President Koroma Signs new Contracts with
Ministers, as Tony Blair Warns of Tougher Times
ahead
The Sierra Leone Telegraph Editorial Team
15 May 2009
As Tony Blair basked in the
hot sunny beaches of Freetown amidst cheering
fishermen and hawkers, reporters were keen to
clarify his role in developing the country’s
economy, in particular his intentions for Sierra
Leone’s ailing tourism industry. The former
Prime Minister of Great Britain is heading a
team of British public sector reform and inward
investment experts, to assist in building the
capacity of the government of Sierra Leone in
delivery of its 2007 ‘Agenda for Change’
manifesto.
Tony Blair warned his
friend – President Koroma, to expect very
difficult times ahead, as nervous investors and
cash strap donors now expect a lot more for
their money, as the Global economic downturn
worsens. Recent events in Sierra Leone, such as
the cocaine saga and the violent attack on the
opposition makes Tony Blair’s job of assisting
President Koroma all the more difficult, in
comparison with similar efforts in Rwanda.
Rwanda is regarded by Tony
Blair as his model of ‘good governance’ in the
African continent, and would no doubt wish that
Sierra Leone could emulate this example, with
the assistance of his team of experts that are
working alongside President Koroma’s
ministers.
Tony Blair’s Africa
Governance Initiative which champions the cause
of uplifting Africa from poverty also warns that
“foreign investment is drying up, donor
remittances are declining, and NGOs are
struggling to raise funds.” This warning comes
as the Anti – Corruption Commissioner, Abdul
Tejan Cole reports of a 300% increase in
notified cases of corruption in the period 2007
– 2008, in Sierra Leone.
Although Tony Blair’s
optimism about Sierra Leone’s future is shared
amongst most Sierra Leoneans, concerns are being
raised as to the transparency of his team
working alongside ministers in this poverty
stricken country. The lack of transparency and
probity is becoming even more worrying for
elected parliamentarians, whose job of holding
the government to account is frequently hampered
by the intransigence and secrecy of ministers
and heads of government departments.
Has progress on the
achievements of the ‘Blairite Quango’ been
reported to parliament? Given the importance of
the work of Blair’s team of experts to the
development of Sierra Leone, would it not be
appropriate for lessons learnt and experiences
gained by the ministers, to be catalogued and
produced in the form of Operating Manuals or
Best Practice Guides?
The legacy and ownership of
learning by ministers and heads of departments
are paramount in ensuring sustainability and
continuity. Far too often we see the benefits of
such Public Sector Development Programmes
dissipate, once the foreign experts have boarded
their flights out of the country.
There is no doubt that
significant corrective actions and measures are
being taken by government ministers and heads of
departments, under the advice of Tony Blair and
his team. Unfortunately the lack of transparency
and openness makes it difficult for citizens to
see the changes that are taking place across
government departments.
According to recent press
statement by State House, President Koroma has
signed new performance contracts with his
ministers. But the question surely that needs
asking is: if only a handful of ministers are
benefitting from the expertise of Tony Blair’s
team, how is the President going to objectively
measure and compare their performance against
those that are not receiving this critical
learning support? Is the President going to
publish the terms of those new contracts as he
promised the people in his April 2009 televised
broadcast?
The people of Sierra Leone
are confident that Tony Blair’s reputation as a
committed ‘public sector reformer’ will ensure
that the disciplines of good governance,
transparency and probity are driven deep into
the heart of President Koroma’s government.
Tony Blair has identified
the potential that Sierra Leone has, and the
huge investments required for developing and
harnessing that potential. The people of Sierra
Leone are equally cognisant of the former
British Prime Minister’s role as adviser to some
of the World’s most powerful financial
institutions. They, like President Koroma are
highly optimistic that, Cousin Blair will
succeed in using his global banking connections
to leverage the much needed investment that will
kick-start the country’s economy. All hopes are
pinned on Tony Blair.
Equally, Sierra Leone’s
private sector are right to be concerned about
the prospect of the huge foreign direct
investments – approximately one Billion British
Pounds, that may end up on the government’s
‘gravy train’. It is well documented that over
70% of foreign investments in Sierra Leone
disappear as ‘capital flight’.
It is incumbent upon Tony
Blair to encourage transparency, due diligence
and probity, as and when he succeeds in helping
to raise this much needed capital investment. It
is important to stress that this investment
capital be made directly accessible to private
businesses in Sierra Leone, and managed by a new
private sector led partnership, comprising of
The Bank of Sierra Leone, The Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, The Ministry of Trade and
Industry and two of the main Commercial Banks.
This partnership body must
receive and make decisions on all applications
for Investment Loans. It should also be
responsible for monitoring and evaluating the
success and impact of every business initiative
financed under this new scheme.
No doubt, the ‘Blairite
Team’ will also be instructing the Koroma
government to conduct national Labour Market
Skills Audit; formulate and establish Job Skills
Training Programmes, which will be delivered by
private sector training providers, to meet the
needs of industry as the economy grows.
One would estimate that
initially, Sierra Leone would need at least
10,000 skilled building construction workers to
meet the immediate demand for new hotels, new
roads, new sewage and waste disposal systems,
new shopping retail outlets and new industrial
premises.
The government should
therefore urgently establish a ‘National Centre
of Excellence for Building Construction’,
through a new public-private sector partnership
involving; the University of Sierra Leone, the
Ministry of Lands and Planning, the Chamber of
Trade and Commerce, the Ministry of Education,
the large building construction and engineering
companies, to pioneer this renaissance in
national building construction.
The proposed ‘Building
Construction Skills Centre of Excellence’ should
be private sector driven, with responsibility
for brokering skills training contracts with
local training providers across the country.
Sierra Leone is not short
of potential manpower to meet the demands of a
growing economy, with over 60% of the country’s
population aged 16 – 45 years, who are highly
intelligent, highly enthusiastic, hard working,
determined to succeed and resilient.
If the attitude towards
work by some of the young people in Sierra Leone
is perceived as poor, then surely it is a
testament of the failure of government to
develop the productive capacities of people and
industry. No one is born with work ethics or
positive attitude towards work. These are learnt
behaviours. Even some of our government
ministers are just as poor in work ethics. No
one had trained or prepared them for the world
of work, not to mention ministerial job skills
training, which is why the nation is grateful
for the effort of Tony Blair’s team in providing
them with on-the-job training.
Tony Blair remarked also
that “the developing countries that weather the
economic storm most successfully will be those
that have a positive, coherent, and ambitious
vision for the future, and can show they are
serious about implementing it.”
President Koroma should
urgently solicit the help of the UNDP and World
Bank to assist in formulating a ten year
Economic Development Strategy, which has cross-
party political consensus and mandated by
parliament. Such cross-party consensus will
ensure that a change of government will always
leave the national economic development agenda
pure and unsullied. No change of government in
Sierra Leone should render the National Economic
Development Agenda obsolete.
In the twenty months that
the President has been in power, he will be the
first to agree that the World has changed, and
consequently the rules of donors and foreign
investors are changing very rapidly. There is no
sign of the President revisiting his ‘Agenda for
Change’ to ensure that it is consistent with the
new world order, which has been precipitated by
the current global financial crisis.
Agreeing new contracts with
government ministers is fine, provided that the
terms of those contracts are consistent with the
need to drive-up the economic growth needed to
tackle poverty in Sierra Leone; otherwise
ministerial performance targets become
meaningless.
Sierra Leone needs to
generate an annual income of SIX TRILLION LEONES
in order to begin to address economic decline.
The country has huge untapped potential to make
poverty history, and to start rebuilding a
nation fit for the 21st Century. But
the government needs to show the world its
vision for developing that potential. The Agenda
for Change falls well short of that
requirement.
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