Vice President urges Ministers to develop partnerships to reduce dependence on national budget
Sierra Leone, Freetown: In his keynote address at the Policy Hearing of the 2022 Budget discussions, Vice President Juldeh Jalloh encouraged Ministers of government to go out and build strategic partnership with development partners and get additional resources into the basket.
He however hoped that, there will be a progressive dependence on the national budget if they develop projects to reduce their dependence on the national budget, thereby moving them from what he described as a “baby sitting approaching” adding that “if not we are going to lose the gains made in the social indicators.”
He advised that they should also be looking at how they can stimulate growth through investment, as such kinds of processes are going to stimulate growth and economic opportunities.
He continued, that as a politician when he moves around the country there is serious pressure from below to build additional classrooms or to get additional quality, but thinks that more expenditure into the education sector must be followed with effective monitoring.
Although they have done a lot of roads, this sector he said has “very mixed results” and even though they have achieved, they must be cautious such that moving forward he thinks they should focus on strategic good networks, not roads for the sake of roads or politics.
“It must have serious economic dividend or serious economic viability, one that can improve trade, one that can improve access to market. We are already talking about a road in Kono district that links Koidu town to Kamiandor” he said. This road he added links closely to the Guinea forestry region and from that region to Conakry is about 1,350 kilometers and from that region to Freetown is less than 600 kilometers.
The construction of such road he said will facilitate trade between Freetown and that part of Guinea and stressed that these are the kinds of road networks the international community, can buy into because they facilitate interstate trade.
As part of the agricultural policy he said they have tried to bring in the private sector for inputs, such as fertilizer and mechanization. This year, he said there are a lot of challenges as people complain of late fertilizers but hopes that will not repeat next year.
“It will be very interesting to see how the hearings will unfold and the thoughts I have shared with you are also the thinking of the President as we discuss these issues on a daily basis as they are his priority lines. I appeal to Ministers to ensure that your expenditure gets us re-elected in 2023” he concluded.
Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Francis Kaikai complemented his colleagues for the implementation of the medium term national development plan. He informed the gathering that they are presently reviewing the medium term plan in collaboration with all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) as it is in the third year of implementation.
The Plan he said faced challenges during the implementation due to COVID-19 and that going forward, they are going to take stock of what has worked, what is working, what will work, and how do they proceed.
“So once we go through the various sectors, will be reviewing this and making sure that we focus on the key priorities, especially the manifesto priorities that we wanted to promote as we lead up to 2023. We hope to engage all of you – have a process at national and local level” he said.
Finance Minister Dennis Vandi, said in his statement that the focus of the financial year 2022 budget will be to consolidate and complete all ongoing priority projects, especially on roads, bridges, hospitals, water and energy.
Similarly, priority will be given to human capital development programmes in education that is the free quality education programme, as he cautioned MDAs from starting any new projects when ongoing projects have not been completed.
“So going forward, from the 2022 budget, my ministry would not issue certificates of approval to MDAs to enter into contracts, go back to what you have been doing, re assess it, and see how you would make provision for those that are not completed, so that it could be funded in FY 2022, instead of creating new ones” he said. “It is therefore, no gainsaying that we have accumulated a lot of arrears in the system. There is a mismatch between contractual obligations and government’s cash flow. We must take preventive steps to forestall this practice and restore credibility to the budget.”
The MDAs budget hearings begins today Monday 20th September, 2021.