By Saio Marrah
According to the Coordinator of Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), Abu Bakarr Kamara, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has asked that Ministries, Department, and Agencies (MDAs) request for allocation from the 45 million dollars of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) fund for them to implement their various projects.
The 45 million dollars is from the 283 million dollars disbursed to the government of Sierra Leone by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the SDR. Even though the 283 million dollars is in the possession of the government at the central bank, only 45 million dollars is the amount approved by the IMF for the government to utilize for the implementation of its various projects, while the rest will be used to boost the country’s reserve.
The various projects to be executed by the various MDAs include the National Tree Planting exercise by the Ministry of Environment, the Completion of 45 industrial boreholes by the Ministry of Water Resources, Support of the National Ambulance Services by the Ministry, among others.
Kamara said this during a residential training with other CSOs and media practitioners on their basic understanding of SDR and Public Debt held at the Companero Hotel on Tuesday 25th January 2022.
He said that their aim is for the CSOs and media practitioners to engage and report accurately on SDR funds and public debts repayment because it is one of the instruments financing the budget and boosting the reserve.
He also pointed out that the SDR fund is part of the government budget and that there is a clear budget directive on how the SDR funds will be used, which he said all MDAs are aware of their activities that are to be financed by the SDR fund.
He however demanded thus: “So for us, there are a couple of things we want to see them firstly ensuring they utilize that particular resources by sending a request to the Ministry of Finance and we want to see the ministry of Finance also disbursing resources for these SDRs activities for implementation”.
He added that when those monies are being disbursed by the Ministry of Finance to the various MDAs for their activities they want to see accountability and transparency in their implementation so that the ordinary people for whom it is intended receive the benefits.
During the training process, the media practitioners in their group discussions pointed out key things which they said can get MDAs to request for the fund from the ministry of finance and they include; awareness rising and interviews involving expert views on SDR.
The CSOs on the other hand promised to first write an introductory letter to all MDAs including MOF, Stakeholders meeting, and media engagement at both district and national level, holding meetings with the Financial Secretary at MOF and among others.
SDR is an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that are disbursed to countries during global problems like pandemic and it is based on the quota a country has contributed to the IMF that will determine the amount of money it will receive.
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