By Mabinty M. Kamara
Civil society organisations working in the extractive sector have presented to the mines minister their inputs and observations about the draft Mines and Minerals Development Bill due to be laid before parliament.
According to the Natural Resource Rights and Economic Justice Network Sierra Leone (NaRGEJ), they did so in response to a call for their inputs and contributions to the draft legislation made by the minister, Timothy Kabba.
Their inputs, according to the Network Lead, Abu Brima, were informed by a number of factors, one of which is the commitment made by President Julius Maada Bio to ensure efficient political and economic management of the state and the natural resources for the benefit of the people, and the fact that Sierra Leone is a member of the Africa Union which brought up the Africa Mining Vision which is the blueprint for the extractive sector on the continent.
He added that the Africa Mining Vision was very clear on issues such as communities and state economic benefits, environmental protection, gender and conflict sensitivity, equality, diversification linkages and value addition. Not forgetting the commitment of the state to other international and regional treaties and protocols and the Sierra Leone Minerals Policy.
“These are the ones that are supposed to inform whatever law we are supposed to produce. Our general comments, therefore, stemming from these premises are to see the new law being user-friendly, to capture the major changes that are expected to boost Sierra Leone’s mineral sector competitiveness, that is inconsistent with international best practices and serves as a legal framework to maximizing benefits from the sector which will benefit all stakeholders; the community, the state and the investors,” he said.
He went on that the new Act was expected “to provide for sustainable artisanal mining practices that address the legacy effects of artisanal mining as well as create opportunities for alternative livelihoods for artisanal mining including business development, agriculture, and local content promotion. These we find difficult to ascertain in the draft Bill.”
The group believes that the draft bill presents a complete shift of authority and power to the Director General at the National Minerals Agency from other government officials and institutions within the MMMR authorised under the existing mining law.
The group was also said to have observed the elimination of “Artisanal Mining License” contrary to the provisions of the Sierra Leone Minerals Policy (Nov. 2018) and Artisanal Mining Policy for Sierra Leone (Nov. 2018) category and expanded categories of small-scale licenses (A, B, C).
They also spoke of the introduction of a series of changes which they say are not well-defined and are “somewhat cosmetic” and do not necessarily introduce expected sociocultural, and accountable political governance improvements.
In his response to the observations presented before him, Minister Kabba applauded the Network for their timely reviews and commentaries on the draft bill for a competitive, progressive and well balanced final Mines and Minerals Development Act.
“These concerns expressed are not new; since we started working on the bill. I think we must pay sincere attention to them we want to have a progressive Act” Kabbah said.
He went on: “I May not authoritatively now speak to each and every one of these points you have highlighted as they are still subject to other discussions with the review team; and as much as your team has much experience drawing from other job descriptions in the sub region, we are looking at what is obtaining in our country which has actually inspired the content of the draft,” the Minister said.
He however attempted to explain the rationale behind some of the issues in the bill that were highlighted by the group, noting that some of the roles taken away from the Director of Mines to the Director General were “just practical”.
The National Advocacy Coalition on Extractive (NACE) recently did a similar review.
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