By Nasratu Kargbo
With smiling faces, Members of Parliament tapped their desks, expressing satisfaction after the maiden Open Parliament Index’s (OPI) ranking, placed the country’s Parliament third after Ghana and Cape Verde in West Africa.
The Speaker Dr. Chernor Abass Bundu on 22nd July 2022 told the House it was good news and made a commitment that the fifth parliament was determined to work hard in order to be ranked first in the next OPI rating before the life span of parliament ends.
The principles used in the ranking were Civic Participation, Public Accountability, and Transparency. These criteria were used to assess thirteen countries in Africa.
Sierra Leone scored 20.42 percent in Civic Participation, 21.88 percent in Transparency, and 15.68 percent in Public Accountability. When all the scores were cumulated, Sierra Leone had an overall score of 57.9 percent, making it third amongst thirteen countries in West Africa targeted.
In the overall scores, leaders Ghana had 63.03 percent and Cape Verde second with 61.86 percent. Nigeria took fourth place with 49.21 percent, and Benin fifth with 49.32 percent. Neighbouring Liberia came 12th with 33.65 percent and Guinea-Bissau 13th - with 22.36 percent.
A statement released by the Parliamentary Network Africa (PNAfrica), said the assessment was done in a bid to provide “minimum standards to assess the level of parliamentary openness across African national and regional legislative institutions”. The OPI assessment will be published every two years.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (25/07/22)
