By Mabinty M. Kamara
Less than three months after the government handed over dozens of vehicles to provide transportation for pupils, as part of the national school bus service, concerns have emerged about the sustainability of the scheme.
Several city and district councils across the country are reported to be struggling to deal with issues relating to the cost of operations of the vehicles. While they complain about the apparent inability of the buses to generate enough revenue to service itself in terms of fueling and maintenance, some of the Councils have been dealing with strike or threat of strike actions by drivers who feel they are underpaid.
Freetown, Makeni, Bo and Koidu New Sembehun City councils have been dealing with these issues.
The buses were bought by the government as a means of easing transportation difficulties for children going to school, in a country faced by a huge deficit in public transport services.
For the government, the procurement of the buses was also part of measures to eliminate any hindrances to the successful implementation of its flagship Free Quality Education.
In September, a total of 47, out of the 50 buses procured from China, were distributed to all 16 districts across the country to manage them.
The Makeni City Council was the first to raise alarm over the issues emanating from the arrangement between the government and the local councils. In a statement, it lamented that the salary scale set up by the Ministry of Transport and Aviation did not resonate with its salary scale, noting that it had to renegotiate with the drivers.
Makeni had six drivers. Politico understands that the Ministry of Transport negotiated for each driver to be paid a salary of Le1million at the end of every month. The Council said it couldn’t afford that, considering the cost of fuel and the “little” income the buses generated. The drivers went on strike briefly over the issue.
But according to Daniel Kpumu, Chief Administrator of Makeni City Council, they have since moved on, having resolved the issues.
In Koidu Town, Kono District, where drivers also went on strike over pay, stringent measures were employed to resolve the issues.
Martin Benedict Kaindaneh, Communications Officer of Koidu New Sembehun City Council, said they received three buses from the government with six drivers and a memo indicating that the government would pay the salaries of the drivers.
“Within a short period of time, we received a correspondence from the government that the Council should now take over the running of the busses, but then it happens that the revenue collected from the buses cannot be enough to buy fuel and to pay Le6million as salary for drivers. So within the two months, the drivers began a strike action,” Kaindaneh explained.
He added that to solve their own problem, they had to permanently park one of the buses, to cut down on what they spend on fuel.
The Koidu New Sembehun City Council also sacked three of the drivers and renegotiated the salaries of the remaining three, from Le1million to Le750, 000, according to Kaindaneh.
In Bo, Chief Administrator of the City Council, Edward Alpha, told Politico that because the revenue generated by the buses wasn’t enough to take care of maintenance, fuel or salary of drivers, they had to tap from other sources, a move he said couldn’t be sustained.
“The running cost is too much. What the buses generate is not enough to buy fuel and pay salaries. The Council has been paying them from Council funds and that cannot continue,” he said.
In Freetown, the problem is a bit more complicated. The capital city had the largest share of the buses – 12. Council officials say that is hardly enough, as there is scramble for the services of the buses among pupils.
Director of Human Resources at the Freetown City Council (FCC), Claudius Campbell, said that they also have similar challenges in running the buses, noting that they were barely hanging on to keep all the vehicles on the road.
"We received 12 buses with 24 drivers from the government with a prescribed salary scale. But having ran the buses for two months, we found out that the turnover is not enough to sustain the operations of the buses, so council have had the cause to come in with our meagre resources to augment or offset the deficit," he said.
He added: “We are spending 24 million Leones a week on fuel for the 12 buses.”
While these four districts grapple with how to handle high demand for the services of the school buses and sustain the services, in some other districts the challenge is different. In Pujehun, for instance, the buses there are seriously under-utilized. Pupils who live in the main Pujehun Towns prefer to trek instead of paying to board the buses. But this could also be because the distances to school within the town are short.
Pupils in the outskirts of the town trek three to four miles to school, yet they cannot use the bus service because government directives only allow the vehicles to ply the main routes in major towns.
Politico learned that all the councils have done a comprehensive report on the operations of the buses, revealing major challenges in their sustainability.
The Ministry of Transport told Politico that it was aware of the situation and that it’s convening a discussion forum with a view of addressing the issues.
Sadiq Silla, Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation, said in a pohone interview that he couldn’t comment on all the constraints now, noting that the meeting scheduled for November 25 will hopefully address the concerns.
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