By Hassan Y. Koroma
The Parliamentary Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs on Wednesday 15 November 2023 asked Local Councils to collaborate with Parliament for effective implementations of their development projects.
During the meeting in the House of Parliament at Tower Hill in Freetown, the acting Committee chairman, Hon. Edward George, highlighted some of the Committee’s commitments and the confidence reposed on Local Councils to give them reliable information which would enable them to debate effectively on the 2024 appropriation which would commence soon.
Hon. Edward George said the 2024 appropriation debate would take a new face as they would focus on their various sectors. According to him, MPs relied on Local Councils to undertake development in their various localities, adding that as MPs they were only implementing some projects due to the promises they made to their people but that in actual fact it was not their responsibility.
He also spoke on the failures of Sectoral Heads to go to work in a bid to raise the profile of those communities. He said in most cases, sector heads were not feeling obliged simply because their salaries were not coming directly from Local Councils.
Hon. George noted that the engagement with them would not only look at Local Councils’ activities but would also add value to their work in the implementation of the devolved functions and the challenges they were facing with regards to their budget allocations.
On her part Hon. Rugiatu Pessima, one of the Committee members, promised to collaborate with Local Councils to get their funds but urged them to fully implement their projects after they would have received the funds.
Other members of the Committee were also concerned about the untimely disbursement of funds by the Ministry of Finance. They also urged Sectoral Heads to collaborate with Local Councils.
The Parliamentary Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs promised to engage the Finance Minister and the Chief Administrators to have frank discussions with them.
Some of the Local Council that were in attendance were the Port Loko, Moyamba, Karene, Kenema, and Bombali District Councils.