August 24, 2017 By Mohamed Massaquoi
The Open Government Initiative (OGI) in the Office of the President has reactivated their toll free lines in order to respond to distress calls and other concerns from members of the public, as a strategy to avert further disaster in slum and mountainous communities in Freetown and in the provinces.
OGI Director, Madam Khadija Sesay, said in an interview with this medium yesterday that her organisation was aggressively embarking on soliciting public perceptions on government response to the incident that occurred on Monday 14 August 2017, adding that they are using the toll free lines to ensure that the concerns of people actually reach government.
“We are mourning as a nation but we must be able to put mechanisms in place to avert any further disaster. It is based on this backdrop that we have reactivated the OGI 644 toll free lines opened and installed our suggestion boxes at various communities where this incident occurred,’ she said.
“All these are different mediums dedicated to citizens of this country to express their views on social accountability. In the same vein, it can also be used for complaints, suggestions, recommendations and queries they may have on this mudslide that has occurred in terms of service delivery .It is also a form of monitoring mechanism.’’
She called on humanitarian organisations to come to the aid of victims of the mudslide.