By Kemo Cham
The Sierra Leone government has announced the disbursement of the final instalment of payment of retirement benefits to ex-officials who served in the administration of former President Ernest Bai Koroma.
The government in a statement issued through the Ministry of Finance on Monday said the money meant for the former president, his vice president and cabinet ministers, among others, represented the remaining 50 percent of what they were owed as end of service benefits and gratuities.
It could be recalled that in July 2019, the first instalment of the payment, representing 50 percent, was done by the government, totaling Le38, 708, 975, 799.
The beneficiaries include 68 officials, include Koroma himself, his deputy at the time and people who served as either ministers or deputy ministers. A breakdown of the payment show that the beneficiaries also include former ambassadors, former heads of departments and agencies, and former information and cultural attaches. Specifically, they are 22 ex-ambassadors, 26 former heads of agencies and departments and 16 former Information and Cultural attaches. A total of Le31, 463, 583, 085 was paid to the beneficiaries totaling 143, according to the statement.
It added that and an additional Le4, 750, 797, 375 was paid to former ministers and deputy ministers who served in the current administration.
The payment of end of service benefits to former officials was a major topic of discussion in the first year of the Bio administration. The delay in the payment provoked a lot of conspiracy theories, amidst complaint by the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) about the alleged unwillingness of the new Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP)-led administration to fulfill its commitment to its members.
The concerns within the opposition were inevitable given the divisive nature of the election that brought the SLPP to power.
However, the SLPP administration back then blamed the delay in payment in part by the failure of its predecessor to provide for end of service benefit in the 2018 budget.
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