By Foday Moriba Conteh
According to Economist Prince Macauley the score he gave the Ministry of Basic Education is a justifiable reason why the then Minister, Alpha Timbo, who was there by then has now been relieved from his position. It could be recalled that few months ago, the Economist came up with a score card concerning various Government Ministries. He took months, looking at certain parameters, to arrive at the conclusion he made about each Ministry.
Noted among the mediocre Ministries was the Ministry of Basic Education where Alpha Timbo was the then Minister and Economist Macauley then gave it a paltry 55%.
During that period of assessment, various analysts wondered why giving it such a pass mark considering the fact that the Free Quality Education simply because they believe much has not been accomplished in terms of implementing the initiative.
As some questioned the integrity of the score card itself ,however, Mr Macauley stood his ground making it categorically plain, during several interviews he granted the Press, that he did his research well.
A school of thought has established that recent events and developments have clearly vindicated Mr Macauley.
Among the areas researched by Mr Macauley was the disbursement of free text books and free school meals meant for school going kids in certain parts of the country. Mr Macauley found out that there were certain things wrong with regards doing so.
Now the Anti -Corruption Commission boss, Ben Kaifala Esq, has called into question the way the distribution of the said items were done by some officials of the Ministry of Basic Education and the New Direction Government headed by HE President Bio. Government has now relieved the then Minister and his deputy as well as the Permanent Secretary and other Ministry staff of their duties as they are being investigated by the ACC.
Speaking to this Press, Mr Macauley said that he will soon be coming out with an Integrity Scorecard on the Ministry of Lands where he has done a thorough research on the activities of certain rogue surveyors. He said he envisages looking into the activities of the whole Lands Ministry itself especially at this point in time when many citizens are feeling disadvantaged by the actions of the Minister, Dr Sandy.
Mr Macauley will be delving deeply into the Energy Ministry and will be asking questions as to why the city is still in pitch darkness despite efforts said to be made by Government to address the problems related to the electricity sector and try to examine why tariffs are high.
