A release from the Ministry of Finance has announced for the attention of the general public that government has allocated Le33,368,899,944 as quarterly administrative grant allocations to all twenty-two local councils in the country on Thursday 17th October, 2019.
The released funds from the Ministry of Finance are allocations for the second half of 2019 and they are geared towards meeting the devolved functions in the various Districts and Municipal Cities.
The allocation, according to the Finance Ministry, is an addition to Le 23,089,100,000 billion that was paid to local councils as their first transfer in the first half of 2019.
The beneficiary Districts and Municipal City Councils are expected by government to transfer funds being allocated to them towards the various devolved sectors’ accounts in District and Municipal City Councils, and they are urged to promote transparency and accountability in the administrations of funds allocated to them by ensuring that they display details of the amounts transferred to their various devolved sectors on notice boards at their various Municipal Cities and District councils.
The following was allocated to the various District and Municipal City Councils: Western Area Rural District Council Le 1,345,968,686, Bo District Council 1,374,241,473, Bombali District Council Le1,100,696,478, Kenema District Council Le1,499,932,047 and Port Loko District council Le2,080,290,129 respectively.
Allocations to Municipal City Councils included the Freetown City Council Le4,464,512,586, Bo City Council Le 659,426,111, Kenema City Council Le708,945,320 and Koidu New Sembehun City Council Le1,261,052,543, amongst others.
Critics say District and City Councils’ works, projects and activities are hardly in sync with their budgets as most of them hardly work in tandem with international best practices of transparency and accountability with a view to uphold financial discipline at the local level.
It is against this backdrop that CSOs are urging government and development partners to put in place monitoring and evaluation of tax payers’ moneys devolved to Local Councils as a way of fostering Transparency and Accountability.