IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Accountable and Transparent Leadership For National Cohesion
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone: Media and Civil Society Consortium in Sierra Leone commend the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) led Government for establishing the Governance Transitional Team of eminent personalities from different academic disciplines to serve as focal point for interface with the outgoing All People’s Congress Government of President Ernest Bai Koroma and incoming Government of President Julius Maada Bio.
“The most important result of accountability is trust, which is essential in any governance structure. Accountability and transparency inspire confidence and therefore those who are leaving should account for their stewardship from 2007 to 2018,” said lead campaigner Elkass Sannoh.
In as much as we commend the outgoing APC Government for their past stewardship, we want to remind both Presidents (former and current) that there were a lot of denials between President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s (RIP) SLPP led Government and President Ernest Bai Koroma’s APC administration over the amount of money left in the national purse when the former handed over power in 2007.
Also to be noted was the Commission of Inquiry set up by the outgoing APC Government which outcome was not in public domain. It was only alleged that erstwhile ministers and departmental heads in the Kabbah administration were investigated.
As a consortium calling for accountability and prudent leadership, we want the new government, this time around, to avoid a repeat of such denials, accusations and counter accusations by taking proper stock of what the previous government left in the coffers.
To further justify our call, Section 119 of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone empowers the Auditor General to audit the public purses of Sierra Leone, including all public offices and officials. The Governments of Sierra Leone (President Koroma and Kabbah) established the Audit Service Act 2014, Financial Administration Regulation 1998, Public Budgeting and Accountability Act 1998 (replaced), Government Budgeting and Accountability Act 2005, Financial Management Regulations and the amended Anti Corruption Act of 2008.
The above legal instruments were to hold Government functionaries accountable for their stewardship. The country can only achieve these through a transparent governance system that is on course to rolling out a transparent trajectory plans.
We wish to join majority of Sierra Leoneans who are calling on His Excellency to investigate the outgoing APC Government to account for their stewardship and allow a remedial legal action through the Court of law.
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CONTACTS
Elkass Sannoh Abu Bakar Tarawally
LEAD CAMPAIGNER Sierra Leone News
Moses Mambu Mohamed Bah
Child Welfare Society International Campaign for Rule of Law and Democracy
Abu Bakarr Kamara Ibrahim Konneh
Center for Media Communications Accountability Sierra Leone
Cc: HE President Julius Maada Bio Chairman Sierra Leone People’s Party
Chairman and Leader opposition All People’s Congress Party
Chairman National Grand Coalition Party
Chairman Coalition for Change Party
Press
