After receiving the Transition Team’s report from the vice president yesterday at State House, President Bai Koroma pledged that his government would follow all the report’s recommendations to the letter.
He said anything that was contained in the report that was of any interest to the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) would be forwarded to it.
“The ACC would have a very busy Christmas,” said the President who also pointed out that, “I will set up the machinery in State House that will ensure that we follow this report to the fullest and I will also personally invite the ACC boss and personally hand over the report to him for his thorough examination and for him to take up any matter that is of interest to him.”
President Koroma said they were not going to spend time and money on commissions of enquiry, but that was not to say ministers would not give account of their stewardship to the fullest.
The President promised that they were going to ensure that as a government they distance themselves from the ACC activities.
The report, which was presented by vice president Sam Sumana, is an 83- page executive summary along with a total of 17,565 pages of sector reports which constitute the entire report of the Transition Team.
The vice president, during his presentation, said it was shocking to note the general absence of clear leadership and direction and financial and moral accountability in some of the ministries especially that of Youth and Sports and Tourism.
The Veep said the Transition Team which started operations on September 17 was to assess the current state of government’s institutions in terms of policy, programmes and resources, take stock of the present situation in the machinery of government including assets and liabilities, measures and actions awaiting implementation and make recommendations on possible directions and follow-up action points.
Mr Sam Sumana reported that the Transition Team recognized that there were general systemic inadequacies in the general management of most ministries and agencies, commissions or statutory corporations which they were supposed to supervise.
The vice president pointed out that there also appeared to be a lack of cohesiveness among different among different sections in the ministries but more so between the administration and professional wings.
Veep Sam Sumana noted that in order to ensure successful implementation of the recommendations in the report, an effective coordination mechanism was required to support the newly appointed ministers.