The Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Commission for Social Action on May 3rd at the NACSA head office on Charlotte Street in Freetown to effectively collaborate in the implementation of the Social Safety Net project. The ACC is particularly in charge of the grievance mechanism and within the shortest time, resources have been made available to members of the public by NACSA and the ACC’s role is to make sure that there is transparency and accountability. The ACC will look into the grievances that may come up within communities.
The Commissioner of NACSA, Abubakar Kokofele clearly said that the MOU is about the Social Safety Net that they have been implementing jointly with the ACC since 2014. Prior to now, the implementation of this project had started long ago between the same two parties but had not got a clear MOU signed and as a result, no good product had been yielded. This MOU will clearly show the roles and duties of both parties so that it can get increase quality of services.
The roles of NACSA in the MOU as outlined by Mr. Kokofele are to receive funding from sponsors and to implement the project which will be done by an independent, reliable body and it is going to be done by the ACC. They are also going to hire the services of other institutions like banks and Statistics Sierra Leone to help facilitate the project to better the lives of Sierra Leoneans. “We are also going to incorporate the community stakeholders so that we can get a first experience,” Commissioner Kokofele added. NACSA is very much equal to this task and they have received additional funding of 30 million dollars.
According to the ACC boss, most of the communities are so far away from the central where the distributions are going to be done and they want to make sure this project is successful and the issues that arise out of them are dealt with. The MOU clearly distinguishes the issues, the roles and the equal partnership relationship between the ACC and NACSA and both parties are happy it’s now in black and white. They now know the roles and duties of both parties without interference.
The MOU contains several issues like financial provision as to how the ACC receives support from NACSA, financial management provision as to how to manage the resources, procurement and also the budget approval systems. The MOU also defines the relationship between the two parties in terms of reporting the outcomes of everything. The ACC boss also emphasized that this project is being supported by World Bank highlighting how the MOU is very timely enough to improve the lives of the most deprived communities in the rural parts of the country.
