- No disclosure 0.0 2) obligation Extent of director liability index (0-10) 1 Can shareholders representing 10% of Buyer's share capital sue directly or derivatively Yes 1.0 for the damage the transaction caused to Buyer? (0-1) Can shareholders hold the interested director liable for the damage the transaction Not liable 0.0 caused to Buyer? (0-2) Can shareholders hold the other directors liable for the damage the transaction caused Not liable 0.0 to Buyer (0-2) Must Mr. James pay damages for the harm caused to Buyer upon a successful claim by No 0.0 shareholders? (0-1) Must Mr. James repay pro ts made from the transaction upon a successful claim by No 0.0 shareholders? (0-1) Is Mr. James disquali ed or ned and imprisoned upon a successful claim by No 0.0 shareholders? (0-1) Can a court void the transaction upon a successful claim by shareholders? (0-2) Only in case of 0.0 fraud or bad faith Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) 6 Before suing can shareholders representing 10% of Buyer's share capital inspect the No 0.0 transaction documents? (0-1) Can the plainti obtain any documents from the defendant and witnesses at trial? (0-3) Any relevant 3.0 document Can the plainti request categories of documents from the defendant without No 0.0 identifying speci c ones? (0-1) Page 39   Can the plainti directly question the defendant and witnesses at trial? (0-2) Yes 2.0 Can the plainti obtain any documents from the defendant and witnesses at trial? (0-3) Any relevant 3.0 Doing Business 2018 Liberia document Can the plainti request categories of documents from the defendant without No 0.0 identifying speci c ones? (0-1) Can the plainti directly question the defendant and witnesses at trial? (0-2) Yes 2.0 Is the level of proof required for civil suits lower than that of criminal cases? (0-1) Yes 1.0 Can shareholder plainti s recover their legal expenses from the company? (0-2) At the discretion 0.0 of the court Extent of shareholder governance index (0-10) 1.7 Extent of shareholder rights index (0-10) 3 Does the sale of 51% of Buyer's assets require shareholder approval? Yes 1.0 Can shareholders representing 10% of Buyer's share capital call for a meeting of No 0.0 shareholders? Must Buyer obtain its shareholders’ approval every time it issues new shares? No 0.0 Do shareholders automatically receive preemption rights every time Buyer issues new No 0.0 shares? Must shareholders approve the election and dismissal of the external auditor? No 0.0 Are changes to the rights of a class of shares only possible if the holders of the a ected Yes 1.0 shares approve? Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, does the sale of 51% of its assets require Yes 1.0 member approval? Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, can members representing 10% call for a No 0.0 meeting of members? Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, must all members consent to add a new No 0.0 member? Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, must a member rst o er to sell their No 0.0 interest to the existing members before they can sell to non-members? Extent of ownership and control index (0-10) 1 Is it forbidden to appoint the same individual as CEO and chair of the board of No 0.0 directors? Must the board of directors include independent and nonexecutive board members? No 0.0 Can shareholders remove members of the board of directors without cause before the No 0.0 end of their term? Must the board of directors include a separate audit committee exclusively comprising No 0.0 board members? Must a potential acquirer make a tender o er to all shareholders upon acquiring 50% No 0.0 of Buyer? Must Buyer pay declared dividends within a maximum period set by law? No 0.0 Is a subsidiary prohibited from acquiring shares issued by its parent company? No 0.0 Page 40   Buyer pay declared MustBusiness Doing dividends within a maximum period set by law? 2018 Liberia No 0.0 Is a subsidiary prohibited from acquiring shares issued by its parent company? No 0.0 Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, must Buyer have a mechanism to resolve Yes 1.0 disagreements among members? Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, must a potential acquirer make a tender No 0.0 o er to all shareholders upon acquiring 50% of Buyer? Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, must Buyer distribute pro ts within a No 0.0 maximum period set by law? Extent of corporate transparency index (0-10) 1 Must Buyer disclose direct and indirect bene cial ownership stakes representing 5%? Yes 1.0 Must Buyer disclose information about board members’ primary employment and No 0.0 directorships in other companies? Must Buyer disclose the compensation of individual managers? No 0.0 Must a detailed notice of general meeting be sent 21 days before the meeting? No 0.0 Can shareholders representing 5% of Buyer’s share capital put items on the general No 0.0 meeting agenda? Must Buyer's annual nancial statements be audited by an external auditor? No 0.0 Must Buyer disclose its audit reports to the public? No 0.0 Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, must members meet at least once a year? No 0.0 Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, can members representing 5% put items on No 0.0 the meeting agenda? Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, must Buyer's annual nancial statements be No 0.0 audited by an external auditor? Paying Taxes This topic records the taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as measures the administrative burden in paying taxes and contributions. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed on June 30, 2017 covering for the Paying Taxes indicator calendar year 2016 (January 1, 2016 – December 31, 2016). Last year (Doing Business 2017) the scope of data collection was expanded to better understand the overall tax environment in an economy. The questionnaire was expanded to include new questions on post- ling processes: VAT refund and tax audit. The data shows where post ling processes and practices work e ciently and what drives the di erences in the overall tax compliance cost across economies. The new section covers both the legal framework and the administrative burden on businesses to comply with post ling processes. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Tax payments for a manufacturing company in Using a case scenario, Doing Business records taxes and mandatory 2016 (number per year adjusted for electronic and contributions a medium size company must pay in a year, and measures joint ling and payment) the administrative burden of paying taxes, contributions and dealing with post ling processes. Information is also compiled on frequency of ling Total number of taxes and contributions paid, Page 41   and payments, time taken to comply with tax laws, time taken to comply including consumption taxes (value added tax, Assuming that Buyer is a limited company, must Buyer's annual nancial statements be No 0.0 audited by an external auditor? Doing Business 2018 Liberia Paying Taxes This topic records the taxes and mandatory contributions that a medium-size company must pay or withhold in a given year, as well as measures the administrative burden in paying taxes and contributions. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed on June 30, 2017 covering for the Paying Taxes indicator calendar year 2016 (January 1, 2016 – December 31, 2016). Last year (Doing Business 2017) the scope of data collection was expanded to better understand the overall tax environment in an economy. The questionnaire was expanded to include new questions on post- ling processes: VAT refund and tax audit. The data shows where post ling processes and practices work e ciently and what drives the di erences in the overall tax compliance cost across economies. The new section covers both the legal framework and the administrative burden on businesses to comply with post ling processes. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Tax payments for a manufacturing company in Using a case scenario, Doing Business records taxes and mandatory 2016 (number per year adjusted for electronic and contributions a medium size company must pay in a year, and measures joint ling and payment) the administrative burden of paying taxes, contributions and dealing with post ling processes. Information is also compiled on frequency of ling Total number of taxes and contributions paid, and payments, time taken to comply with tax laws, time taken to comply including consumption taxes (value added tax, with the requirements of post ling processes and time waiting. sales tax or goods and service tax) Method and frequency of filing and payment To make data comparable across economies, several assumptions are used: Time required to comply with 3 major taxes - TaxpayerCo is a medium-size business that started operations on January (hours per year) 1, 2015. It produces ceramic flowerpots and sells them at retail. All taxes Collecting information, computing tax payable and contributions recorded are paid in the second year of operation Completing tax return, filing with agencies (calendar year 2016). Taxes and mandatory contributions are measured at all levels of government. Arranging payment or withholding Preparing separate tax accounting books, if The VAT refund process: required - In June 2016, TaxpayerCo. makes a large capital purchase: the value of the Total tax and contribution rate (% of pro t before machine is 65 times income per capita of the economy. Sales are equally all taxes) spread per month (1,050 times income per capita divided by 12) and cost of goods sold are equally expensed per month (875 times income per Profit or corporate income tax capita divided by 12). The machinery seller is registered for VAT and excess Social contributions, labor taxes paid by input VAT incurred in June will be fully recovered after four consecutive employer months if the VAT rate is the same for inputs, sales and the machine and Property and property transfer taxes the tax reporting period is every month. Input VAT will exceed Output VAT Dividend, capital gains, financial transactions in June 2016. taxes The corporate income tax audit process: Waste collection, vehicle, road and other taxes - An error in calculation of income tax liability (for example, use of incorrect Post ling Index tax depreciation rates, or incorrectly treating an expense as tax deductible) leads to an incorrect income tax return and a corporate income Time to comply with a VAT refund tax underpayment. TaxpayerCo. discovered the error and voluntarily Time to receive a VAT refund noti ed the tax authority. The value of the underpaid income tax liability is Time to comply with a corporate income tax audit 5% of the corporate income tax liability due. TaxpayerCo. submits corrected information after the deadline for submitting the annual tax Time to complete a corporate income tax audit return, but within the tax assessment period. Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Payments (number per year) 33 37.2 10.9 3 (Hong Kong SAR, China) Page 42   return, but within the tax assessment period. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Payments (number per year) 33 37.2 10.9 3 (Hong Kong SAR, China) Time (hours per year) 139.5 280.8 160.7 55 (Luxembourg) Total tax and contribution rate (% of profit) 45.5 46.8 40.1 18.47% (32 Economies) Postfiling index (0-100) 98.62 54.39 83.45 99.38 (Estonia) Figure – Paying Taxes in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 84.60: Rwanda (Rank: 31) 76.70: Liberia (Rank: 69) 72.86: Sierra Leone (Rank: 85) 71.67: Kenya (Rank: 92) 66.47: Ghana (Rank: 116) 57.49: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of paying taxes is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores on the ease of paying taxes. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the four component indicators – number of tax payments. time, total tax rate and post ling index – with a threshold and a nonlinear transformation applied to one of the component indicators, the total tax rate. The nonlinear distance to frontier for the total tax rate is equal to the distance to frontier for the total tax rate to the power of 0.8. The threshold is de ned as the total tax rate at the 15th percentile of the overall distribution for all years included in the analysis up to and including Doing Business 2015, which is 26.1%. All economies with a total tax rate below this threshold receive the same score as the economy at the threshold. Figure – Paying Taxes in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 120 98.62 95.41 100 80 Index score 62.03 63.68 60 54.39 49.54 40 20 0 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Paying Taxes in Liberia Total tax and Tax or mandatory Payments Notes on Time Statutory tax contribution rate Notes contribution (number) Payments (hours) rate Tax base (% of profit) on TTR Page 43   Corporate income 5 57 25% of taxable Taxable income or 35.35 Doing Business 2018 Liberia Figure – Paying Taxes in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality 120 98.62 95.41 100 80 Index score 62.03 63.68 60 54.39 49.54 40 20 0 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Paying Taxes in Liberia Total tax and Tax or mandatory Payments Notes on Time Statutory tax contribution rate Notes contribution (number) Payments (hours) rate Tax base (% of profit) on TTR Corporate income 5 57 25% of taxable Taxable income or 35.35 tax income or 2% of turnover turnover Social security 12 53 4.75% gross salaries 5.36 Property tax 1 1.5% Assessed Value of 2.22 building Municipal tax 1 fee scale type of business 2.18 Tax on interest 0 15% Money market 0.38 account interest Social security 0 jointly 3% gross salaries 0.00 not contributions on included employee Stamp duty 1 LD 100 revenue stamps 0.00 small required on legal amount documents Fuel tax 1 value of fuel 0.00 small consumption amount Goods and Service 12 31 7% value added 0.00 not Tax included Totals 33 139.5 45.5 Details – Paying Taxes in Liberia – Tax by Type Taxes by type Answer Profit tax (% of profit) 35.4 Page 44   Labor tax and contributions (% of profit) 5.4 Totals 33 139.5 45.5 Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Paying Taxes in Liberia – Tax by Type Taxes by type Answer Profit tax (% of profit) 35.4 Labor tax and contributions (% of profit) 5.4 Other taxes (% of profit) 4.8 Details – Paying Taxes in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Post ling index (0-100) 98.62 VAT refunds Does VAT exist? No Does a VAT refund process exist per the case study? N/A Restrictions on VAT refund process N/A Percentage of cases exposed to a VAT audit (%) Not applicable Is there a mandatory carry forward period? No Time to comply with VAT refund (hours) No VAT No VAT Time to obtain a VAT refund (weeks) No VAT No VAT Corporate income tax audits Does corporate income tax exist? Yes Percentage of cases exposed to a corporate income tax audit (%) 0% - 24% Time to comply with a corporate income tax audit (hours) 3.0 97.25 Time to complete a corporate income tax audit (weeks) No tax audit per 100 case study scenario Notes: Names of taxes have been standardized. For instance income tax, pro t tax, tax on company's income are all named corporate income tax in this table. The hours for VAT include all the VAT and sales taxes applicable. The hours for Social Security include all the hours for labor taxes and mandatory contributions in general. The post ling index is the average of the scores on time to comply with VAT refund, time to obtain a VAT refund, time to comply with a corporate income tax audit and time to complete a corporate income tax audit. N/A = Not applicable. Trading across Borders Doing Business records the time and cost associated with the logistical process of exporting and importing goods. Doing Business measures the time and cost (excluding tari s) associated with three sets of procedures—documentary compliance, border recent compliance and domestic transport—within the overall process of exporting or importing a shipment of goods. The mostPage 45   round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. a corporate income tax audit and time to complete a corporate income tax audit. N/A = Not applicable. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Trading across Borders Doing Business records the time and cost associated with the logistical process of exporting and importing goods. Doing Business measures the time and cost (excluding tari s) associated with three sets of procedures—documentary compliance, border compliance and domestic transport—within the overall process of exporting or importing a shipment of goods. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. Given the importance of trade digitalization, in Doing Business 2018, the Trading across Borders questionnaire included research questions on the availability and status of implementation of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Single Window (SW) systems. With this information, Doing Business built a comprehensive dataset on the adoption and level of sophistication of electronic platforms in 190 economies. These data are not used to compute the distance to frontier score or ranking of the ease of doing business. The new dataset on EDI and SW systems is available here. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Documentary compliance To make the data comparable across economies, a few assumptions are made about the traded goods and the transactions: Obtaining, preparing and submitting documents during transport, clearance, inspections and port Time: Time is measured in hours, and 1 day is 24 hours (for example, 22 or border handling in origin economy days are recorded as 22×24=528 hours). If customs clearance takes 7.5 Obtaining, preparing and submitting documents hours, the data are recorded as is. Alternatively, suppose documents are required by destination economy and any transit submitted to a customs agency at 8:00a.m., are processed overnight and economies can be picked up at 8:00a.m. the next day. The time for customs clearance Covers all documents required by law and in would be recorded as 24 hours because the actual procedure took 24 practice, including electronic submissions of hours. information Border compliance Cost: Insurance cost and informal payments for which no receipt is issued are excluded from the costs recorded. Costs are reported in U.S. dollars. Customs clearance and inspections Contributors are asked to convert local currency into U.S. dollars based on Inspections by other agencies (if applied to more the exchange rate prevailing on the day they answer the questionnaire. than 20% of shipments) Contributors are private sector experts in international trade logistics and Handling and inspections that take place at the are informed about exchange rates. economy’s port or border Assumptions of the case study: - For all 190 economies covered by Doing Domestic transport Business, it is assumed a shipment is in a warehouse in the largest Loading or unloading of the shipment at the business city of the exporting economy and travels to a warehouse in the warehouse or port/border largest business city of the importing economy. - It is assumed each Transport between warehouse and port/border economy imports 15 metric tons of containerized auto parts (HS 8708) from its natural import partner—the economy from which it imports the Traffic delays and road police checks while shipment is en route largest value (price times quantity) of auto parts. It is assumed each economy exports the product of its comparative advantage (de ned by the largest export value) to its natural export partner—the economy that is the largest purchaser of this product. Shipment value is assumed to be $50,000. - The mode of transport is the one most widely used for the chosen export or import product and the trading partner, as is the seaport, or land border crossing. - All electronic information submissions requested by any government agency in connection with the shipment are considered to be documents obtained, prepared and submitted during the export or import process. - A port or border is a place (seaport, airport or land border crossing) where merchandise can enter or leave an economy. - Relevant government agencies include customs, port authorities, road police, border guards, standardization agencies, ministries or departments of agriculture or industry, national security agencies and any other government authorities. Page 46   of agriculture or industry, national security agencies and any other Doing Business 2018 Liberia government authorities. Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Time to export: Border compliance (hours) 193 100.1 12.7 0 (17 Economies) Cost to export: Border compliance (USD) 1113 592.1 149.9 0.00 (19 Economies) Time to export: Documentary compliance 144 87.8 2.4 1.0 (25 Economies) (hours) Cost to export: Documentary compliance (USD) 155 215.1 35.4 0.00 (19 Economies) Time to import: Border compliance (hours) 217 136.4 8.7 0.00 (21 Economies) Cost to import: Border compliance (USD) 1013 686.8 111.6 0.00 (27 Economies) Time to import: Documentary compliance 144 103.0 3.5 1.0 (30 Economies) (hours) Cost to import: Documentary compliance (USD) 230 300.1 25.6 0.00 (30 Economies) Figure – Trading across Borders in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 72.44: Rwanda (Rank: 87) 67.63: Kenya (Rank: 106) 52.56: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) 52.32: Ghana (Rank: 158) 48.99: Sierra Leone (Rank: 162) 27.77: Liberia (Rank: 177) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of trading across borders is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for trading across borders. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for the time and cost for documentary compliance and border compliance to export and import (domestic transport is not used for calculating the ranking). Figure – Trading across Borders in Liberia – Time and Cost Time Cost 250 1113 1200 217 1013 193 1000 200 800 Time (hours) 144 144 Cost (USD) 150 600 100 400 230 50 155 200 0 0 Export - Border Compliance Export - Documentary Compliance Import - Border Compliance Import - Documentary Compliance Page 47   Doing Business 2018 Liberia Figure – Trading across Borders in Liberia – Time and Cost Time Cost 250 1113 1200 217 1013 193 1000 200 800 Time (hours) 144 144 Cost (USD) 150 600 100 400 230 50 155 200 0 0 Export - Border Compliance Export - Documentary Compliance Import - Border Compliance Import - Documentary Compliance Details – Trading across Borders in Liberia Characteristics Export Import Product HS 40: Rubber and articles thereof HS 8708: Parts and accessories of motor vehicles Trade partner China Korea, Rep. Border Monrovia port Monrovia port Distance (km) 10 10 Domestic transport time (hours) 7 7 Domestic transport cost (USD) 225 225 Details – Trading across Borders in Liberia – Components of Border Compliance Time to Complete Associated Costs (hours) (USD) Export: Clearance and inspections required by customs authorities 60.0 250.0 Export: Clearance and inspections required by agencies other than customs 144.0 700.0 Export: Port or border handling 49.0 162.5 Import: Clearance and inspections required by customs authorities 72.0 250.0 Import: Clearance and inspections required by agencies other than customs 144.0 600.0 Import: Port or border handling 49.0 162.5 Details – Trading across Borders in Liberia – Trade Documents Export Import Bill of lading Bill of lading Cargo Acceptance Note (shipping note) Delivery order Page 48   Domestic transport cost (USD) 225 225 Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Trading across Borders in Liberia – Components of Border Compliance Time to Complete Associated Costs (hours) (USD) Export: Clearance and inspections required by customs authorities 60.0 250.0 Export: Clearance and inspections required by agencies other than customs 144.0 700.0 Export: Port or border handling 49.0 162.5 Import: Clearance and inspections required by customs authorities 72.0 250.0 Import: Clearance and inspections required by agencies other than customs 144.0 600.0 Import: Port or border handling 49.0 162.5 Details – Trading across Borders in Liberia – Trade Documents Export Import Bill of lading Bill of lading Cargo Acceptance Note (shipping note) Delivery order Certificate of origin Certificate of origin Commercial invoice Commercial invoice Customs release form Simplified Administrative Document (SAD) import declaration Export Permit Declaration (EPD) Exit Note Clean Report of Findings (from BIVAC) Import Permit Declaration (IPD) Packing list Clean Report of Findings (from BIVAC) Terminal handling receipt Packing list SOLAS certificate Official receipt of payment of port charges (from NPA) Confirmation receipt of payment of customs fees and duties SOLAS certificate Enforcing Contracts The enforcing contracts indicator measures the time and cost for resolving a commercial dispute through a local rst-instance court, and the quality of judicial processes index, evaluating whether each economy has adopted a series of good practices that promote quality and e ciency in the court system. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Time required to enforce a contract through the The dispute in the case study involves the breach of a sales contract courts (calendar days) between 2 domestic businesses. The case study assumes that thePage 49   court SOLAS certificate Doing Business 2018 Liberia Enforcing Contracts The enforcing contracts indicator measures the time and cost for resolving a commercial dispute through a local rst-instance court, and the quality of judicial processes index, evaluating whether each economy has adopted a series of good practices that promote quality and e ciency in the court system. The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Time required to enforce a contract through the The dispute in the case study involves the breach of a sales contract courts (calendar days) between 2 domestic businesses. The case study assumes that the court hears an expert on the quality of the goods in dispute. This distinguishes Time to file and serve the case the case from simple debt enforcement. Time for trial and to obtain the judgment To make the data comparable across economies, Doing Business uses Time to enforce the judgment several assumptions about the case: Cost required to enforce a contract through the - The dispute concerns a lawful transaction between two businesses (Seller courts (% of claim) and Buyer), both located in the economy’s largest business city. For 11 Attorney fees economies the data are also collected for the second largest business city. - The buyer orders custom-made goods, then fails to pay. Court fees - The value of the dispute is 200% of the income per capita or the Enforcement fees equivalent in local currency of USD 5,000, whichever is greater. Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) - The seller sues the buyer before the court with jurisdiction over commercial cases worth 200% of income per capita or $5,000. Court structure and proceedings (-1-5) - The seller requests a pretrial attachment to secure the claim. Case management (0-6) - The dispute on the quality of the goods requires an expert opinion. Court automation (0-4) - The judge decides in favor of the seller; there is no appeal. Alternative dispute resolution (0-3) - The seller enforces the judgment through a public sale of the buyer’s movable assets. Standardized Case Claim value LRD 424,409.00 Court name Monrovia Sixth Circuit Court City Covered Monrovia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Time (days) 1300 656.8 577.8 164.00 (Singapore) Cost (% of claim value) 35.0 44.0 21.5 9.00 (Iceland) Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) 7.5 6.5 11.0 15.50 (Australia) Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 58.62: Rwanda (Rank: 85) 58.27: Kenya (Rank: 90) 55.92: Sierra Leone (Rank: 100) Page 50   of judicial processes Quality Business Doing index (0-18) 2018 Liberia 7.5 6.5 11.0 15.50 (Australia) Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 58.62: Rwanda (Rank: 85) 58.27: Kenya (Rank: 90) 55.92: Sierra Leone (Rank: 100) 54.00: Ghana (Rank: 116) 48.14: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) 35.23: Liberia (Rank: 174) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of enforcing contracts is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for enforcing contracts. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for each of the component indicators. Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Liberia – Time and Cost Time Cost 1400 1300 82.7 90 80 1200 Cost (% of claim value) 70 1000 60 Time (days) 800 710 41.8 656.8 44.0 50 577.8 39.5 600 35.0 515 40 465 23.0 30 400 21.5 230 20 200 10 0 0 Ghana Kenya Liberia OECD high income Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality Liberia 1.5 2 0 4 Ghana 2.5 1 0 3 Kenya 2 2 0.5 4.5 Rwanda 2.5 4.5 4 3 Sierra Leone 1.5 2 0 4.5 OECD high income 2.5 2.9 2 3.6 Sub-Saharan Africa 2 1.1 0.3 3.2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Page 51   16 0 0 Ghana Kenya Liberia OECD high income Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Doing Business 2018 Liberia Figure – Enforcing Contracts in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality Liberia 1.5 2 0 4 Ghana 2.5 1 0 3 Kenya 2 2 0.5 4.5 Rwanda 2.5 4.5 4 3 Sierra Leone 1.5 2 0 4.5 OECD high income 2.5 2.9 2 3.6 Sub-Saharan Africa 2 1.1 0.3 3.2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Sub-Indicator Score Alternative dispute resolution (0­3) Case management (0­6) Court automation (0­4) Court structure and proceedings (­1­5) Details – Enforcing Contracts in Liberia Indicator Time (days) 1300 Filing and service 30 Trial and judgment 730 Enforcement of judgment 540 Cost (% of claim value) 35.0 Attorney fees 25.1 Court fees 6.9 Enforcement fees 3 Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) 7.5 Court structure and proceedings (-1-5) 4.0 Case management (0-6) 2.0 Court automation (0-4) 0.0 Alternative dispute resolution (0-3) 1.5 Details – Enforcing Contracts in Liberia – Measure of Quality Page 52   Alternative dispute resolution (0-3) 1.5 Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Enforcing Contracts in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Quality of judicial processes index (0-18) 7.5 Court structure and proceedings (-1-5) 4.0 1. Is there a court or division of a court dedicated solely to hearing commercial cases? Yes 1.5 2. Small claims court 1.0 2.a. Is there a small claims court or a fast-track procedure for small claims? Yes 2.b. If yes, is self-representation allowed? n.a. 3. Is pretrial attachment available? Yes 1.0 4. Are new cases assigned randomly to judges? Yes, but manual 0.5 5. Does a woman's testimony carry the same evidentiary weight in court as a man's? Yes 0.0 Case management (0-6) 2.0 1. Time standards 0.0 1.a. Are there laws setting overall time standards for key court events in a civil case? Yes 1.b. If yes, are the time standards set for at least three court events? No 1.c. Are these time standards respected in more than 50% of cases? Yes 2. Adjournments 1.0 2.a. Does the law regulate the maximum number of adjournments that can be Yes granted? 2.b. Are adjournments limited to unforeseen and exceptional circumstances? Yes 2.c. If rules on adjournments exist, are they respected in more than 50% of cases? Yes 3. Can two of the following four reports be generated about the competent court: (i) No 0.0 time to disposition report; (ii) clearance rate report; (iii) age of pending cases report; and (iv) single case progress report? 4. Is a pretrial conference among the case management techniques used before the Yes 1.0 competent court? 5. Are there any electronic case management tools in place within the competent court No 0.0 for use by judges? 6. Are there any electronic case management tools in place within the competent court No 0.0 for use by lawyers? Court automation (0-4) 0.0 1. Can the initial complaint be led electronically through a dedicated platform within No 0.0 the competent court? 2. Is it possible to carry out service of process electronically for claims led before the No 0.0 competent court? Page 53   1. Can the initial complaint be led electronically through a dedicated platform within No 0.0 Businesscourt? the competent Doing 2018 Liberia 2. Is it possible to carry out service of process electronically for claims led before the No 0.0 competent court? 3. Can court fees be paid electronically within the competent court? No 0.0 4. Publication of judgments 0.0 4.a Are judgments rendered in commercial cases at all levels made available to the No general public through publication in o cial gazettes, in newspapers or on the internet or court website? 4.b. Are judgments rendered in commercial cases at the appellate and supreme No court level made available to the general public through publication in o cial gazettes, in newspapers or on the internet or court website? Alternative dispute resolution (0-3) 1.5 1. Arbitration 1.5 1.a. Is domestic commercial arbitration governed by a consolidated law or Yes consolidated chapter or section of the applicable code of civil procedure encompassing substantially all its aspects? 1.b. Are there any commercial disputes—aside from those that deal with public No order or public policy—that cannot be submitted to arbitration? 1.c. Are valid arbitration clauses or agreements usually enforced by the courts? Yes 2. Mediation/Conciliation 0.0 2.a. Is voluntary mediation or conciliation available? No 2.b. Are mediation, conciliation or both governed by a consolidated law or n.a. consolidated chapter or section of the applicable code of civil procedure encompassing substantially all their aspects? 2.c. Are there nancial incentives for parties to attempt mediation or conciliation (i.e., n.a. if mediation or conciliation is successful, a refund of court ling fees, income tax credits or the like)? Resolving Insolvency Doing Business studies the time, cost and outcome of insolvency proceedings involving domestic legal entities. These variables are used to calculate the recovery rate, which is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganization, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings. To determine the present value of the amount recovered by creditors, Doing Business uses the lending rates from the International Monetary Fund, supplemented with data from central banks and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Time required to recover debt (years) To make the data on the time, cost and outcome comparable across economies, several assumptions about the business and the case are Measured in calendar years used: Appeals and requests for extension are included - A hotel located in the largest city (or cities) has 201 employees and 50 Cost required to recover debt (% of debtor’s estate) suppliers. The hotel experiences nancial di culties. Page 54   Measured as percentage of estate value - The value of the hotel is 100% of the income per capita or the equivalent if mediation or conciliation is successful, a refund of court ling fees, income tax credits or the like)? Doing Business 2018 Liberia Resolving Insolvency Doing Business studies the time, cost and outcome of insolvency proceedings involving domestic legal entities. These variables are used to calculate the recovery rate, which is recorded as cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors through reorganization, liquidation or debt enforcement (foreclosure or receivership) proceedings. To determine the present value of the amount recovered by creditors, Doing Business uses the lending rates from the International Monetary Fund, supplemented with data from central banks and the Economist Intelligence Unit. The most recent round of data collection for the project was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Time required to recover debt (years) To make the data on the time, cost and outcome comparable across economies, several assumptions about the business and the case are Measured in calendar years used: Appeals and requests for extension are included - A hotel located in the largest city (or cities) has 201 employees and 50 Cost required to recover debt (% of debtor’s estate) suppliers. The hotel experiences nancial di culties. Measured as percentage of estate value - The value of the hotel is 100% of the income per capita or the equivalent Court fees in local currency of USD 200,000, whichever is greater. - The hotel has a loan from a domestic bank, secured by a mortgage over Fees of insolvency administrators the hotel’s real estate. The hotel cannot pay back the loan, but makes Lawyers’ fees enough money to operate otherwise. Assessors’ and auctioneers’ fees In addition, Doing Business evaluates the adequacy and integrity of the Other related fees existing legal framework applicable to liquidation and reorganization Outcome proceedings through the strength of insolvency framework index. The index tests whether economies adopted internationally accepted good Whether business continues operating as a going practices in four areas: commencement of proceedings, management of concern or business assets are sold piecemeal debtor’s assets, reorganization proceedings and creditor participation. Recovery rate for creditors Measures the cents on the dollar recovered by secured creditors Outcome for the business (survival or not) determines the maximum value that can be recovered Official costs of the insolvency proceedings are deducted Depreciation of furniture is taken into account Present value of debt recovered Strength of insolvency framework index (0- 16) Sum of the scores of four component indices: Commencement of proceedings index (0-3) Management of debtor’s assets index (0-6) Reorganization proceedings index (0-3) Creditor participation index (0-4) Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Recovery rate (cents on the dollar) 17.1 20.3 71.2 93.1 (Norway) Time (years) 3.0 2.9 1.7 0.4 (Ireland) Page 55   Cost (% of estate) 30.0 22.7 9.1 1.00 (Norway) Creditor participation index (0-4) Doing Business 2018 Liberia Sub-Saharan OECD high Indicator Liberia Africa income Overall Best Performer Recovery rate (cents on the dollar) 17.1 20.3 71.2 93.1 (Norway) Time (years) 3.0 2.9 1.7 0.4 (Ireland) Cost (% of estate) 30.0 22.7 9.1 1.00 (Norway) Outcome (0 as piecemeal sale and 1 as going 0 .. .. .. concern) Strength of insolvency framework index (0-16) 10.0 6.2 12.1 15.00 (6 Economies) Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia and comparator economies – Ranking and DTF DB 2018 Distance to Frontier (DTF) 0 100 47.79: Rwanda (Rank: 78) 43.11: Kenya (Rank: 95) 40.43: Liberia (Rank: 106) 30.28: Regional Average (Sub-Saharan Africa) 24.77: Ghana (Rank: 158) 24.72: Sierra Leone (Rank: 159) Note: The ranking of economies on the ease of resolving insolvency is determined by sorting their distance to frontier scores for resolving insolvency. These scores are the simple average of the distance to frontier scores for the recovery rate and the strength of insolvency framework index. Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia – Time and Cost Time Cost 5 42.0 45 4.5 40 4 35 30.0 29.0 Cost (% of estate) 3.0 30 Time (years) 2.9 3 22.0 22.0 2.5 22.7 25 2.3 1.9 20 2 1.7 15 9.1 1 10 5 0 0 Ghana Kenya Liberia OECD high income Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality Liberia 6 2.5 1 0.5 Page 56   Ghana 2 2 0 0 0 Ghana Kenya Liberia OECD high income Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Doing Business 2018 Liberia Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia and comparator economies – Measure of Quality Liberia 6 2.5 1 0.5 Ghana 2 2 0 Kenya 3 3 1 2 Rwanda 6 3 3 0 Sierra Leone 3 2 1 0 OECD high income 5.4 2.8 2.3 1.9 Sub-Saharan Africa 4.1 2.3 1 0.4 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Sub-Indicator Score Management of debtor's assets index (0­6) Commencement of proceedings index (0­3) Creditor participation index (0­4) Reorganization proceedings index (0­3) Figure – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia and comparator economies – Recovery Rate Recovery Rate (cents on the dollar) 30 27.9 25 22.8 20.3 19.1 20 17.1 15 11.1 10 5 0 Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Details – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia Indicator Answer Explanation Proceeding foreclosure Pursuant to Section 6.20 of the Liberian Commercial Code, after 60 days since Mirage's default on payment, BizBank is entitled to commence foreclosure by filing a complaint against Mirage, showing that a default has occurred in the obligations secured by the mortgage and requesting that the mortgage be foreclosed in a court-supervised sale. Outcome piecemeal sale The hotel will stop operating and Mirage assets will be sold piecemeal in a public auction upon the completion of foreclosure proceeding. Time (in years) 3.0 The foreclosure procedure takes approximate 3 years until BizBank is repaid some or all of the money owed to it. After 60 days as of Mirage's default on payment, BizBank would initiate foreclosure procedure by filing a written complaint to the Commercial Court with copies served on Mirage. Mirage would then file against the foreclosure. It will take approximate 1.5 Page 57   years for the Court to hold hearings, conduct pretrial conference, until a money judgment is Liberia Ghana Kenya Rwanda Sierra Leone Sub-Saharan Africa Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia Indicator Answer Explanation Proceeding foreclosure Pursuant to Section 6.20 of the Liberian Commercial Code, after 60 days since Mirage's default on payment, BizBank is entitled to commence foreclosure by filing a complaint against Mirage, showing that a default has occurred in the obligations secured by the mortgage and requesting that the mortgage be foreclosed in a court-supervised sale. Outcome piecemeal sale The hotel will stop operating and Mirage assets will be sold piecemeal in a public auction upon the completion of foreclosure proceeding. Time (in years) 3.0 The foreclosure procedure takes approximate 3 years until BizBank is repaid some or all of the money owed to it. After 60 days as of Mirage's default on payment, BizBank would initiate foreclosure procedure by filing a written complaint to the Commercial Court with copies served on Mirage. Mirage would then file against the foreclosure. It will take approximate 1.5 years for the Court to hold hearings, conduct pretrial conference, until a money judgment is issued with orders for public auction if not paid. This may followed by Mirage's appealing to the Justice in Chambers of the Supreme Court for review by way of certiorari or prohibition. If not satisfied with the ruling from the Justice in Chambers of the Supreme Court, Mirage can appeal the ruling to the Full Supreme Court Bench. The whole appealing process until the final ruling is made by the Supreme Court will take approximate 1.5 years. When the Supreme Court delivers a judgement, it will send it back to the Commercial Court which reads the mandate and approves it. After this, the sheriff proceeds with the auction. The execution of the assets sale usually takes place within a month and the sale proceeds will be paid to BizBank. Cost (% of 30.0 The cost associated with the case would amount to approximately 30% of the value of the estate) debtor's estate. The cost incurred during the entire insolvency process mainly includes court fees (5%), attorneys’ fees (15%), auctioneer's fees (5%), assessors' fees (4%), and other fees (1%). Recovery rate (cents on the 17.1 dollar) Details – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Strength of insolvency framework index (0-16) 10.0 Commencement of proceedings index (0-3) 2.5 What procedures are available to a DEBTOR when commencing insolvency (a) Debtor may 1.0 proceedings? le for both liquidation and reorganization Does the insolvency framework allow a CREDITOR to le for insolvency of the debtor? (b) Yes, but a 0.5 creditor may le for liquidation only What basis for commencement of the insolvency proceedings is allowed under the (a) Debtor is 1.0 insolvency framework? generally unable to pay its debts Page 58   as they mature dollar) Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Resolving Insolvency in Liberia – Measure of Quality Answer Score Strength of insolvency framework index (0-16) 10.0 Commencement of proceedings index (0-3) 2.5 What procedures are available to a DEBTOR when commencing insolvency (a) Debtor may 1.0 proceedings? le for both liquidation and reorganization Does the insolvency framework allow a CREDITOR to le for insolvency of the debtor? (b) Yes, but a 0.5 creditor may le for liquidation only What basis for commencement of the insolvency proceedings is allowed under the (a) Debtor is 1.0 insolvency framework? generally unable to pay its debts as they mature Management of debtor's assets index (0-6) 6.0 Does the insolvency framework allow the continuation of contracts supplying essential Yes 1.0 goods and services to the debtor? Does the insolvency framework allow the rejection by the debtor of overly burdensome Yes 1.0 contracts? Does the insolvency framework allow avoidance of preferential transactions? Yes 1.0 Does the insolvency framework allow avoidance of undervalued transactions? Yes 1.0 Does the insolvency framework provide for the possibility of the debtor obtaining credit Yes 1.0 after commencement of insolvency proceedings? Does the insolvency framework assign priority to post-commencement credit? (b) Yes over 1.0 ordinary unsecured creditors but not over secured creditors Reorganization proceedings index (0-3) 0.5 Which creditors vote on the proposed reorganization plan? (a) All creditors 0.5 Does the insolvency framework require that dissenting creditors in reorganization No 0.0 receive at least as much as what they would obtain in a liquidation? Are the creditors devided into classes for the purposes of voting on the reorganization No 0.0 plan, does each class vote separately and are creditors in the same class treated equally? Creditor participation index (0-4) 1.0 Does the insolvency framework require approval by the creditors for selection or Yes 1.0 appointment of the insolvency representative? Page 59   Creditor Doing participation Business 2018 index (0-4) Liberia 1.0 Does the insolvency framework require approval by the creditors for selection or Yes 1.0 appointment of the insolvency representative? Does the insolvency framework require approval by the creditors for sale of substantial No 0.0 assets of the debtor? Does the insolvency framework provide that a creditor has the right to request No 0.0 information from the insolvency representative? Does the insolvency framework provide that a creditor has the right to object to No 0.0 decisions accepting or rejecting creditors' claims? Note: Even if the economy’s legal framework includes provisions related to insolvency proceedings (liquidation or reorganization), the economy receives 0 points for the strength of insolvency framework index, if time, cost and outcome indicators are recorded as “no practice”. Labor Market Regulation Doing Business presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on these indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business. Detailed data collected on labor market regulation are available on the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploretopics/labor-market-regulation). The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Hiring To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions (i) whether xed-term contracts are prohibited for about the worker and the business are used. permanent tasks; (ii) maximum cumulative duration of xed-term contracts; (iii) length of the The worker: probationary period; (iv) minimum wage. - Is a cashier in a supermarket or grocery store, age 19, with one year of work experience. Working hours - Is a full-time employee. (i) maximum number of working days allowed per - Is not a member of the labor union, unless membership is mandatory. week; (ii) premiums for work: at night, on a weekly rest day and overtime; (iii) whether there are The business: restrictions on work at night, work on a weekly rest - Is a limited liability company (or the equivalent in the economy). day and for overtime work; (iv) whether nonpregnant - Operates a supermarket or grocery store in the economy’s largest and nonnursing women can work same night hours business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the second as men; (v) length of paid annual leave. largest business city. - Has 60 employees. Redundancy rules - Is subject to collective bargaining agreements if such agreements cover (i) whether redundancy can be basis for terminating more than 50% of the food retail sector and they apply even to rms that workers; (ii) whether employer needs to notify are not party to them. and/or get approval from third party to terminate 1 - Abides by every law and regulation but does not grant workers more redundant worker and a group of 9 redundant bene ts than those mandated by law, regulation or (if applicable) collective workers; (iii) whether law requires employer to bargaining agreements. reassign or retrain a worker before making worker redundant; (iv) whether priority rules apply for redundancies and reemployment. Redundancy cost (i) notice period for redundancy dismissal; (ii) severance payments due when terminating a redundant worker. Job quality (i) whether law mandates equal remuneration for Page 60   work of equal value and nondiscrimination based on the economy receives 0 points for the strength of insolvency framework index, if time, cost and outcome indicators are recorded as “no practice”. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Labor Market Regulation Doing Business presents the data for the labor market regulation indicators in an annex. The report does not present rankings of economies on these indicators or include the topic in the aggregate distance to frontier score or ranking on the ease of doing business. Detailed data collected on labor market regulation are available on the Doing Business website (http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploretopics/labor-market-regulation). The most recent round of data collection was completed in June 2017. See the methodology for more information. What the indicators measure Case study assumptions Hiring To make the data comparable across economies, several assumptions (i) whether xed-term contracts are prohibited for about the worker and the business are used. permanent tasks; (ii) maximum cumulative duration of xed-term contracts; (iii) length of the The worker: probationary period; (iv) minimum wage. - Is a cashier in a supermarket or grocery store, age 19, with one year of work experience. Working hours - Is a full-time employee. (i) maximum number of working days allowed per - Is not a member of the labor union, unless membership is mandatory. week; (ii) premiums for work: at night, on a weekly rest day and overtime; (iii) whether there are The business: restrictions on work at night, work on a weekly rest - Is a limited liability company (or the equivalent in the economy). day and for overtime work; (iv) whether nonpregnant - Operates a supermarket or grocery store in the economy’s largest and nonnursing women can work same night hours business city. For 11 economies the data are also collected for the second as men; (v) length of paid annual leave. largest business city. - Has 60 employees. Redundancy rules - Is subject to collective bargaining agreements if such agreements cover (i) whether redundancy can be basis for terminating more than 50% of the food retail sector and they apply even to rms that workers; (ii) whether employer needs to notify are not party to them. and/or get approval from third party to terminate 1 - Abides by every law and regulation but does not grant workers more redundant worker and a group of 9 redundant bene ts than those mandated by law, regulation or (if applicable) collective workers; (iii) whether law requires employer to bargaining agreements. reassign or retrain a worker before making worker redundant; (iv) whether priority rules apply for redundancies and reemployment. Redundancy cost (i) notice period for redundancy dismissal; (ii) severance payments due when terminating a redundant worker. Job quality (i) whether law mandates equal remuneration for work of equal value and nondiscrimination based on gender in hiring; (ii) whether law mandates paid or unpaid maternity leave; (iii) length of paid maternity leave; (iv) whether employees on maternity leave receive 100% of wages; (v) availability of ve fully paid days of sick leave a year; (vi) eligibility requirements for unemployment protection. Details – Labor Market Regulation in Liberia Answer Page 61   days of sick leave a year; (vi) eligibility requirements for unemployment protection. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Details – Labor Market Regulation in Liberia Answer Hiring Fixed-term contracts prohibited for permanent tasks? No Maximum length of a single xed-term contract (months) No limit Maximum length of xed-term contracts, including renewals (months) No limit Minimum wage applicable to the worker assumed in the case study (US$/month) 141.4 Ratio of minimum wage to value added per worker 2.5 Maximum length of probationary period (months) 3.0 Working hours Standard workday 8.0 Maximum number of working days per week 5.5 Premium for night work (% of hourly pay) 0.0 Premium for work on weekly rest day (% of hourly pay) 0.0 Premium for overtime work (% of hourly pay) 50.0 Restrictions on night work? No Whether nonpregnant and nonnursing women can work the same night hours as men Yes Restrictions on weekly holiday? No Restrictions on overtime work? Yes Paid annual leave for a worker with 1 year of tenure (working days) 5.5 Paid annual leave for a worker with 5 years of tenure (working days) 22.0 Paid annual leave for a worker with 10 years of tenure (working days) 22.0 Paid annual leave (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years of tenure, in working days) 16.5 Redundancy rules Dismissal due to redundancy allowed by law? Yes Third-party noti cation if one worker is dismissed? Yes Third-party approval if one worker is dismissed? No Third-party noti cation if nine workers are dismissed? Yes Third-party approval if nine workers are dismissed? No Retraining or reassignment obligation before redundancy? No Page 62   Third-party Doing approval Business 2018 if nine workers are dismissed? Liberia No Retraining or reassignment obligation before redundancy? No Priority rules for redundancies? Yes Priority rules for reemployment? Yes Redundancy cost Notice period for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 1 year of tenure 4.3 Notice period for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 5 years of tenure 4.3 Notice period for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 10 years of tenure 4.3 Notice period for redundancy dismissal (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years of tenure) 4.3 Severance pay for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 1 year of tenure 4.0 Severance pay for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 5 years of tenure 20.0 Severance pay for redundancy dismissal for a worker with 10 years of tenure 40.0 Severance pay for redundancy dismissal (average for workers with 1, 5 and 10 years of tenure) 21.3 Job quality Equal remuneration for work of equal value? Yes Gender nondiscrimination in hiring? Yes Paid or unpaid maternity leave mandated by law? Yes Minimum length of maternity leave (calendar days)? 98.0 Receive 100% of wages on maternity leave? Yes Five fully paid days of sick leave a year? Yes Unemployment protection after one year of employment? No Minimum contribution period for unemployment protection (months)? n.a. Business Reforms in Liberia In the year ending June 1, 2017, 119 economies implemented 264 total reforms across the di erent areas measured by Doing Business. Doing Business has recorded more than 2,900 regulatory reforms making it easier to do business since 2004. Reforms inspired by Doing Business have been implemented by economies in all regions. The following are the reforms for Liberia implemented since Doing Business 2008. = Doing Business reform making it easier to do business. = Change making it more di cult to do business. DB2018 Resolving Insolvency: Liberia made resolving insolvency easier by introducing a legal framework for corporate insolvency, making liquidation and reorganization procedures available to debtors and creditors. DB2017 Labor Market Regulation: Liberia shortened the workweek by increasing the mandatory number of weekly rest hours to 36 consecutive hours with Sunday designated as the weekly holiday. It also mandated a maximum of ve overtime hours per week. paid Liberia also introduced paid annual leave entitlements to employees after one year of employment, extended the duration of Page 63   maternity leave and mandated equal remuneration for work of equal value. Minimum contribution period for unemployment protection (months)? n.a. Doing Business 2018 Liberia Business Reforms in Liberia In the year ending June 1, 2017, 119 economies implemented 264 total reforms across the di erent areas measured by Doing Business. Doing Business has recorded more than 2,900 regulatory reforms making it easier to do business since 2004. Reforms inspired by Doing Business have been implemented by economies in all regions. The following are the reforms for Liberia implemented since Doing Business 2008. = Doing Business reform making it easier to do business. = Change making it more di cult to do business. DB2018 Resolving Insolvency: Liberia made resolving insolvency easier by introducing a legal framework for corporate insolvency, making liquidation and reorganization procedures available to debtors and creditors. DB2017 Labor Market Regulation: Liberia shortened the workweek by increasing the mandatory number of weekly rest hours to 36 consecutive hours with Sunday designated as the weekly holiday. It also mandated a maximum of ve overtime hours per week. Liberia also introduced paid annual leave entitlements to employees after one year of employment, extended the duration of paid maternity leave and mandated equal remuneration for work of equal value. DB2016 Getting Credit: Liberia improved access to credit by adopting new laws on secured transactions that establish a modern, uni ed and notice-based collateral registry. Paying Taxes: Liberia made paying taxes more complicated for companies by introducing a minimum corporate income tax. DB2014 Starting a Business: Liberia made starting a business easier by eliminating the business trade license fees. Registering Property: Liberia made transferring property easier by digitizing the records at the land registry. DB2013 Getting Electricity: In Liberia obtaining an electricity connection became easier thanks to the adoption of better procurement practices by the Liberia Electricity Corporation. Paying Taxes: Liberia made paying taxes easier for companies by reducing the pro t tax rate and abolishing the turnover tax. Enforcing Contracts: Liberia made enforcing contracts easier by creating a specialized commercial court. DB2012 Starting a Business: Liberia made starting a business easier by introducing a one-stop shop. Getting Credit: Liberia strengthened its legal framework for secured transactions by adopting a new commercial code that broadens the range of assets that can be used as collateral (including future assets) and extends the security interest to the proceeds of the original asset. Trading across Borders: Liberia made trading across borders faster by implementing online submission of customs forms and enhancing risk-based inspections. DB2010 Starting a Business: Liberia made starting a business easier by eliminating the requirement to obtain an environmental impact assessment when forming a general trading company. Dealing with Construction Permits: Liberia made dealing with construction permits easier by reducing the building permit fee and eliminating the requirement to obtain a tax waiver certi cate before submitting a building permit application. In addition, the cost of obtaining a power generator declined, and with the reopening of Libtelco xed telephone connections became more readily available. Trading across Borders: Liberia reduced the time needed for trading across borders by creating a one-stop shop that brings Page 64   together government ministries and agencies and by streamlining the inspection process. cost of obtaining a power generator declined, and with the reopening of Libtelco xed telephone connections became more readily Doing Business 2018 Liberia available. Trading across Borders: Liberia reduced the time needed for trading across borders by creating a one-stop shop that brings together government ministries and agencies and by streamlining the inspection process. DB2009 Starting a Business: Liberia made starting a business easier and less time consuming by simplifying registration processes, introducing time limits for procedures and revising business licensing procedures. Dealing with Construction Permits: Liberia reduced the time needed to obtain a building permit by introducing a 30-day statutory time limit and eliminating the requirement for the signature of the minister of public works—while also cutting the building permit fees by half. Getting Credit: Liberia improved access to credit information by creating a nascent public credit registry in its central bank. Trading across Borders: Liberia made trading across borders less costly by reducing fees for customs clearance and port and terminal handling. Page 65   Trading across Borders: Liberia made trading across borders less costly by reducing fees for customs clearance and port and terminal handling. 2018 Doing Business Liberia Page 66