By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) has in a press statement called on the government of Sierra Leone to manage its debt burden and borrow responsibly.
The call came after a research conducted by the local Think Tank in partnership with the British charity Oxfam on the state of inequality in Sierra Leone titled: The Commitment to Reduce Inequality; Sierra Leone at a crossroads, revealed that the country spends more on debt servicing.
“Steps should be taken to sustain Sierra Leone’s debt burden: we call on GOSL to borrow responsibly and the international community to cancel existing debts, especially in light of the COVID 19 pandemic,” the statement reads in part.
In his statement at the publication of the report, Andrew Lavalie, Executive Director of IGR said inequality is predominant in Sierra Leone and needs action to address it.
“There is a big divergence between those who are rich and those who are poor. And there is a big divergence between those who are educated and those who are illiterate, and there is a big divergence between those who live in slums and those who live in better housing conditions,” he said.
The report, according to officials examines the inequality level in Sierra Leone across several areas, with the aim of unraveling the circumstances of Sierra Leone’s progress, failures and challenges.
“It also seeks to understand the socio-economic drivers of inequality, by identifying progressive trends in government’s response to inequality, and proffering evidence for key actions to be taken by policy actors and citizens against inequality and poverty,” the statement says.
The report identified Budget Credibility as a condition affecting social sector spending significantly, noting that high impact sectors such as Health, Education and Agriculture spend less than 70% of their budgets over the past decade.
“Evidently, low budget execution rates meant that MDAs failed to undertake all the interventions they planned in respect of service delivery in the critical sectors.”
The report adds that the debt burden is taking up resources from inequality programs because Sierra Leone spends nearly half (about 45%) of its annual budget on debt servicing, which according to the report means the government is left with limited funds to spend on public services. Sierra Leone’s debt spending is far above the recommended threshold.
Low wage bill and the fact that the majority of the country’s population rely on an informal economy for their livelihoods, low levels of investment in Human Capital over the years reflect poor Health and Education outcomes and the government’s failure to maximize revenue from mineral resources for more Inequality Reduction spending were also observed.
These issues were highlighted as contributing factors to the growth of Inequality in Sierra Leone.
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