The government of Sierra Leone is broke. Although he has gone ahead and named a cabinet and appointed other heads of government agencies and departments, even going as far as expanding on the government’s wage bill by making more appointments than his first term regime, the government of Sierra Leone headed by Julius Maada Bio does not have the money to pay government workers or anyone that was getting regular pay from GOSL.
However, although the people of Sierra Leone know why the government is broke, they say they were not surprised that president Bio found money to pay the soldiers.
‘When you consider what is happening around us including but not limited to Gabon and Niger, we see why Mr Bio was eager to get the soldiers paid. There is no other way to view this. Why didn’t he pay the police, prison and other state security people? There is a fear and expectation of the worst if the soldiers are made to complain like the police officers in light of all the military actions against institutional coup plotters in the ruling regimes across west Africa,’ said a civil servant who called himself an SLPP stalwart at the Parliament Building on Tower Hill.
The strong SLPP member said without donor support, ‘the government of Sierra Leone will always be broke’, adding that ‘our sovereignty ends at where we cannot afford to do things that donors are doing for us’.
At present members of the Sierra Leone Police including the OSD and prison officers can be seen entering and leaving bank premises across the city complaining of not being paid by the government.
A police officer that called himself disgruntled at one of the banking halls in Freetown said: ‘The situation is tense. While we haven’t been paid, the government has paid the Sierra Leone Army. So, while there is no money to pay many of us, the government was able to pay the army. We believe that this regime decided to pay the soldiers over the rest of us because of their fear that the army if they are not paid might overthrow this regime in line with what is happening across west Africa, a situation that is more than riper in Sierra Leone.’
The police brass said members of the force are worried that this month could spell the beginning of them going for months without pay, something he said that would have been impossible to contemplate during president Bio’s first but very difficult term that was ushered in 2018.
‘Look, no one is unaware of how we got to this point. The country is broke because the people that are responsible or have taken on the responsibility to sponsor or support our government are presently trying to get our attention concerning the 24 June elections. The people that sponsor the government of Sierra Leone that pay our wages all have problems with how our president won the election. Many of them have stopped funding or scaled them down until this situation is resolved. The longer this government and the electoral commissioner keep refusing to do as we and our international partners are demanding, the longer we will suffer for this as a nation,’ he noted.
In the midst of public workers not getting paid, and while the whole nation is worried sick that we are witnessing the start of public workers going months without pay, the government of Sierra Leone announced that it is letting go of one hundred and thirty seven (137) workers at the Parliament Building on Tower Hill in Freetown. The public workers were sacked because government cannot afford to pay them. They joined others that were recently given their marching orders after DFID and others stopped funding. Many people in the youth ministry handling sponsored projects have also been laid off.
This action was made necessary after the foreign governments and organisations and institutions that pay many of our public servants’ salaries have refused aiding the government citing that the regime manipulated the 24 June 2023 elections result to maintain their grip on power. Members of the international community have said unless the Bio regime and the electoral commissioner do as expected, they will not be paying to prop up our government.
‘Mr Bio should have or must know how government employees have been receiving their salaries all this while. The government is broke because the president and his electoral commissioner want or made it so. By refusing to respect the will of the electorate your government is being seen as a rogue regime and no one in their right mind would sponsor a rogue or criminal regime that did not win the people’s mandate to lead. By stifling the regime we are hoping that the hardship would move them to lean on their boss and his elections manager to do the needful to save the country,’ said a member of the diplomatic corps.
The diplomat that called herself a friend of Sierra Leone said what we are experiencing is just the beginning for the SLPP government of Sierra Leone. She said they are willing to persist in their stance that the disaggregated polling data be released before funding is allowed to continue and the travel and other sanctions lifted.
‘Sadly although it is members of the regime’s attention we are trying to get it is the poor people of Sierra Leone that will suffer. We are willing to stick this out for as long as Bio and Konneh are willing to see the people of Sierra Leone suffer from job losses. If things are like this now, imagine what they will be like a year from now; I don’t even want to imagine what will happen if this is allowed to go until 2028,’ imagined the female diplomat.