The name of Dr. Sarah Bendu, the erstwhile Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) and now the Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Authority, has always been an epitome of success when it comes to the management of parastatals in Sierra Leone.
As the first female Executive Director of the SLRSA, Sarah Bendu left an unimaginable legacy at the country’s Road Safety sector, by undertaking a lot of image branding and rebuilding activities, using regional and internationally accepted practices. She has been able to explore the international and sub-regional players in the Road Safety Sector to increase the profile of the SLRSA over the years.
It is no secret that the country was recording very high numbers in terms of road traffic accidents. Under her watch, she was able to fully execute and bring to the fore Traffic Wardens and other critical projects that made the business of road safety a highly collaborative and inter departmental fight.
Dr.Bendu was able to effectively coordinate the entire sister agencies in the road sector and developed realistic and practical plans towards improving on road safety.Her administration was not oblivious of the fact that raising awareness around road safety, especially among young pupils in schools, was key to reducing these incidents. Her establishment of a number of road safety clubs and her strong partnership with organizations working in the sector was very conspicuous.
She bagged a lot of awards both internationally and nationally for her contribution towards road safety in the country. It is therefore no doubt that she was able to survive the tsunami of the New Direction when she was re-appointed as the Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Authority, which is very similar to that of her previous assignment.
For her, the task before her now, at the SLMA,is narrow and limited in scope, compared to her former assignment at the SLRSA.
With the wealth of experience she has gained at the road safety sector, it is with no doubt that she would hit the ground running at the SLMA, where she started off with an assessment of the status of various jetties and landing sites within the country.
The initial assessment trip, according to Dr.Bendu, was conducted for her to be able to get a firsthand experience on practical issues facing the sea transportation, which remains important for her new administration.
Few months down the line, Dr. Sarah Bendu has prioritized safety at sea as a cardinal activity and every thing is being done to raise awareness around safety on sea. She strictly followed the rules and regulations while also imposing fines and taking other stringent measures against defaulters.She is poised to ensure that strict adherence, to the use of life jackets and adherence to time for vessels to ply our waters, is followed.
Another key milestone, the SLMA Director has achieved within the shortest possible time, is to be able to push for the immediate retirement of people within the SLMA.That is, over the retirement age in line with the President Bio’s vision to reduce the wage bill and improve on fiscal management of the payroll. She has made this another key priority under his leadership at the SLMA even if she would have to offend anybody.
Dr. Bendu has also clearly provided an impetus for transparency and accountability at the SLMA in the collection and management of funds accrued from the sector, by rigorously pushing for bank transactions to replace physical interface in the collection of government revenues.
It is therefore no doubt that revenue generation in the sector will double in the Fiscal Year 2019.
Dr. Sarah Bendu – An Epitome Of Success
