By Alpha Abu
A Validation report on Sierra Leone Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (SLEITI) was yesterday presented to President Julius Maada Bio at State House in Freetown, highlighting for the first time an overall high scorecard of 87.5 points thereby placing Sierra Leone amongst the top performing countries in the continent on compliance.
It is a global standard for transparency and accountability in the Oil, Gas and Mining Sectors, supporting local stakeholders in the implementation of extractive sector reforms.
Minister of State, Vice President’s Office, and also Chairperson of SLEITI’s Multi-Stakeholders Group (MSG), Francess Piagie Alghali said it was an ‘’outstanding performance’’, and thanked also the Mines and Mineral Resources Minister Timothy Musa Kabba for his leadership in the sector.
In a power point presentation, SLEITI National Co-ordinator, Mohamed Baimba Koroma highlighted that the country scored 94 points on Outcomes and Impact, scoring 100 on Work Plan as well, that factored gender empowerment, transparency, the environment and human rights issues that were also in line with the National Development Plan.
He said fiscal regime and legal framework were among the issues captured in the EITI report. Koroma said the country also scored very high on Stakeholder Engagement securing 90 points.
He said for Transparency the country scored 78 points which he said was slightly low partly due to the desire by partners for Sierra Leone to develop a register that will host t beneficiary ownership information, and that the partners would like to see the information verified that can be requested from all the mining companies.
He said nevertheless, President Bio’s announcement that beneficial ownership be included in the mining laws during a conference in Senegal also contributed to the country scoring better evaluation.
He said it was also stated Sierra Leone has been asked to develop a policy on the disclosure of mining contracts which he admitted the country does not currently have.
President Bio in his response thanked all supporting sectors for the good assessment on SLEITI. He said what is desired of as a country is to be acknowledged by international assessors. President Bio said those areas needed to be improved on should be vigorously pursued by all those involved including members of the MSG.
Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh praised President Bio for his visionary leadership and expressed his desire to see the country continue its ascent in the EITI rankings.
50 countries have joined the EITI that comprises governments, companies and civil society organisations. It requires full multi- stakeholder oversight of operations.
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