By Nasratu Kargbo
Politics has served as a tool to weaken State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Parastatals to the extent of plunging most of them into failure according to the Institute for Governance Reform’s recently launched Video Documentary series titled ‘Tragedies of Politics’.
In volume one of the series titled “Debt and the death of state-owned enterprises and parastatals” which was launched on the 3rd November 2023, IGR’s Executive Director Andrew Lavali explained that politics has contributed to most of the SOEs becoming liabilities, instead of being institutions that provide services and contribute to the welfare of Sierra Leoneans.
He said that these institutions which are expected to help the state in providing services and generate revenue for the country, have instead incurred debts over the years.
Citing how politics has led to the fall of these SOEs and parastatals, Lavali said in 2014 Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) and Rokel Commercial Bank collapsed, saying that 70% of their bad debtors were politicians, government officials, or businesses affiliated with politicians. Speaking of recent events, he mentioned the country’s once highest source of revenue Sierratel, which he said is now dead, leaving its workers going on regular strike for backlog pay.
“When political compensation takes prominence in appointments, institutions head for complete failure,” he said. He mentioned that under the two main parties, the National Privatization Commission has been headed by persons with high standing within the ruling party and not necessary because of their track records of being able to deliver results in the private sector.
The Executive Director explained that because attaining these positions is part of the system of compensating political support, there has been little effort to undertake difficult reforms to stop the waste.
“We cannot continue to protect failure, indiscipline, and debts in our institutions and expect other countries to feed us and heal our sick. Twenty years after the rebel war has ended the failure of SOEs and parastatals have trapped us in huge domestic debts” he said.
Speaking at the launch on the relevance of efficiently managing SOEs, he explained that most of the country’s assets in England were purchased out of proceeds from the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board (SLPMB).
Highlighting the national development plan, he said most of the funds to finance its implementation are expected to come from donors, leaving SOEs that should be raising funds for the country. He said the government should be in the position to say that for the execution of the plan, a certain amount of the funds will be provided by SOEs.
On the legal aspect, Lavali said the laws give the President the power to appoint some of the heads in those institutions, which makes the people work for the government instead of the people.
In the documentary, Centre of Accountability and Rule of Law’s (CARL) Executive Director Ibrahim Tommy said “lack of a result and merit-based management system is the biggest obstacle to the performance and successes of State-Owned Enterprises and parastatals”.
He explained that the institutions are very important, thus becoming important targets for politicians and their allies.
Tommy expressed dissatisfaction over no publicly defined benchmarks for these institutions, like how Chief Executive Officers are recruited, staff promoted, or their work assessed.
The ‘Tragedies of Politics’ is an economic governance series that will be looking into affairs of the state and how certain decisions have affected the country, according to the officials.
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