By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Governance think tank, Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) has called on President Julius Maada Bio to announce delivery targets that his government’s progress will be measured by.
They made the call in the latest in a series of study - “Critical Perspective in Governance” which was launched on Wednesday in Freetown.
The call comes almost a month since President Bio told a cabinet retreat that 2020 was “the year of delivery”.
While explaining the study, IGR Executive Director, Andrew Lavalie said citizens must be able to measure progress. He said that was only possible by setting targets.
“What we are saying is, if you say this is the year of delivery, what are you delivering? What are the targets? Government has very high caliber ministers, what you need to do is to give them targets and see if they will deliver. Or ‘The Year of Delivery’ will just be another buzz word,” Lavalie said.
The report also says that “Publicly declaring performance targets and resources allocated to MDA’s for 2020 will foster teamwork, create an atmosphere of impartiality and technocratic ruling.”
The report zoned in on Agriculture and Sanitation. Lavalie said their research showed that the government had spent US$11 million on importing rice. He said even though the government might want to reduce that this would be difficult without a clear-cut plan.
“If you ask a farmer ‘what’s the target yield for this year?’ He doesn’t know,” he said.
“We want to know how much has been set aside for agriculture, how much are we going to spend on fertilizers? How will they be distributed?” he added.
Last year, during the 2020 budget hearing process, Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa said the annual value of rice import into Sierra Leone ranged from US$ 200 to US$ 250 million. He had announced in his budget speech in parliament that the government was set to invest massively in agriculture in the coming years. This year government has allocated 6% of its Le 8 trillion budget to the sector.
The Ministry of Agriculture is also aiming to cultivate at least 170,000 hectares of rice farms across the country. This drive will be assisted by Youth and Military farms that will be rolled out in different chiefdoms across the country. Government has already set aside just over Le 61 billion for this.
IGR said it recognized all these plans, but Lavalie said it was about getting people like farmers to understand the simple targets that they should deliver on and the institutional approach.
“What we are suggesting is much more than standards, it is also about approach,” he said.
In the area of sanitation, IGR says while government’s drive to invest in general cleaning had yielded some good results, in the long run they should find a way of transitioning this system so everyone would take responsibility for their waste.
Lavalie sought the support of the media to initiate debates on goal-oriented programs in government.
They said they were hoping the report would “generate discussion around these issues.”
“This report is coming as an advisory note,” Lavalie said.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
