“I want to assure you that once the enabling legislative environment is created the President will publicly declare his assets and liabilities,” said the Minister of Information and Communication, Mohamed Raman Swarray.
The Minister was responding to questions raised on the President’s stance on fighting corruption at the launch of an accountability tool called the Bio-Meter at the British Council hall, on 3 July 2018.
“He is committed to combatting it and that is why he appointed someone that can take up these changes. He has not been able to publish his assets and liabilities for the simple reason that the Act has not been reviewed.”
In the SLPP Manifesto, they promised to “Review within the first 100 days the ACC Act to include the publication of all assets declaration forms of all public officials before they take office and upon leaving office.”
Coupled with the delay in the appointment of a new Commissioner was also said to have led to the late review of the said Act, “that will be done and he will lead by example and the rest of us will follow, and I want to urge the outgone government to respect the law by declaring their exit asset,” said Minister Swarray.
The accountability tool was developed by Sensi Tech Hub and Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) with support from OSIWA and CAFORD.
He appreciated the healthy social dialogue that is building amongst the civil societies, media and government and promised that by the next rating of government’s promises they will score above the 64% and will overwhelm the scoreboard with green colours.
Speaking on the other key issues that affected their rating, he said that national cohesion is a key priority for the President as he doesn’t want to rule on tribal lines. He stated that people are using tribal sentiments to blackmail the government instead of holding them based on their manifesto commitments.
“We are here today to be part of a system that will be tracking our commitments as the President is taking his time to align competent human resource skills with the aspirations and commitment of this government. I wish to use this opportunity to reinforce that we will not be blackmailed as we are committed to deliver a Sierra Leone for everyone.”
He went further to agree with the developers that there is a need for a Transition Act, and notified them that they should wait and see what recommendation (s) will come out of the Transition report.
In his presentation of Bio-Meter content and product, IGR ‘s Andrew Lavalie spoke on the 14 indicators that they looked at under four key sectors in the SLPP’s manifesto, which are economy, human development, infrastructure and governance.
Lavalie said they cannot create an accountability platform for the President outside the New Direction agenda. And based on their rating the government has a passing mark of 9 as against 14 indicators. These indicators were graded as green (very good), yellow (doing well or not there yet), amber (not quite there) and red (below expectation).
Under economy they looked at five indicators, revenue mobilisation, expenditure management, debt reduction and exchange rate.
The government scored green on revenue mobilisation and expenditure management. The revenue he said have increased revenue from Le6.5 billion to Le20 billion a day, full implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA), cutting down expenditure on travels and commitment to split MoFED.
The debt reduction, exchange rate and forest reserves, Lavalie said are marked red because the government is yet to get a timeline on reducing the debt ceiling. “We have an unwarranted debt such as the toll road which was accrued by the previous administration and it is hanging over Sierra Leone and we want the government to take action on that,” Lavalie said.
On the exchange rate, he said they committed to maintain single digit on inflation and increase the purchasing power, “but with the Finance Act that you inherited that will pose a challenge and it needs to be reversed. The exchange rate is really eating into the people’s livelihood,” he said.
Furthermore, on marine resources and corruption they gave both an amber score for the reduction of illegal fishing they gave an amber score and urged that government to make public some of the contracts with the Chinese and that clear rules needs to be stated. “We note that the President has done very well in declaring his asset but when you look at the manifesto he said it will be public.”
Education is doing very well and they seem to be translating that into concrete action. “One thing we are concerned about the desire for quantity should not override should not override the desire for quality.”
Health and urban sanitisation is in yellow as government is yet to fulfil its commitment of 15% of its budget to health, as they are aware that government has not been resource funded, also the cleaning needs to be fully devolved to the local councils “there is so much resources that do not go down and translate into service delivery.”
They suggested to government for the enactment of a Transition Act under national cohesion which was marked yellow. Lavalie affirmed that there is so much uncertainties when government changes as all of these creates tension when there is transition, “so the issues around national cohesion is key especially around the issue of sacking” he said.
“If there is any other colour than green we would have given it to the press freedom and open government indicator, as information are being given out as they are made. Electricity is in green as well with the revised contract agreement with the Karpowership.”
ZJ/3/7/18
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque
Wednesday July 04, 2018.
ADVERTISEMENT