November 6, 2019
By Ibrahim Tarawallie
Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa should do the needful
The Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI) has demanded an immediate clean up in the Ministry of Finance because of the woeful failure on the fiscal policy indicator in the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) fiscal year 2020 scorecard.
The MCC announced last Friday November 1, 2019 that Sierra Leone has passed 11 out of the 20 indicators on the fiscal year 2020 scorecard and thus eligible for a compact consideration.
Whilst the country performs extremely well in the control of corruption indicator, scoring 79%, its fails woefully in the fiscal policy indicator with a score of 0.4% despite the policy reforms introduced by the current regime.
According to CHRDI Chief Executive, Abdul M. Fatoma, the abysmal failure should not be blamed on the policies not working because those leading the ministry have a responsibility of changing them.
“We have failed because those at the helm of affairs in the ministry of finance lack the ability to manage the country’s economy. They are not doing us any favour. I believe the previous year we were 15 but now we went down 11 spaces. If the president is serious about getting the economy back on track, he has to clean up that ministry,” he urged.
He claimed that the score is real, looking at the faces of citizens, while describing the bread and butter issue as challenging because no one family will be able determined as to what would be the budget for the next day because on a daily basis, inflation keeps going up.
Fatoma noted that if significant gains can be mustered in the control of corruption and setting up business indicators, then same should be said for fiscal policy because the government has been in governance for 18 months and the scorecard covers only 12 months.
“We cannot have bunch of arrogant people managing the finance of this country. They lack the knowhow on how to move us from the place we currently occupy as a nation. We need people with the requisite practical expertise to get us to where we want to be because if not, we will lose the gains that we have made in the fight against corruption in the next fiscal year,” he said.
The CHRDI chief executive also said the country fails in the child health indicator, which is a huge social challenge and civil liberty- a corner stone to the country’s democracy.
He added that over the years, Sierra Leoneans have been denied the right to demonstrate for things that they are not in favour of, which is their democratic right.