Sierra Leone News: Finance Ministry Concludes Annual Review of Grants Formula
In 2004, the Government of Sierra Leone re-introduced the Local Government structures in the governance of the country to serve as a vehicle of development through the decentralization process. The 2004 Local Government Act has several provisions as the legal framework to guide the decentralization process through which certain functions from the central Government are to be devolved to the Local Councils alongside the required staff and resources.
The Local Government Act, 2004 also makes provision for the use of a formula based grant distribution formula system to allocation devolve grants to Local Councils across the country that is reviewed yearly. The review of this formula for the financial year 2020 took place in Bo on the 12th and 13th September 2019. The process was facilitated by the Local Government Finance Department at the Ministry of Finance and attracted Mayors/Chairpersons of Local Councils, Heads of Devolved Functions, Chief Administrators, Local Government Finance Committee Members, Civil Society and the Media.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the review process, senior economist at the Local Government Finance department at the Ministry of Finance, Salieu Kamara stated that the annual review of the Formulae and criteria requires active participation of all stakeholders especially the Local Councils, Technical staff of the various Ministries, Department and Agencies to ensure inclusiveness, accountability and transparency of the distribution of resources across the various Councils and devolved Sectors, and the preparation of the FY 2020 budget.
David Wobay is the Chairman Local Government Finance Committee that is charged with the responsibility to recommend to the Minister of Finance the amount of grant allocations to each Local Council and also indicate the formulae used in arriving at the various amounts recommended. He thanked the Ministry of Finance through the Local Government Finance Department for using the formula based system in the distribution of grant to Councils.
Chairman Wobay said that, he want to make the Local Government Finance Committee very functional to make development at the local level very meaningful. He assured participants that allocations are not done based on political interest or preference, but rather on the formulae that has indictors and statistics from the various sectors linking finance to functions.
In his statement, the President Local councils Association, Chairman Joseph Munda Gbindi, who also doubles as the Chairman of Bo district , stated that the development of the formula rely on critical realistic figures that will help create the actual picture of the situation of each Council and the resources to be allocated. He expressed hope that the vital statistics will be accurate the make sure the formula is not biased but rather based on strong statistics.
Gbindi informed his audience that the financial Year 2020 budget should capture new functions devolved to Councils.
After the two-day deliberations, the indicators to be used in allocating devolved grant include Primary Health, Secondary Health, Solid Waste, Education, Library, Rural Water, Agriculture and Social Welfare sectors.
