By: Amie Massaquoi
The leadership of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has on the 25th March, 2024, received a two-man delegation from the World Bank Country Mission Team working on the Productive Social Safety Net and Youth Employment (PSSNYE) project, at the Commission’s Integrity House, Tower Hill, Freetown. The two-man delegation from the World Bank consists of Dr. Abu Kargbo, Senior Social Protection Specialist and Samik Adhikari, Senior Economist, Social Protection and Jobs.
The courtesy visit by the delegation comes ahead of the PSSNYE implementation review conference that will be organized by the World Bank from the 26th March to 4th April 2024. The team has also visited other implementing partners of the PSSNYE, including the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA), Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Youth, and the Freetown City Council. The PSSNYE is a poverty alleviation scheme by the World Bank through the Government of Sierra Leone.
The Deputy Commissioner of the ACC, Augustine Foday Ngobie, while welcoming the delegation to the Integrity House, stated that the ACC and the World Bank have been in partnership for over ten years. “This has allowed the ACC to do real-time monitoring of Social Safety Net (SSN) and other World Bank projects, address grievances, and help support the achievement of the project objectives. He commended the Bank for their confidence in the ACC and their support in rolling out the Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) component of all the projects.
“ACC as an independent institution has achieved great results in ensuring there is transparency and accountability in all World Bank projects and programs that it has participated in, and I assure you all, on behalf of the Commissioner, Francis Ben Kaifala Esq, that we are set and ready to continue in that trajectory,” he said.
Assuring the full and undiluted support of the ACC to the new PSSNYE the Deputy Commissioner added that the Commission is happy to collaborate with the Bank and other stakeholders, hence the need to review the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the ACC and NACSA, in order to incorporate the other players in the PSSNYE. This review, he continued, will mark a clear role for the ACC and other implementing partners.
Senior Economist, Social Protection and Jobs, World Bank, Samik Adhikari, said the team’s visit to implementing partners is to discuss issues that were present in the implementation of the PSSNYE and how these issues can be avoided. He stated that the last review meeting held in October 2023, just when the implementation of the PSSNYE commenced, was a fruitful one as lessons learnt in the rollout of the SSN project were instrumental in mapping out the rollout of the new PSSNYE. He added that the payment to the PSSNYE beneficiaries, which has been digitalized, is in line with the country’s National Development Plan and policies.
The World Bank’s Social Protection Specialist, Dr. Abu Kargbo, commended the ACC for being very instrumental to the successful implementation of the Bank’s projects, especially the just-concluded $:55 million SSN project that provided unconditional cash transfer to poor and vulnerable households. He added that before the presence of the ACC, there were many loopholes in the implementation of similar projects. “The presence of the ACC has made a huge impact in ensuring transparency,” Dr. Kargbo said.
