By Saio Marrah
BioMeter, an annual report published by the Institute For Governance Reform (IGR), that reviews the manifesto promises of President Julius Maada Bio from 2018-2023, has indicated that there’s poor performance in the area of governance.
A report entitled “Did we get what we voted for” published on Friday 28th April 2023, aims at tracking progress on President Bio’s 536 Campaign Promises made in 2018.
The Executive Director of IGR, Andrew Lavalie, at the African Young Voices Sunday television programme said “Governance is the worrying part of the report” and noted that President Bio made 70 campaign promises on governance upon which he said about 40% of promises were met.
He referred to Police reform, National Cohesion as all being part of governance.
However, he was rated 94% in Housing and Country Planning, 84% in Education and 76% in Tourism.
Lavalie urged the country’s two main political parties, the All People’s Congress (APC) Party and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to change the style of governance in the country or “we will still be fighting in moving this country forward”.
He called on them to ensure they improve to at least 70 to 80% before the next report in the next administration saying “To me is the biggest issue for conversation in terms of moving Sierra Leone forward”.
He said the economy “has never been good for Sierra Leoneans,” but acknowledged that the BioMeter rated the economy at 67%, which means substantial action has been taken to realise the promise, though not fully achieved. Lavalie noted that the 2018 and 2019 Bio meter reports indicated that the economy was doing well as it was being rated number one.
The IGR boss noted that the report was not a survey nor a perception report, but factuality. He said during the course of gathering the data for the report, they met officials in Ministries, Department, and Agencies (MDAs), who were obliged to show ways of verifying claims of achievements in certain sectors.
For instance, he said the 2018 manifesto said all district headquarters should have electricity by the end of the five-year term so they factually cross-checked if that has been done.
One of the television show panelists, Abdul Kargbo, a former member of parliament representing the APC, challenged the rating of the economy which he said is not reflective of the citizens, as according to him, prices of commodities are rapidly increasing day by day and, while inflation keeps rising. He said in 2018, he exchanged 100,000 Leones for 150,000 Guinean Francs but said it is now the reverse.
Kargbo alleged that there were 83 manifesto promises on the economy, but only 25 were achieved while pointing out that revenue mobilization and “pet” among others were never achieved.
Kargbo also challenged most of the ratings in the report.
According to him, there is no free education in the country, but free fees.
But another Former Member of Parliament, Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, representing the government, also questioned the report saying it was underrated.
He said the 79% achievement of the overall manifesto promises, should have been between 85 to 90%.
Tawa blamed the underperforming economy on external factors like the COVID-19 pandemic but boasted that before that time, his government was doing extremely well.
He also noted that the country has suffered a drop in foreign currency because most of the mining companies that bring in forex had left the country.
The MP also talked about education, as being one of the primary focuses of the government. He said when the president came in six months he allocated 22% of the country’s budget to education and that about two million people are now enjoying that.
He talked about how the last government failed to build an airport, but that this government has achieved it.
The report indicated 35.5% of promises were completely fulfilled, 20% were significant in progress to attain promise, 18.4% of limited progress made toward promises, and 21. % for no action on promises.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (03/05/23)
