By Septimus Senessie in Kono
The Kono District council has condemned the report of the 2013 Comprehensive Local Government Performance Assessment System (CLoGPAS), which was released in March this year by the Decentralization Secretariat (DecSec) of the ministry of local government.
DecSec’s report is annual, and focuses on the performances of the 19 local councils in the country.
It put the eastern district council of Kono at the bottom of the list and ranked Tonkolili District Council, in the north of the country, with the highest point in the 2013 governance performance system.
The Chairman of the Kono District council, Councilor Aiah Abdulraman Richard Koninga, referred to the report as “total rubbish, bias and invalid.”
He was reacting to queries from members of his council for reasons that positioned them as the poorest council in the country’s government performance in 2013. The queries came out of a BBC Media Action debate in the district council conference hall. But the chairman has maintained his stance since then.
“In fact, the report does not represent the true picture of my council,” he defended in the debate.
Councilor Koninga argued that he took over the council in 2012 amid serious human resource challenges. He said almost 80% of the administrative staff of the council who were at the hub of the CLoGPAS annual survey were out of duties; some of them transferred without immediate replacements and some leaving the council for better jobs.
Despite that, the chairman said, his administration had developed the district in many ways, ranging from the construction and rehabilitation of water well, to feeder roads, schools, among others.
In like manner, the council’s procurement officer, Komba Leonard Boima, described the report as “fake,” accusing DecSec of “putting its credibility into mud.”
Meanwhile, the Monitoring and Evaluation Manager of DecSec, Colina Macaulay, noted that the report did not look at tangible development projects implemented by council, but CLoGPAS only studied structures like notice boards and their locations at ward levels, proper record keeping system, transparent and accountable financial management strategy, coordination between the council and devolved sectors, communication of their activities on mass media to the public, among others.
She said in all the highlighted structures at the time of the survey the Kono district performed the worst.
Madam Macaulay added that Kono District Council also performed poorly in coordinating and monitoring the activities of education and health sectors which culminated in the poor performances of the two sectors.
On the other hand, she said, the Tonkolili District council was the opposite of the Kono District Council.
One of the participants in the debate, Tedankay Baryoh, a civil society representative, observed that the council deserved its last position, as it lacked “transparency and accountability.”
The Paramount Chief of Tankoro Chiefdom, Paul Gabber Saquee (V) said the district council chairman should not look at the work of DecSec as a “trivial issue,” but he should treat it with seriousness and put in place those structures that earned them the worst performance.
The BBC Media Action Producer, Victor Karimu, told Politico that they had organized the public forum on the performance of the local councils to know the various challenges of the councils and those that had outstanding performance levels to share their ideas with those that performed poor.
Politico 10/06/15
