-World Bank Country Manager
March 10, 2016 By Jariatu S. Bangura
Country Manager of the World Bank has stated that civil servants should be held accountable for their actions as a lot of wastages and corruption have been manifested in their work for the past couple of months.
While making a presentation to the Public Sector Reform Initiatives in Parliament yesterday, Parminder P.S. Brar said the World Bank had provided $17m to government for the implementation of the reform initiative process.
“It is high time people took responsibility for things they have done. The public reform sector unit is the heart of the government and should be able to move on to a better implementation of their strategic plans. Civil servants should be held accountable for their action as President Ernest Bai Koroma has also stated that they should be held responsible and should be treated with all fairness,” said Dr. Brar.
“Presently there are fractures in the civil service as there are hybrids of people who receive lower salaries and that is not good. We have seen recent report of corruption allegations pointed at the police department,” he noted.
The World Bank Country Manager said the government still has work to do on the issue of performance contracts, adding that there was a contract agreement with auditing firm KPMG which had been put on hold because government lacked fund to support the process.
He also urged that corruption must be minimised in the civil service.
Corruption is said to be endemic in both the public and private sectors, with public perception about corruption in the former particularly high.
Director of Performance Management and Service Delivery in the Office of the Chief of Staff at State House, Abdul-Rahman Sowa stated that as the issue of examination malpractices in the education sector becomes rampant in the country, they were grappling with too many job applicants using fake certificates.
He said in the past there was nothing like value for money in the public sector, which according to him they achieved beginning 2008.
He however urged ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to collaborate during implementation period, as such was lacking and that most times some MDAs fail to perform better due to lack of synergy among them.