Commentary

The people say they are tired with hearing President Bio and his men and women constantly ringing into their ears that the Government inherited a broken economy. As far as the people are concerned, President Bio told them during the campaign that he is up to the task of fixing the problem, so that is all what they want to hear and what they look forward to – Period.
As it is, President Bio has the daunting task of inducing sustainable development and implanting into the society sustainable peace: Two sides of the same coin.
With more than half of the country’s population living on less than USD2 a day, sustainable development is key to sustaining peace and vice versa.
Traditionally, peace has been approached in sequential and separate steps: creating a new governing system; and investing in economic, social and environmental development.
But peace-building and development are symbiotic, like getting fit: you would not stop smoking for a month, exercise the next month, then eat well the following month – you would work on all together.
This is why the 2030 Agenda that contains the SDGs and the Resolutions on the UN’s peace-building architecture call for the dissolution of silos and the advancement of a strongly coherent and integrated approach, recognizing that development, peace and security, and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing.
The radical heart of the SDGs is their promise to leave no one behind and to reach the furthest behind first. This is a game-changing commitment to the poorest, most vulnerable people.
Old development agendas might focus on boosting a narrow idea of economic growth, industrialization or social services. Alone, none of these achievements leads to welfare, sustainable economic transformation or sufficient support to a peace process.
They could even worsen tensions in a country if growth is not inclusive, services are captured by an elite or development generates unbalances between regions.
A rising tide only lifts all boats if everyone has a boat. Sustaining peace and sustainable development are two sides of the same coin. For any country to reach a lasting peace, the journey must always be led by its own people.
Peace is not simply a benchmark to achieve. It requires ongoing, dynamic participation from the entire society in its governance and economy to ensure that conflicts don’t escalate into violence. That is why a country’s development must be inclusive and sustainable; it gives everyone a stake in a shared future.
We are living in a country that is increasingly divided. Peace, stability, human rights and effective governance based on the rule of law are important conduits for sustainable development.
High levels of economic and social insecurity have a destructive impact on a country’s development, affecting economic growth and often resulting in long standing grievances among communities that can last for generations. Sexual violence, crime, exploitation are also prevalent where there is conflict or no rule of law. The government must take proactive measures to protect those who are most at risk.
As such, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to significantly reduce all forms of violence, and work with governments and communities to find lasting solutions to conflict and insecurity. Strengthening the rule of law and promoting human rights is key to this process.
Promoting peace and justice is one of 17 Global Goals that make up the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. An integrated approach is crucial for progress across the multiple goals.
The 2030 Agenda requires a greater involvement among governments, civil society, private sector and international organizations to build more peaceful and inclusive just societies. Peace also brings new business opportunities by increasing stability, improving economic prospects and by building social and economic fabric in a community.
The above, principally, more than anything else should be what informs and drives the New Direction Government as it endeavours to create a new humanitarian nation standing on strong prosperous foundations of ideological, economic and cultural independence.

At least 2,000 Sierra Leonean youths facing chronic unemployment or underemployment will receive market-driven vocational training over the next three years under a project funded by the Government of Japan.

“IOM has a long-standing experience addressing issues related to youth, migration and employment,” said Sanusi Savage, Head of the IOM Office in Sierra Leone. “We hope that through this new initiative, we can unlock the entrepreneurship potential of Sierra Leonean youths and help them contribute to the development of the country.”
More than 60 per cent of Sierra Leonean youths are unemployed or underemployed. The West African country has been slowly recovering from the devastation caused by an 11-year civil war (1991 – 2002) and the recent Ebola crisis (2013 – 2016), which has led to massive rural-urban mobility, especially among young people.
This population growth in urban areas has impacted infrastructure and essential service delivery, including housing, schools, jobs, water, health, electricity, sanitation, etc.
Funded by the Government of Japan, Reducing the Risk of Irregular Migration through Employment Promotion and Entrepreneurship Support for the Youth will be implemented over three years from 2019 to 2022.
The new project will contribute to youth and women’s empowerment through vocational and entrepreneurship skills training. A partnership will be developed with Sierra Tropical, a Sierra Leone-based juice manufacturing company, to provide internships and on-the-job training to young people and women across the country.
Two hundred and forty youths will also receive entrepreneurship trainings, business start-up kits, and long-term mentoring from industry professionals to ensure the sustainability of their ventures.
Mohamed Orman Bangura, Minister of Youth Affairs for Sierra Leone, said this new project will support the country’s National Development Plan: “[The project] will help provide young people with the skills in areas relevant for the job market, reduce rural-urban and irregular migration and contribute to economic growth and development,” he explained.
Since 2017, more than 950 vulnerable Sierra Leoneans have returned home with IOM’s assistance. The project will also develop activities to raise awareness on the risks and dangers of irregular migration and human trafficking.
“Over the years, the Government of Japan has been very committed in providing support to Sierra Leone, and we are very happy also to support this wonderful project,” added Tsutomu Himeno, Japan’s Ambassador to Sierra Leone.

For more information, please contact IOM Sierra Leone:
Alhaji Sanusi Tejan Savage, Email: ssavage@iom.int
Kunikazu Akao, Email: kakao@iom.int

Members of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Information and Communications, Chaired by the Deputy Leader of Government Business, Hon.Mathew Nyuma, in engagement with senior officials of the Ministry of information was presented with the status report of the said ministry in a bid to chart the way forward on how to combat cyber crime.
Hon. Mathew Nyuma said there were lots of problems and complaints made by citizens bordering on the telecommunication companies, which has to do with drop calls and poor network among other issues, adding that the Committee has the responsibility to listen to the cry of the people they are representing and that they want to know what step has been taken by the Ministry and NATCOM to ensure that they combat the situation.
Hon. Nyuma said if there are any challenges, the Ministry should bring it to them, so that they will help them to achieve their goal, adding that the President is very keen to know about the status of the ICT and the monies given for ICT training, stressing that if there are no responses, the committee will bring in the ACC for further investigations.
Hon. Mathew Nyuma expressed dissatisfaction on the departments and agencies under the supervision of the ministry, adding that drop calls have become very alarming and they want to know about the gateway and what are the plans to combat sim box fraud, noting that the Committee will go on an oversight tour to get first-hand information.
On his part, Hon. Ibrahim Ben Kargbo said the Committee is very much interested to know the way forward for the Fiber Optic Cable and that a lot of money has been put in by the World Bank to land that cable, adding that the ministry has to work tirelessly to ensure that SALPOST and Sierratel are maintained and deliver the utmost service to the nation in comparism with other telecom companies.
Responding to the issues raised by committee members, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry said that they are ready and willing to work to ensure that cyber-crime becomes a thing of the past, adding that it is the advancement of technology that has resulted in the drop of SALPOST, but as a responsible ministry, they are working tirelessly to ensure they revamp both institutions because it is owned by the country. He concluded that the ministry will continue to work closely with the committee to ensure that they succeed in the New Direction and on the issue of drop calls; they will engage NATCOM, as they are the regulatory body for the mobile operators.

On Friday, 5th April,2019 Members of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Trade and Industry headed by Hon. Veronica K. Sesay, engaged the Corporate Affairs Commission and the Corporate Department on oversight in a bid to get a first-hand information on their activities.
Giving her submission, Hon. Veronica K. Sesay said the Committee is not here to witch- hunt any official of the CAC, but to ensure that the right things are done. She maintained that as a legislative organ of Government, they want to see the status report of the Commission and also want to know how many companies have been registered under the CAC and their successes and challenges.
She also threw light on the announced visit members of the Committee paid to the two Commissions of Government after the approval of five Human Rights Commissioners in the Well of Parliament.
Hon. Sesay underscored the point that as the people’s representatives, their mandate is to ensure business should not be as usual and that with the New Direction, they want to see the country move forward.
Hon. Veronica Sesay reiterated the point that as a responsible Government, they want to see the Commission move to another level so as to benefit the lives of the citizenry, while echoing the point as an overseer of the Ministry of Trade, they have the mandate to oversee activities of all agencies under the Ministry, as that is what they are doing presently.

Exactly a year ago, President Julius Maada Bio took office after a nail-biting Presidential election which saw his SLPP party winning State House, but failed to gain control of the country’s parliament.
Twelve months on, there has been very little shift in general public opinion, especially regarding the economy, poverty and unemployment, despite big changes in the fight against corruption and the introduction of free education for all primary and secondary school children.
Whilst President Bio and his communications team at State House are quick to point at the government’s disciplined approach in managing government’s finances and budgets through the single treasury spending and tracking system, the robust and timely collection of taxes, and austerity measures introduced almost twelve months ago across government departments, one thing is clear – economic hardship is biting very hard in Sierra Leone.

There is very little money circulating in the economy. Inflation – the cost of goods and services, has risen by 18% since taking office twelve months ago. The country’s currency – the Leone has lost about 15% of its value since April 2018.
Unemployment – a key performance measure of government’s success n in managing the economy, remains stubbornly high at over 70%.
The economy is struggling to get out of recession. Investors are holding on to their cash – waiting to see what steps the government takes in restructuring the economy, improve the justice system and overall business climate.
Whilst there is general feeling that impunity and abuse of office – fuelled by so called ‘orders from above’ may not be as rampant as in the previous Koroma led government, lawlessness in Sierra Leone remains Sierra Leone’s most protracted social and economic ill.
But turning back to the economy, after twelve months without the Koroma led APC in power, how much have things improved?
If improvements are to be judged by changes in levels of unemployment, inflation trends, economic growth, exchange rates, and interest rates, then certainly there is very little to write home about, as Sierra Leoneans continue to suffer growing economic hardship.
But these problems were not created by the SLPP government, though expected to be fixed by them.
When the APC government was kicked out of office a year ago, Sierra Leone’s economy was already on serious life support. And that was the reason the APC lost power to the SLPP.
Months before general and presidential elections, the IMF and other international partners suspended their funding agreements with president Koroma, as ministers and senior government officials not only recklessly abandoned their offices to campaign to prolong their stay in office, but used scarce public funds to pay for electioneering. Corruption became rampant.
As government borrowing rose, so did money supply became scarce, with commercial banks restricting customers’ withdrawal of cash from their personal accounts. But ministers and senior public officials were withdrawing thousands of dollars on a daily basis.
Interests rates on personal and business borrowing became unaffordable, as commercial banks ran out of cash. Business expansion suffered, jobs were not created, and poverty worsened.
The government’s own bank – the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, became piggy bank for those in power. Loans and overdrafts were granted to ministers and senior state officials without any intention of paying back.
As the economy contracted and recession bites hard, unemployment and poverty grew. The mining sector which accounted for almost 40% of the economy went into severe shock. Production at Sierra Rutile and the country’s iron ore mining plants contracted.
China’s Shandong iron ore mining company pulled out of Sierra Leone just months before elections last year. Iron ore mining is yet to make any appreciable recovery.
There is no magic wand that can be waved at the economic hardship that is biting in Sierra Leone today. Government can throw money at the problem – if it can find the money, by increasing the minimum wage, employ more people to work in the public sector, increase pensioners income, and spend more on public service delivery. But such a strategy can only make things worse.
Government cannot spend its way out of economic mess and growing poverty. The only viable solution, though far from being a quick fix – is job creation. And this is perhaps where the Bio led government is lacking innovation, expertise and clear direction.
Sierra Leone is still not exporting enough high value added goods to earn its way out of poverty.
Prioritising education is great. But an educated society is only good for the economy when a country can create or attract high quality jobs, for which people can be paid good salaries to take home to their families.

A few months ago, president Bio chaired his second ministerial and heads of public service retreat, where he not only read the Riot Act for ministers and senior civil servants to buckle up, he also announced that ministers will be subject to performance contract management reviews, under the direction of the Chief Minister – professor Francis.
What has become of the ministerial performance contract reviews?
Notwithstanding the fact that twelve months in power is not long enough to expect big changes in Sierra Leone, but the people of Sierra Leone are suffering economically, as poverty grows. They are fast becoming impatient.
Twelve months is long enough to see whether ministers in the Bio government are best suited for the positions they are currently occupying, and most importantly, whether they can be expected to make any improvement. Their probationary period is long overdue.
There must now be a cabinet reshuffle, if the president is to keep hope alive.

Of the various ills the economy can face, inflation is the worst for society as a whole, and yet the easiest for individuals to deal with successfully. The strategies for dealing with inflation are pretty straightforward. In practice, of course, it isn’t so simple.
When inflation is bad, prices go up every month (maybe every week), but wages and salaries generally only go up once a year. People are always feeling like they’re playing catch up.
Inflation works its harm on the economy in several different ways. None of them are really due to the inflation itself, which is why economists always insist on pointing out that mere inflation does little harm. The harm is done, though. It’s just one step removed.
We can think about the damage done when taxes are owed on the illusory profits on transactions that were break-even or worse. This drains money out of the economy at every transaction. The government can mitigate this harm in several different ways (cutting tax rates being the easiest, but also through any of a large variety of tax indexing or tax rebate schemes, special allowances, deductions, credits, etc.)
Another way that inflation hurts the economy is that governments are highly prone to try to attack the symptom of inflation (rising prices) rather than the cause (money becoming less valuable). The usual tactics are price controls, wage controls, and various kinds of tax policies designed to punish wage and price increases (or reward companies that “hold the line” on prices and wages). These all harm the economy, because the price changes are just symptoms. All price ceilings do is produce shortages, because the market doesn’t stop functioning just because the government creates a rule.
The third big way that inflation harms the economy is that it creates uncertainty. The “positive” effects of inflation (increasing business activity) only come when inflation is higher than expected, so inflation rates tend to keep rising until they get so high that the negative effects become unbearable, at which point inflation gets ground out of the economy through a recession. Since no one knows just when that recession is coming or how bad it will be, people tend to be more cautious. The result is slower growth, less long-term thinking, and less long-term investment.
Governments (through the central bank) cause inflation, and governments can end it anytime they want, by ensuring that the money supply doesn’t grow faster than the economy. But, of course, it’s not that easy.
First, nobody knows how big either the money supply or the economy actually is, and the tools for controlling it are blunt instruments. There are statistics that give people a clue about how big each was as of a few months ago, but that’s only a partial indication and it’s already out of date. Back in the 1970s economists liked to use the analogy of driving a car while looking in the rear-view mirror by alternately stomping on the accelerator and then on the brake.
Second, if the money supply has already outstripped the growth in the economy (which it has, for many years now), then the effects will inevitably work their way through the economy, producing however much inflation is necessary to bring things back into balance, no matter what the central bank does now.
Still, all periods of higher inflation end. Some end with the inflation rate coming back down to the rate where it doesn’t do much harm to the economy (basically, to where it’s small enough that things like changes in relative prices and changes in standards of living are more important than inflation, and the inflation component just vanishes in the noise of the economy). Others end with hyperinflation making the money worthless, at which point it is replaced with something else.
Based on the experience of the current situation, I don’t think the hyperinflation scenario is likely. Once the central bank moves to stop inflation in a serious way you need to turn around the strategies you used for surviving it and instead prepare for a recession.

His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio has visited the Network for Children in Need Interim Care Centre, a caregiving home for orphans, neglected and abandoned children at Allen Town, east of Freetown.

During the visit, Proprietor of the Home, Madam Inna Maria Kamara, said she was thankful to the President for visiting the home, saying that that was an indication of the importance he placed on people who look after children, the sick, elderly, or disabled persons. She said the home had faced many challenges, particularly in providing proper housing for the kids and, therefore, called on the government to provide the necessary support needed to run the home.

Minister of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs, Madam Baindu Dassama, said vulnerable children were the victims of abuse and neglect. She said her ministry was working to provide psychosocial support for orphanages across the country. She commended the centre for their usual acceptance of orphans the ministry had sent to the home.

In his comment, President Bio expressed appreciation to the management of the home for their support to the kids and thanked the community for their support to the orphanage. He said it was a responsibility of the government to ensure that the kids get proper care. He said his presence at the home was an indication of his recognition and acknowledgment of the good work the home was doing to provide care for the vulnerable in society.

“Every child is important to this government. We are here to show you all that we love and value you. We want to let you know that we recognise what you do and we are ready to support you. We know the challenges you face but we want you all to know that there is a brighter future ahead of you. I encourage you all to focus on your studies as with education you can achieve your full potentials,” he said.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has on 4th April, 2019, indicted STEPHEN YAYAH MANSARAY, Master and Registrar of the High Court of Sierra Leone, and of No. 11 Belair Park, Freetown; ADELE FAYA, Account Clerk of the Judiciary of Sierra Leone, and of 118 Bai Bureh Road Grassfield, Freetown; ISATU ULAIKATU KIAMP KAMARA, Revenue Officer of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), and of 5 Stone Seat Drive Allen Town, Freetown; and ABUBAKARR BANGURA, Revenue Officer-NRA, and of 67 Freetown Road Lumley, Freetown, on TWO (2) COUNTS each, of Conspiracy to Commit a Corruption Offence contrary to Section 128(1), and Misappropriation of Public Revenue, contrary to Section 36 (1) of the Anti-Corruption Act No.12 of 2008.

According to the particulars of offence, STEPHEN YAYAH MANSARAY, ADELE FAYA, ISATU ULAIKATU KIAMP KAMARA, and ABUBAKARR BANGURA, between the 12th and 20th March 2019, at Freetown, misappropriated the sum of Sixty Million Leones (Le 60,000,000.00) being revenue due the National Revenue Authority as fines paid by Mr. Emmanuel Ekundayo Constant Shears-Moses in respect of sentence in the High Court of Sierra Leone.

The four (4) indicted persons are expected to make their first appearance at the High Court of Sierra Leone Holden in Freetown on 9th April, 2019.

The Commission wishes to reassure the public of its commitment to protecting government revenue at all times.