By Nasratu Kargbo
Despite Sierra Leone securing an overall high score of 87.5 points in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) report, the secretariat in its validation report also stated that the country scored low in the area of Beneficial Ownership (BO), and recommended that the country does more in that area.
The National Coordinator for the Sierra Leone Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (SLEITI) Coordinator Mohamed Baimba Koroma in his presentation of the institution’s scorecard on the 7th December 2022 stated that the country has not fulfilled the Beneficial Ownership (BO) in the extractive industry with a score of 30%.
He stated that the SLEITI’s 2022 validation report, while placing Sierra Leone among the top performing countries on the continent, they were slightly disappointed on beneficial ownership.
He explained that President Julius Maada Bio in 2018, at the Beneficial Ownership Conference in Dakarr had promised to include it as part of the mining laws in the country. He noted as a result of that commitment, that aspect has been included in the recently enacted Mining law.
Highlighting some of the reasons why the country scored low in that area, Koroma explained that when EITI came to assess the country, they acknowledged the strides made to have BO in the mining laws, but however noted that the country does not have a register to host the information.
In addition, he stated that they were asked about how they intend to maintain the security of that register that will host the information and which institution is going host the register. Koroma further explained that reporting templates had not been sent to all the mining companies with the exception of the material mining companies, which was also indicated in the last report.
The Coordinator promised that they will work with relevant institutions such as the National Minerals Agency, Corporate Affairs Commission to ensure that they establish a register that will host companies’ information and beneficial owners. He added that they will send the entire BO template to all the extractive companies in the country and ensure that corrective actions and recommendations are instituted before the next validation on the 1st January 2025.
Speaking on corrective actions to be put in place, Koroma explained that currently the country does not have a policy on disclosure of contract, explaining that when mining companies sign contract the National Minerals Agency (NMA) publish the contract. He however noted that there are no policies that guide the disclosure of those contracts, or details such as time of disclosure, beneficial ownership, amongst other areas.
Koroma mentioned work plan, exploration and legal and institutional framework, as areas the country made progress noting that the country scored 100% each. He further highlighted other areas where the nation scored 90%.
He said the last time the country was validated in 2018 meaningful progress was made which if translated in numerical terms is 74%.
The report further states that “Beneficial ownership information was clearly requested only from material mining companies. Additional reporting under the Corporate Governance Code is limited and not accessible to the public.”
It also noted that the objective of enabling the public to know who ultimately owns and controls the companies operating in the country’s extractive industries is yet to be fulfilled.
The EITI report shows that the partial information on beneficial and legal owners was only disclosed in the 2019 EITI report but that ‘’there is so far no legal obligation for all extractive companies to disclose their beneficial owners”.
The Multi Stakeholder Steering Group (MSG) therefore argued in its feedback on the draft validation report, that requirements should be considered mostly met, given efforts to collect BO data from material companies and to establish a legal basis for disclosures.
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