By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Sierra Leone government intends to create 9,000 new jobs in the public sector, according to the 2020 budget, as presented to parliament last week.
Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa said in the budget speech on Friday that the government would hire 5,000 teachers, 3,000 health sector workers and 1,000 Police officers.
This recruitment drive, according to Mr Saffa, points to a budget that is centers around the human capital development agenda of the government. In a packed parliament, law makers, cabinet ministers and members of the public in the gallery cheered on as he read through what the government has achieved and what it aims to achieve with the new budget.
From time to time they burst into loud chorus of “Maaaaadaaa Biooo…..Maaaada Bio aayyy”, a chorus popular among supporters of the president.
But beneath the fanfare are concerns over the implications of some of the decisions occasioned by the budget, notably the planned creation of new jobs, which will significantly increase government’s wage bill by Le 587 billion.
According to the Finance Minister, government will have spent Le2.9 trillion in wages for the public sector by the end of 2019.
The budget reading comes on the eve of a major cabinet reshuffle by President Bio in which two new ministries have been created with more deputy ministers added.
Critics, both politicians and civil society activists, say these appointments defy the government’s expressed commitment to controlling expenditure. They also question the move coming at a time of difficult economic conditions.
Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, leader of the opposition National Grand Coalition (NGC) in parliament, expressed concern over the implication of this growing size of the public sector workforce on the “bread and butter” issues of the common man.
“My general impression is that the size of government keeps increasing. Expenditure is not under control. The wage bill, from their projection, will go from Le2.9 trillion to Le3.46 trillion by 2022. So, for me that is a growing government, it is not a reduction in government. So, one still begins to wonder whether in fact there will be enough left to invest in bread and butter,” Dr Yumkella told Politico shortly after the budget speech.
But Deputy Minister of Finance, Dr Patricia Laverley said they recognized concerns about the size of the wage bill, noting that the government hoped to collect enough revenue to cover the shortfall.
“The concern is legitimate, but it is only when jobs are created for more people that consumption will have the likelihood to increase. We are not too concerned because we are increasing our revenues anyway,” she told Politico.
She added: “We are going to increase our revenue target next year and we will collect more money. Because we are collecting more money, that will offset the additional money that we are required to spend.”
The government also said plans were at an advance stage to establish a Wages and Compensation Commission, which would take care of much needed reforms in the government’s payroll.
“The Wages and Compensation Commission will take forward some of the payroll reforms including aligning the multiple pension laws and harmonizing pay and remunerations across the public sector,” Finance Minister Saffa said in his speech in parliament.
This is however not the first time Saffa is making this promise. He first announced the formation of the Wages and Compensation Commission in his last year budget speech.
The total cost of the 2020 budget is Le8.24 trillion. Le6.47 trillion of this will comprise domestic revenue, Le1 trillion will be external budget support and Le873.9 billion will be raised through domestic financing, according to the Minister.
And for the second year in a row, the highest allocation went to the Education docket – Le1.4 trillion, representing 22% of the total budget. This is a one-percent increase from last year.
One of the largest categories of beneficiaries in the allocation for education is teachers whose salaries will be increased by 30% starting April 2020.
Part of the 22% allocation to Education will also be used to invest in the procurement of more learning materials for the government’s flagship Free Quality Education programme.
The health docket got 11%, an improvement from the 10% allocation for the current year. However, it still falls short of the 15% that is required to honor Sierra Leone’s commitment to the Abuja Declaration made by African leaders.
Health is not the only sector that didn’t get as much as it would want. The Agriculture docket got 6%, 4% short of the 10% minimum for countries that are signatories to the Maputo Protocol, which Sierra Leone is a part of.
However, the allocation to Agriculture represents an increase of 50%, compared to what they were given for the current year. This drastic increase is a sign of government’s ambition to invest heavily in the sector in the coming years.
As part of the programs to boost agriculture in the country, Saffa said government would invest in youth and military farms. He disclosed that Le61.6 billion had been set aside for this in the budget.
During the budget discussion sessions earlier in September, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture were adamant that they would need to have at least 75% of their allocation before the middle of the year.
“The idea to get 73% of our budget in the first and second quarter will allow us to do a lot of things like completing land preparation and planting just before the mid of next year,” Deputy Minister, Sam-King Brima, explained to Politico back then.
The 2020 budget will now be discussed in the coming weeks by Parliament, where more fine details will be picked through, especially by opposition parties.
© 2019 Politico Online
