By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Government of Sierra Leone has convened a seminar to focus on fixing the country’s economic challenges and increasing service delivery. The seminar comes just six weeks after a cabinet retreat which also focused on service delivery. In that retreat, President Julius Maada Bio declared 2020 as “The Year of delivery”. Tuesday’s seminar was aimed at giving the different heads of government the political orientation they need to follow the President’s “New Direction” agenda, according to government officials.
Up to 83 heads of parastatals, departments and agencies converged at the Bintumani Conference Center for the meeting held on the theme: “Consolidating the Foundation for Service Delivery”.
President Bio said the meeting was convened so that he could clearly state his political vision and his expectations on service delivery by the end of the current year.
Bio urged institutions to focus on strategic planning and to prioritize with realistic expectations.
“I have declared 2020 as the Year of Accelerated Service Delivery: I expect Delivery of Results and Outcomes from you this Year and I expect to see tangible results by the 2nd and 3rd Quarters of this Year. Simply, no more excuses. We are here to get a clear understanding of my political message to motivate and inspire you to focus on getting tangible results and outcomes that will impact on the lives of the people of Sierra Leone,” he said, adding:
“Let me commend you all for all the successes and achievements you have made in the past 22 months in governance. But this is a new year and this is not the time to become complacent with our achievements. The people are impatient for results to impact on their daily lives. So, as a Government, we must improve on the way we run our institutions.”
In his opening statement, Chief Minister, Professor David John Francis, noted that bringing heads of institutions together to discuss state issues was necessary as they were an important component of state governance.
Professor Francis informed his fellow heads of MDAs that they must clearly understand and remain committed and be inspired by the President’s New Direction Agenda to change and transform Sierra Leone, and more importantly, to accelerate effective service delivery.
The Bio administration, which took over governance in April 2018, have struggled with problems like inflation, shortage of water supply and in recent weeks, power outages.
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