By Mohamed T. Massaquoi
Personal differences within the management of Moyamba District Council are proving to be obstacle for development, raising concerns among civil society and community people in the district.
The Chairman of the Council, Joseph Benedict Mbogba, doesn’t see eye to eye with the Acting Chief Administrator (CA), Veronica Fortune. And the two are trading accusations and counter-accusations at each other.
Chairman Mbogba accused the CA of insubordination and corruption, saying that her attitude poses “serious problems” to the work of the council. He said the CA has refused to take instructions from him as her boss and deliberately refused to respect legal resolutions emanating from Council meetings.
Mbogba also accused the CA of presiding over a system characterized by lack of internal controls and “excesses”, including financial embezzlement, noting that all these were creating “upheaval” in his administration and undermining development.
The fight between the two senior council officials has gone on for the last six months, according to sources, and it has grinded the operations of the council to a halt.
Major project works have been put to a halt as a result.
According to Chairman Mbogba, interviews were conducted for the award of contracts for the management of the Moyamba Junction Market and the Gbangbatoke Jetty, and the construction of additional seven rooms at the Moyamba Mini Stadium, as well the hiring of two truck drivers for the township cleaning exercise, but that all these have failed to materialized because the Chief Administrator failed to award the contracts to the successful bidders.
“With her behavior, the council is running through a very serious internal wrangling,” Mgboba said.
Moyamba is traditionally a stronghold of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). And both the Chairman and CA are members of the SLPP. There have been talks that the source of the conflict stemmed from the fact that the CA did not support Chairman Mbogba during the awarding of party symbol.
But Mr Mbogba denied this, saying that that’s a conspiracy perpetuated by Ms Fortune.
“She keeps on telling people that because she did not support me during the SLPP symbol awarding era, that is making me to go against her. But one thing I want you to know is that she is not even a stakeholder in the SLPP, let alone to talk of her support for me. She did not even register in Moyamba for the past general elections. The stalemate between us is just that she has hatred mind for me,” he said.
Ms Fortune declined to comment in detail on the matter, when contacted by Politico. She noted that she wasn’t ready to talk to the media, citing administrative procedures.
“As of now I am not ready to talk to the media until I contact my supervisory body. It can be dangerous to talk to the media now, so I have to follow procedure,” she said on the phone.
But earlier, Ms Fortune had hinted Politico that the disagreement between her and her boss had to do with her desire to prevent corruption.
“I know I am a professional and I know my job. They want to manipulate everything within the Council and if I talk, it will drag in a lot of other institutions,” she said.
Politico learnt several efforts at mediating between the two, including by the Chairman of the Council of Paramount Chiefs, PC Charles Caulker and the District Security Coordination Committee, have all failed to help.
As the impasse continues, there are no signs that the Chairman and CA are on course for reconciliation any soon. However, what is clear is that the administrative wrangling between these two is affecting basic social service delivery in Moyamba.
Last week, for example, 19 of the 22 Councilors that make up the District Council boycotted a setting scheduled for April 25 in protest against the CA’s alleged failure to act on resolutions that they had taken in previous sittings.
Ms Fortune herself is said to have failed to turn up for two consecutive sittings, according to Chairman Mbogba. He said the CA did not take any excuse for her absence.
Gerald Anthony Foday, a civil Society representative in the district, reflected the views of the local population, noting that the situation is a source of concern for many people.
“We see it as an unfortunate situation and obstacle to development,” Foday, who is spokesman for the Civil Society Coalition in Moyamba District, said.
“Let them put their egos aside and work as a team to push the council forward,” he added.
Foday said every stakeholder, including the Ministry of Local Government, were aware of the situation and have apparently been unable to address it.
The activist even suggested that the CA be transferred, since the chairman cannot be transferred as an elected official. He said some members of the local population were contemplating staging a peaceful protest to force the authorities to act and resolve the matter once and for all.
“A lot of the people have been expressing dissatisfaction and some are even suggesting staging a protest.
(c) 2019 Politico Online
