By Francis H. Murray
The Chief Minister, Professor David Francis has said that the Bio-led administration has officially commenced activities directed at restarting the review of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone.
He made this statement on Thursday 4th February during the first presidential award for best performing ministries at State House in Freetown.
“The most recent manifesto commitment delivered is the official restart of the constitutional review process and the acceptance by President Bio of the Justice Cowan Constitutional Review Committee recommendation to abolish the death penalty. So as of today, the death penalty as per the directive of the President is abolished,” he stated.
Giving the reason behind the award ceremony, the Chief Minister said that following the formation of the first cabinet of President Bio in June 2018, he charged them to work together in order to deliver the manifesto commitments to the people in the view of efficient service delivery.
He said that the award ceremony was “to recognise, motivate, inspire and incentivize the political and administrative leadership of all ministries so they individually as ministers and collectively as ministries can 100% commit to accelerate service delivery and the efficient management of State governing institutions.”
He added that the criteria used to reach at the awardees included actual ministerial performance management, pro activeness of minister or ministry in taking controversial and difficult governance decisions, and proactive leadership to see through controversial and difficult decisions that have impact on the ordinary lives of the people.
He stressed that the award was also geared towards developing a habit of routine service delivery that focuses on development, results and outcomes for the people of the country, so that it becomes a delivery culture of governance.
Presenting the first awardee, the Chief Minister stated that the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education Dr. David Moinina Sengeh and his team introduced the globally acclaimed radical inclusion practice as the governance routine and culture of the Ministry.
He added that the Minister and his team successfully championed the controversial issue of pregnant girls going back into the main stream education system by overturning the ban on pregnant girls in school, and during the pandemic, championed the reopening of schools and effectively organized public school examinations with limited incidence of examination malpractice and with no incident of any COVID-19 outbreak in schools.
Professor Francis further said that amidst the numerous difficulties and challenges posed by the year 2020 especially with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with its negative economic and financial impact on poor and developing countries, they as ministers were able to make impressive progress.
“The midterm evaluation of the New Direction government shows that we’ve made impressive progress with 29 of the 38 manifesto commitments delivered or at an advanced stage of delivery.”
He continued to note that the Bio administration received international recognition and global accolade because of what he called the President’s audacious vision and the quality of his leadership and the performance of the government.
Highlighting the gains made by the government in 2020, Prof Francis said the American government’s Center for Disease Control (CDC) recognizes Sierra Leone as one of the four countries in Africa that has managed the Coronavirus pandemic response and the country’s MCC eligibility with nearly half a billion dollars.
Reading the citation for the second awardee, Prof Francis noted that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Jacob Jusu Saffa and his team provided effective leadership in the management of the economy during the very difficult global pandemic, restored international confidence in the management of the economy and fiscal probity, introduced and implemented the COVID-19 quick action rapid economic recovery with a SLL50billion credit facility to support the availability of essential commodities at the height of the Pandemic.
He added that the minister and his team provided effective external donor resources mobilization of $380million between January and October of 2020 which ensured that salaries were paid on time, the provision of essential services such as electricity, water, roads infrastructure, provision of 450billion Leones to the COVID response team, and the provision of cash transfers to 11,000 disables and 24,000 informal sector workers to ease the burden caused by the pandemic.
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the National COVID-19 Emergency Response Center (NaCOVERC) jointly received the award for what the Chief Minister referred to as the provision of effective leadership in the management of COVID-19 preparedness and response at national level with effective laboratory, case management, and surveillance and operations pillar.
He added that the Health ministry and NaCOVERC) provided ‘relatively’ good social mobilization campaign and enforcement of social distancing and hygiene protocols and in the process have developed a national public health emergency response infrastructure as well as shifted the emergency response to post-emergency public health systems strengthening.
In his keynote address, President Bio thanked all the ministers and the civil servants present for the good work they have done in the last three years and especially during the difficult time of the pandemic.
He said that the work was evident in the country’s eligibility for the MCC compact, and the global recognition the country has received which he said was not based on the work of an individual person.
He used the occasion to call all MDAs to work with the mindset of delivering to the people of the country, in fulfillment of the government’s manifesto commitments.
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