By Foday Moriba Conteh
On the 25th November 2020 Parliament concluded debate on the Bill entitled: “The Appropriation Act, 2021” with the theme: “Economic Recovery for Job Creation and Human Capital Development” which was delivered by the Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa in the Chamber of Parliament on Friday 13th November 2020.
The Bill seeks to authorize expenditure from the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the services of Sierra Leone for the year 2021 and other related matters with a sum total of Le9.2 Trillion aimed at entering into force on the 1st January 2021.
Hon. Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, Leader of NGC, in his contribution, commended the Ministry of Finance for compiling the budget for consideration and subsequent approval by Parliament.
Speaking on capacity building, he said the Research Unit and the Parliamentary Budget Office should be strengthened in order to provide effective and efficient materials to MPs to debate from an informed position.
The NGC leader questioned more spending as indicated in the budget amid the devastating impacts of COVID-19 among the economies in the world. “I have not seen fiscal prudence in the budget,” he noted.
He also commended the Government for improving the status of the Paramount Chiefs and advocated for additional budgetary allocations to issues relating to women and children.
Hon. Dr. Umpha S. Gbassay decried the Government for not providing budgetary allocations for persons with disability. He underscored that there is no budgetary head specifically for disability.
The MP said “the problem of persons with disability should be the problem of all”. He called on the Government to concentrate on people with mental health by allocating more resources to salvage their plight.
Hon. Peter Musa Moigua said the budget would serve as an engine for economic growth and commended the Ministry of Finance for presenting a well-prepared budget to Parliament for consideration. Responding, he said the budget made provision for persons with disability.
Contributing, Hon. John Charles Conteh questioned the establishment of the Office of Chief Minister and the huge budgetary allocations made to it. He also accused the Government of contracting huge loans from development partners.
Hon. Moses B. Jorkie, Chairman of the Health Committee in Parliament applauded the Government for the strides taken so far to develop the nation and spoke on the need for the training of more pathologists in the country. He said “the country has one specialist in that field” and heaped enormous praises on Government for the recruitment of more nurses to strengthen the health sector.
Hon. Aaron Aruna Koroma, Chairman of the Local Government Committee in Parliament decried the huge reduction of budgetary allocations to the Councils that are the hub for development in the country. He also referred to Government’s low performance as per indicators in the Country Policy of Institutional Assessment (CPIA) rating for the year 2020 for Sierra Leone.
Hon. Prof. PC Kangbai Joe Macavoray thanked President Bio’s administration for supporting and strengthening chieftaincy administration in the country.
Hon. Saa Emerson Lamina, Leader of C4C said foreign direct investment would go a long way to improving the socio-economic development of the country. He also said that everyone should take responsibility for the poor performance in the recently released WASSCE 2020 results.
He called on Parliament to investigate the mining sector given its downward contributions to GDP from 24 percent to 1.7 percent by inviting officials from the Ministry of Mines and the National Minerals Agency to provide explanations. He praised President Bio’s administration for boosting local authorities with vehicles and motorbikes. He commended the ACC for the fight against corruption and international partners for supporting the budget.
Hon. Mohamed Festus Lansana, Chairman of the Committee on Technical and Higher Education commended the Ministry of Finance for allocating more funds to enhancing tertiary education. He also said that next year, the grants-in-aid would be discontinued and replaced with the students’ loan scheme to be introduced and implemented by Government.
Hon. Lahai Marah described the budget as “a sincere budget” given the failure by the Ministry of Finance in certain areas. He also called for the Ministry of Finance and other MDAs to be investigated for violating the constitution by using funds that were not approved by Parliament; adding that “the budget is incomplete”.
In rounding the debate, the Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Chernor R.M Bah commended the Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr. Patricia Laverley for availing herself to Parliament in respect of championing Government’s plans as indicated in the budget; adding a lot have been said on issues relating to governance. Speaking on the proposed expansion of the airport terminal in Lungi, Leader of the Opposition said that “the challenges associated with the airport does not require a new terminal but access”, adding “the current terminal is being under-utilized”.
On agriculture, he called on Government to enhance value addition to our agricultural products, saying “let us make our farming products more attractive”.
Relating to the education sector, he said as an opposition they are totally against the 6334 system of education and called on Government to see the need to revert to the 6344 system of education in order to avoid massive failure in public examinations such as WASSCE. He also called on the Government to address the issues affecting students of Limkokwing University in the best interest of the country and called on the Finance Minister to undertake a massive investigation of personnel recruited by MDAs that is affecting the wage bill. He also said “the budget on paper is a good one” and promised to support for its realization.
Concluding the debate, the Leader of Government Business, Hon. Mathew Sahr Nyuma was pleased with MPs who spoke on local revenue mobilization by local councils in the country. He stated that Government could only realize implementation of its policies and programmes through effective domestic revenue generation. He praised the Ministry of Finance for achieving 112 indicators out of 159 commitments including the implementation and rolling out “of the quick action economic recovery programme”; and also appreciated the work done on the macro-economic and budgetary performances in the 2020 and the medium term economic outlook.
He emphasized that there is fiscal imbalance in the budget citing a downward trend in the export of minerals and other related products and blamed it mainly on COVID-19. Calling for sanity in the wage bill and motivation for workers, he praised the Government for maintaining fiscal discipline given the reason for donor confidence in the Government. He also said that the budget actually takes care of the vulnerable groups by allocating Le81.1Billion to NaCSA for the implementation of various social protection projects and Government is going to provide Le9.7 Billion as counterpart funding to these projects.
Making clarifications, the Leader said that over Le3 Billion was disbursed by Government as school subsides to schools in Kono District; adding that the only way to make the budget pro-poor is by proper implementation. He thanked his colleague MPs, officials of the Ministry of Finance, the Hon. Speaker and Staff of Parliament, the President and the media for supporting the budget process.
During the three consecutive days of debating the national budget in light of commendations and criticisms, MPs were focused on economic recovery, macro-economic and budgetary performance, mobilization of internal and external resources, medium-term economic outlook, public expenditure management measures, public debt management policy, economic diversification, and budgetary allocations to MDAs.
The 2021 National Budget has now been committed to the Committee of Supply to effectively scrutinize budgetary heads and estimates to ascertain value for money on sectorial basis; and present their findings or recommendations to the plenary in respect of increasing or decreasing budgetary allocations due to funds received and expended in light of the policies and programmes of the Government.
In another development, Solomon Jamiru Esq., Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs with special assignment as Spokesperson of NaCOVERC briefed MPs on the status of COVID-19 in the country.
He said the outbreak is not yet over and called on MPs and other stakeholders in the country to hold on and fight together to save the country. He said the theme of this month is: “Parliamentarians on Health Behavior Change”. Briefing MPs on the status report of COVID-19, he said that the coronavirus is in a downward trend and praised all and sundry in the fight to beat back COVID-19. He emphasized on the use of face masks and the regular washing of hands, which he described as “the best and safest ways to prevent one from catching or spreading coronavirus.
MPs from both sides of the political aisle commended the Deputy Minister and his Team for a job well done in an effort to combat the coronavirus and promised to support him and his team in adherence to the preventive protocols of COVID-19.
