By Kemo Cham
Accountability campaigners have slammed an attempt by the Sierra Leone government to suspend laws meant to provide safeguards in the management of public funds in its fight against the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
The proposed law, dubbed ‘Corona Virus Disease Emergency Fund Regulations’, which is contained in a Constitutional Instrument No 10 of 2020 and dated 7th May 2020, is reported to have been prepared by the office of Attorney General and Minister of Justice. Those familiar with the document say it is meant to provide those in charge of the convid-19 response effort easy and unfettered access to funds.
But the Public Financial Management Consortium, comprising eleven civil society organizations and NGOs, say the move would undermine public trust in the government’s coronavirus response efforts.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday 20th May, the activists pointed out that the proposed legislation would essentially suspend all accountability laws and institutions in the management of resources dedicated to respond to the pandemic.
The group lamented that while countries like Gabon, Nigeria, Moldova, Sao Tome and Principle were strengthening their laws to enhance transparency and accountability in confronting COVID-19, Sierra Leone, by this move, was about to “suffocate” its key accountability laws that could ensure the prudent use of its resource in responding to the pandemic. It called on the government to abandon the plan and it urged the House of Parliament to reject it, if presented to them.
Two key existing legislations were cited by the campaigners as being at risk of being sidelined by this move, which they say were adequate enough as basis to access resources and expend them effectively: The Procurement Act 2016 and the Public Finance Management Act 2016. The consortium says all this proposed instrument intends to do is to shove aside these key accountability instruments, and effectively “supplant” the role of key accountability institutions like the Audit Service Sierra Leone and the National Public Procurement Authority in regulating the use and management of COVID-19 response funds.
“Specifically, Regulations 9(1) and (2) provide that the National Public Procurement Act, 2016 and Public Finance Act, 2016 shall not apply to the management of Corona Response Funds,” the statement reads, adding that any laws that conflict with the Regulations shall not apply to the management of the funds.
The Public Financial Management Consortium include some of the top civil society organizations and local Non-Governmental Organizations in the country, including the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL), Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), Campaign for Good Governance (CGG), Action Aid International Sierra Leone and Christian Aid (CA).
Ibrahim Tommy, Executive Director of CARL, said the move would set the country back in its efforts in promoting accountability and transparency.
“This represents a significant step backward in our collective fight to promote a culture of accountability and transparency in the management of public resources,” he was quoted in the statement.
“The lessons of the alleged mismanagement that characterized the Ebola response funds should have guided the drafting of this regulation. Unfortunately, those seeking to push through these Regulations seem to have forgotten quickly and are now plotting to essentially slaughter accountability in the COVID-19 response efforts,” Tommy added.
Abu Bakarr Kamara, coordinator of the Budget Advocacy Network, said existing regulations were well in place to help the government to respond accordingly to the current emergency while maintaining fiscal prudence.
“These Regulations have strong bearing on deepening transparency and openness in the delivery and use of COVID-19 funds,” Kamara said.
Corruption has been a long time major problem for Sierra Leone. And its devastating effect was seen at play during the 2014 – 2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Sierra Leone was one of three countries hardest hit by that epidemic that claimed over 11, 000 lives across the world.
In Sierra Leone billions of leones of public funds meant for the fight against that epidemic were reportedly mismanaged, leaving healthcare workers struggling for basic medicines and equipment to treat victims of the disease.
The Bio administration campaigned on the platform of rooting out corruption from the country, and it has in the last two years implemented major reforms towards this goal.
The accountability campaigners acknowledged the government’s efforts in proactively disclosing information with respect to its response effort to Covid-19 and noted that this is why they were “extremely disappointed” by the attempt, through this latest move, to disregard existing accountability standards in the management of COVID-19 response resources.
The group reminded the country’s lawmakers of a promise by President Julius Maada Bio in his address announcing the country’s index case of covid-19 back in March. In that address, the president committed his administration to an open and transparent approach responsive to the views of citizens “because we believe that openness cultivates public trust and confidence in what we are doing and why we are doing what we are doing.”
The government hasn’t yet responded to the concern of the campaigners.
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