By Alusine Fullah

Wherever living standards are high, local governments have played, and continue to play, a major role in their achievement – often the primary role. This can be seen in the wide range of responsibilities they have for provision, maintenance and where needed expansion of infrastructure and services that usually includes provision for water, sanitation, drainage, streets, emergency services, parks and public spaces.

Broadly, their responsibilities often extend to health care services and schools (although usually with national government). They have key roles in ensuring health and safety – for instance through building standards, land-use planning and management and environmental, occupational and public health services. They usually have key roles in disaster prevention and preparedness.  Many times they contribute also to public security issues. Good local governance is also central to democratic participation, civic dialogue, economic success and facilitating outcomes that enrich the quality of life of residents.

However, in the context of Sierra Leone as I have stated right from the title of this article (Sierra Leone’s Underdevelopment: Local Councils Are Major Contributors), it is evident that for the underdevelopment of Sierra Leone our local councils have contributed immensely. Believe it or not, each and every year billions of Leones (tax payers’ monies) are disbursed to all local councils for them to undertake local development projects. But guess, out of wickedness and corrupt minds, most of those monies have been vastly mismanaged.

If you don’t believe my assertion, I want to implore you to kindly read/ go through the 2022 Audit Report. Honestly, after reading it, I am sure you will come and tell that indeed our local councils in Sierra Leone have contributed immensely for the underdevelopment of this country. Honestly, if you go through the audit report and look at the financial mismanagement of those councils if you are not MAN ENOUGH you will set tears like a baby. Yes, gross financial mismanagement!!

Funds that are meant for the constructions feeder roads, culverts, health centres, schools, etc have been grossly mismanaged in the past decades. For instance, according to the Audit Report payments totalling SLE313, 479.50 were made without payment vouchers and relevant supporting documents. Apart from the foregoing amount, the Audit Report also captures that procurement documents, amounting to SLE19, 671,615.53. The report reads”

Payments without Supporting Documents. We observed that payments totalling SLE313, 479.50 for various expenses were without payment vouchers and the relevant supporting documents as evidence of the intended utilisation of the funds. Additionally, we observed that payments totalling SLE2, 051,575.08 were without adequate supporting documents such as delivery notes, invoices, receipts, back-to-office reports and beneficiaries’ lists to properly account for the payments…. Procurement Documents not Submitted In spite of repeated requests, procurement documents, amounting to SLE19, 671,615.53 were not provided for audit…

As corruption continues to ravage our Local Councils, I still stand on my position that indeed our local councils are major contributors in the underdevelopment of Sierra Leone. This can be sharply drawn from the habit of falsifying procurement documents. For instance, contractors in those Local Councils normally falsify their records to give them an unfair advantage over other competitors. This was revealed by 2022 Audit Report. It reads:  “The contract for the construction of a student hostel at Yoni worth SLE6, 300,046.33 was awarded to a contractor who falsified his experience by adding the construction of the Ola During Children’s Hospital in 2020, which was confirmed not to be true. In another instance, a successful contractor falsified the turnover figure in the Financial Statements. Also, another contractor was awarded a contract with incomplete Financial Statements.”

Apart from the above, The Kambia District Council entered into a contract in March 2022 under the EU Project for the construction of three boats with outboard machines. During the verification of this activity, we observed that even though the boats had been completed, paid for, and handed over to the Council on 25th April 2022, it has not been put into operation. It has revealed that, the boats’ 40HP outboard machines which were fully paid for and allegedly delivered to the Council on 25th April 2022 costing SLE195, 000 were still with the contractor.

Meanwhile, five XL Honda motorbikes costing SLE325, 000 donated to the Council by the UNDP, were not distributed to the beneficiaries, and no justification was given by the Council for failing to distribute them. Therefore, the delay in putting these assets into use could not only result in additional costs incurred on maintaining them but also deprive the communities of services that would have been rendered from their use.

Contracts not Effectively Managed by the Council to Enhance Service Delivery A verification was carried out on the rehabilitation work at the Kambia Makama CHP at Tainkatopa with a total contract value of SLE167, 307. Even though full payment has been made to the contractor, the Audit Report observed the following:  There were several leakages in the roof of the Kambia Makama CHP, Tainkatopa; The contractor used mud bricks instead of concrete solid blocks as prescribed in the BoQ for the extension of the WASH facility at the labour room; The windows were poorly done; The contractor did not seal off two ventilation openings;  The contractor took away all the old materials that were removed, such as roofing corrugated iron sheets, doors and windows. The BoQ provided SLE1,592 for the contractor to remove and hand over all these items to the Council.

It is becoming clear that communities and various civil society organisations are becoming frustrated at the lack of effective service delivery by LCs. If not given immediate attention by those charged with governance, it will further hamper economic development. In as much as because of time and space I could not holistically rule out LCs’ poor financial management and inadequate funding, a key contributing factor is also the LCs’ inability to plan for, monitor, and report on their performance.