The debate of the 2022 Auditor General’s Report concerning the fiscal performances of Ministries Departments and Agencies, with specific reference to the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank – SLCB has opened a can of worms for the Members of Parliament MPs examining MDAs financial misappropriations uncovered by ASSL Report being handled by the Public Account Committee.
Apart from exposing flaws in how the SLCB disbursed loans to Members of Parliament and other clients with or without supporting documents, it also exposes serious case of conflict of interest as it is the same MPs that are querying the bank’s management at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearings. At the hearings disclosures have been made by the Audit Service Sierra Leone based on how the 100% State-Owned bank has handled money from which the Government of Sierra Leone is supposed to collect dividends aimed at handling its work for and on behalf of struggling mass Sierra Leoneans.
As the Deputy Speaker of the House is on record for praising the SLCB for bailing the mostly poor MPs via the issuance of loans, how is he expected to be tough with the bank to explain how it lost over Sixty-One Billion Leones (Le61B)? This statement that is the headline of a leading local daily has caused consternation in many concerned citizens who say the Deputy Speaker has put himself up for public ridicule and scrutiny.
It would seem as if there is a culture of MPs taking loans from the bank even without meeting the requirements or standards set up by the bank to qualify for loans. At the end of the day many of them fail to meet their loan repayment expectations leading to many of them owing the bank a stupendous amount of money as it happened during the exit hours of the last political administration.
Even though most of them lack what it takes to acquire loans from the bank, they hardly step aside but rather use their political influences to acquire the loans as against the bank’s policy.
Complaining to the public that ‘parliamentarians are poor’, as reported by one of the newspapers, the Deputy Speaker of the Sixth Parliament disclosed that they don’t make enough to be able to meet the expectations of their constituents when they also have to consider meeting theirs and the needs of their families. From constituents calling MPs for assistance with weddings, funerals, graduation ceremonies, new births and school fees, it would seem as if members of the august House have a lot to do that is outside their mandate for being in parliament: passing laws, providing oversight on public expenditure and providing for a check on the excesses of the other two branches of government, but more especially so the executive.
But how effective will they be at passing laws and performing oversight functions if they are so poor and poorly paid? Is meeting the needs of their constituents a part of their job description? This question is asked in light of MPs being the first to clarify their job mandate whenever people ask them for assistance.
Why is it now that they explain that they are poor citing having to take care of the needs of their constituents?
Contrary to popular opinion at Tower Hill, MPs are not poor. They are paid Twenty-One Million Leones (Le21M) in a country where the minimum wage is Le500, 000. Taking bank loans to buy cars to go to work is not the concern of the public, neither the people you represent.
It is also not part of their work to take bank loans as MPs but as private citizens. Repayment of loans is the same for MPs as any other member of the public, be they small businesses or corporations.
What is really going on is that our poor and supposedly poorly paid MPs should know how to separate their public from their private lives.
Loans are taken on an individual basis, not for the work of your constituency. For the work of the constituency the government makes available to all MPs a fund from the constituency development funds. There are also vehicles available to MPs with fuel subsidies in this direction to go on constituency or agricultural breaks to mingle and spend time with their constituents. You are not expected to use publically provided fuel subsidies for your private vehicles or to take care of your vehicles when they broke down.
If an MP did not own a car before becoming an MP then purchasing one is a private matter. If you consider that you need a luxury vehicle to move about in Freetown and to show to your constituents that you have arrived, then it is incumbent upon you to also repay the car loan in style.
In a country where the average man makes NLe500 per month, our MPs are paid NLe21,000, which is 42 times what the average man takes home to his family. Since this money is your pay there is no law on how you should spend it. But should you consider it your duty to pay school fees, pay for funerals or weddings and the like for members of your constituency community, then this is not doing the work of an MP but as a private individual. However, how well or poorly you managed your monthly pay goes a long way to affect how well or poorly you will query those entrusted with public money especially during debates on the Auditor General’s Report.
It must be noted here that people around the world don’t go to Parliament to get rich. The work of an MP is one of sacrifice, similar to the work of a man of God. Your work is on behalf of the poor to ensure that those entrusted with the public’s trust do what they are supposed to do. You pass laws that are good for the people and keep the executive in check so that they will not overstep his or her bounds according to the rule of law. You work for the poor to make sure that they are not left out of the development process and that public funds are spent to benefit them, not those who handle such money.
Before becoming an MP you should have been established or made a name for yourself, which money you will be able to fall back on. Since you represent the voice of the people against public excess you yourself should not be a part of those that take liberty with the public trust. Hence your daily preoccupation should be how to navigate between your private life and your public work, which two should never mingle.
But there is a way for MPs to make money while in public office. You can use your extensive connections especially with members of the international community to attract business or investors to come and set up shop in your constituency. This way you don’t only get to benefit from the expected finder’s fee, you also get to create jobs for the members of your community. To wean the many people that would want to mistake what your job title really means is by teaching them how to fish and not make yourself beholden to providing fish for them whenever they call.
By Sierra Leone standards, our MPs are not poor. Far from that they have been victims of poor management of public expectations, which expectation is being fuelled by their flamboyance.
