By Richard Kemoh & Donstance Koroma
The Fifth Session of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone Committee on Local Government and Rural Development romanced with local councils at Parliament Committee Room No.1 on Thursday 9th August, 2018.
The motive of meeting with local councils is for them (MPs) to interface with the different councils to better understand some of the challenges they face before the committee.
Hon. Kemokoh Conteh , Chairman, among other things, said local councils are the bridge for community development and as a result invites councils to update the committee on their activities , constrains faced as council in their respective municipalities.
Madam Vivian Senesie, Chief Administration Officer, Kenema District Council, in an interview with this press, confirmed that the Kenema City Council stopped receiving fund from the government of Sierra Leone since August 2017.
She added that the only remedy was that the council is strong to carry out its functions through resources generated internally with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) that normally chipsin as assistance, but pointed out that the council still suffer from mountain of challenges to a point that Kenema no longer looks like city but a big village and called on the central government to look into their situation in order to match up with other councils across the country.
Madam Senesie added that, in 2015, the council laid off 79 staff to enable them match up with the daily routings of the Ministry of Labour. This created problems for the council, as the council was unable to pay. That failure resulted to court action, where the council was fined forty four million leones (Le 44,000,000.00) to be paid in January, 2018.
She noted that the Ministry of Finance was able to chip in 50,000,000, from tax payers’ money to settle the said issue.
Madam Senesie continues that they have programs the council is funding, including 18 PHU in the council for which 15 are owned by private sector and three owned by the state.
She called on the government, through the Ministry of Local Government, to help them complete the Kenema City Hall that was started during the time of Hon J.B.Dauda.
Addressing the audience, Hon. Brima Mansaray of Constituency 017 from Kenema district called on the government and agencies concerned to construct the roads within the Kenema district regardless of the fact government has already awarded the contract to Temack Construction Company and the necessary funding to avoid delay of the said contract.
Members on the Committee on Local councils are:Hon. KemokohConteh of Constituency 108, Waterloo Town, Hon. Brima Mansaray of Constituency 017,Kenema district, Hon. Ahmed Samba Turay of Constituency 073, Port Loko District, Hon. Catherine Zainab Talawalley of Constituency 037in Makeni, Hon. John SartieKargbo of Constituency 111 in the Hastings Community, Hon. Bai Samba Kamara of Constituency 060 in Kambia District, Hon. Sahr T.Gbanah of Constituency 004 in Kailahun District, Mr. Kemoh Marrah, Committee Clerk, Hon. Mustapha M. Sellu of Constituency 095 in Moyamba District and Hon. Bashiru Sediki of Constituency 082 in Bo District.`