By Foday Moriba Conteh
In order to remind Government of its obligation as per the 2016 Public Financial Management Act and its Regulations to publish certain information, the Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), with support from Christian Aid under the Irish Aid Programme Grant, has on Thursday 27th August, 2020 launched their scorecard on selected Mandatory Information Disclosure as per the 2016 Public Financial Management (PFM) Act and its Regulations as well as the Simplified Revenue Provisions in the 2020 Budget Speech. The launching ceremony took place at the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ) Hall on Campbell Street in Freetown.
Revealing the purpose of these two documents, Head of Programme and Policy of Christian Aid, Mattia Demoh said the 2016 Public Financial Management Act and its Regulations give for mandatory disclosure of certain information, adding that it against that backdrop that the Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) with support from Christian Aid under the Irish Aid Programme Grant regularly do follow up with relevant Ministries on these vital provisions as a role to monitor how the Government and line institutions are complying with such for the first six months of 2020, which has been analyzed to produce the Reports.
He said that these Reports will enhance a good tax regime and support businesses to be able to grow as well as investments so that investors will be attracted to invest in the country.
He said that the reports will serve as a point of engagement between businesses and Government and the ongoing dialogue that should happen to ensure that the country will continue to improve its business regulations so that businesses can strive and allow more people to make investments.
He ended by stating in overall that these two reports will contribute to the conversation that should be happening in different quarters thereby making the Government more transparent and accountable.
In his presentation, Coordinator of Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), Abu Bakarr Kamara, said the scorecard is geared towards the 2016 Public Financial Management Act and its Regulations and it gives for mandatory disclosure of certain information, and underscored that no external actor has ever monitored the implementation of these disclosure provisions in the Act and its Regulations.
He further revealed that it is also to remind Government of its obligations as per the 2016 Public Financial Management Act and its Regulations to publish certain information on their websites.
He said the report looked at documents produced and published, documents produced but not published and documents not produced at all, adding that the second aspect looked at whether documents/information produced were published on time as stated in the 2016 PFM Act and 2018 Regulations.
He disclosed that the overall findings revealed that 45 percent of information was published, 22 percent was not published and 33 percent was produced but not published.
Assistant Director, Revenue & Tax Policy at the Ministry of Finance, Abu Bakarr Conteh expressed gratitude to Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) and Christian Aid for putting these two report together which he labeled as a laudable venture.
He said the Ministry of Finance has had series of collaboration with Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) and that they have been very helpful to them as a Ministry.
Abu Bakarr Conteh said these reports concisely remind Government of its obligations as per the 2016 Public Financial Management Act and its Regulations to publish certain information as a step they have to reckon with as a Ministry.
He said they are very gratified for the partnership with these two organizations in the past especially in the aspect of revenue mobilization hoping that the partnership between will continue, as for them at the Ministry of Finance revenue mobilization is at the heart of their functions.
Ag. Director Monitoring, Research and Policy at the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Dr. Sheku Kamara, also applauded these two institutions for putting these reports together, adding that taxation is a very important aspect in the country as taxation enables the country to uphold development.
He added that one important tool that aids revenue collection is the provisions of the law which show how revenue should be maintained and from whom revenue must be collected from.
He said they are very happy that the Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) and its partners have placed so much efforts in simplifying revenue provisions in the 2020 budget speech and also that of the Finance Act of 2020, which he said he strongly believes that with knowledge of these provisions such will help the NRA in the area of increasing their revenue mobilization drive in the country.
