By Amin Kef Sesay
Allegations and counter-allegations abound at the Freetown City Council between the Mayor and the Councilors on the one hand, and the Chief Administrator on the other which in the process has greatly affected the running of FCC.
The opposition APC Council has over the last three years been at daggers drawn with their Chief Administrator, Festus Kallay, whom they accused of being defiant and disrespectful to authority. The Councilors also accuse the CA of stifling the work of Council by refusing to sign cheques and documents related to development projects undertaken by Council. Few weeks ago, the councilors wrote a letter addressed to the Minister of Local Government and international stakeholders titled:
REQUEST FOR YOUR IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION
We bring you warm felicitations and write to ask for your immediate intervention on the below subject matter, with a view to ameliorating a deteriorating situation.
Sir, you may have noticed the news and information being shared in the local media about ongoing tensions within the Freetown City Council. We, the undersigned Councilors would like to formally bring to your attention that the actions of Chief Administrator of the Council has been stifling, derailing and unnecessarily impeding development and progress for the municipality.
Since we took up office as elected leaders of the municipality, the Chief Administrator, with acquiescence from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has been acting in ways that seek to frustrate, malign and deter our efforts to serve our constituents diligently and efficiently.
As Councilors, we strongly believe in the rule of law and due process. As such, we wrote to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, as the supervising Ministry, requesting them to intervene by transferring the belligerent Chief Administrator to another department or agency.
This request is also in line with our functions as provided for by the Local Government Act 2004 (as amended). We are however saddened to inform you, that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development serving as the supervisory Ministry has deliberately refused to act on our request. In fact, their response to our letter suggests support for the Chief Administrator’s insubordination and unprofessional behavior.
We are therefore constrained in the options available to us, to address this stalemate. We no longer have confidence in working with the Chief Administrator. We cannot continue to entrust the administrative functions to an individual who has repeatedly demonstrated acts of sabotage, gross misconduct and who by all intent and purpose is determined to undermine the development achievements we are making as elected representatives of voters in the city.
It is against this backdrop that we feel compelled to ask for your immediate intervention as one of our country’s international development partners and moral guarantors, in a bid to avoid any further rancor between the political and administrative wings of the institution. We have also attached, for your ease of reference, our complaints and request to the Minister of Local Government.
We thank you in advance for your anticipated intervention and hope that your involvement into this matter will help resolve it for the good of Freetown and its residents.
Yours in service, Freetown City Council, Councilors.” (END).
A petition letter signed by over forty Councilors dated 25th August 2021, gave the Local Government Ministry a 21-day ultimatum for the CA to be transferred or embark on a peaceful protest involving electorates from the different Wards they represent in Council.
A defiant Mr. Kallay calling the allegations against him unfounded maintained that his duty is to ensure that processes and procedures are followed.
“I cannot sign cheques without due process and for expenditure that is not budgeted for such as the procurement of tractors that did go through the procurement process,” he said, adding that there were more important issues the Councilors should address, rather than asking for his transfer.
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Tamba Lamina, has said that he had put together a team of 8 people to find out what the problems are at the Council and report in three weeks’ time.
Meanwhile, what is important to know is that over one million citizens have been deprived of services due them because of the stalemate between the CA and the Mayor and her Councilors.
