By Hassan Juana Koroma
The Bo District Council and the Office of Registrar General are locked in a controversy over who has the mandate to conduct civil marriage.
The longstanding disagreement took a new turn when the Chairman of the Legislative Committee in Parliament, Daniel Koroma, recently declared that district councils across the country should immediately stop conducting Civil Marriage on behalf of the state.
“The customary marriage and divorce act of 2007 clearly gives the powers to the Office of the Administrator and Registrar General to conduct civil marriages,” the MP said last week.
The MP was speaking in a forum that included civil servants. He said the act of conducting marriage by districts councils have a legal implication so the council should not assume that the responsibility of conducting marriages was devolved to them.
“The local government act of 2004 devolved some functions to the councils, but for local councils to conduct civil marriages that aspect was never devolved to them,” he stated.
In response to the Member of Parliament’s statement, the National President of Local Councils Association of Sierra Leone, Joseph Bindi, who also the Chairman of the Bo District Council, said no one would take their responsibility away from them as councils.
“Since the re-inception of the local councils just after the war in 2004, the 3rd schedule of the local government act of 2004 (Act No 1 of 2004) gave us the right to conduct celebrations and registration of civil marriages, preparation of civil marriage registration certificates, administer estate and gratuities, interview of dependent beneficiaries of deceased officers and award of gratuities, among others,” he said.
He added: “We have been conducting these functions as a council. We will not allow anyone to conduct civil marriage except councils.”
The Bo District Council, like all other councils, interfaces with traditional leaders who also have some authority to conduct customary marriages.
In Sierra Leone, civil marriage which is also known as ‘Registry’, is mostly done because in the instance of a divorce or other situations that will end the marriage, the country’s law will take precedence in dealing with the couple involved.
There are other forms of marriages like, customary marriage, Christian marriage or Muslim marriage, in which conventional law is not used to address such problems.
Regional Registration Officer South, Susan Kandeh, said part of their responsibilities has been hijacked and that includes conducting civil marriage.
“Part of our functions is to conduct civil marriages and to register Christian and Muslim marriages, but to our greatest dismay most of our functions have been over thrown by other bodies. We are responsible to conduct civil marriages but it has been taken from us,” Kandeh said.
National Civil Registration Authority office in Bo is trying to stay above board in this latest controversy. The institution’s core responsibility involves registering civil marriages.
Amie Lebbie, the Bo District Registration Officer, explained some of their functions and their new mandate.
“The mission of the authority is to register all vital events and assign unique identity to citizens and residents and also to create up to date and reliable civil register,” she said.
She added that they now have the mandates to conduct birth registration, adoptions, marriages, divorces, nullities and deaths.
“We have been given the authority to provide support in all areas under our jurisdiction,” she stressed.
Whiles the debate for territory continue among these two government institutions, potential couples have been left confused. There are calls in the district for the government to clearly define the roles of these institutions in connection with civil marriage.
© 2019 Politico Online
