By Donstance Koroma
The leader of the National Grand Coalition Party (NGC) in Parliament, Hon. Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, said reports from the Sub -Committee of Supply have taught him many things, including what the lawmaker described as fallacy of riches.
He said listening to the billions of leones ministries, departments and agencies are asking for, “one may have the feeling that the country has money, but taking into consideration what was allocated and disbursed point to the fact that the nation doesn’t any have such money.
The legislator continued that there is this fallacy of riches that billions of Leones should be given to ministries, departments and agencies but in reality, what is actually given is much less, especially to the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs.
Hon. Yumkella noted that amounts allocated to MDAs only cover their overhead costs, which makes it very difficult for service delivery.
“In reality this is visible in many of the budgets dealt with by the Parliamentary Sub-Committee of Supply recently,” Dr Yumkella said.
The Leader of the NGC said there is an ambition to boost staff with very little money, and it makes it impossible for service delivery as greater amounts of the monies are being spent on overhead costs.
He called for advocacy for strong institutional reforms if the nation is to maintain the same set of institutions without going deeper to check whether they have value for money and capable of delivering or not.
Hon Yumkella added that, as a nation, they are just spreading the national cake right through without any delivery of services and called for the need to merge certain institutions.
“Looking at certain ministries, they do have so many commissions and agencies with a lot of duplications,” Hon. KKY noted.
Hon. Yumkella recalled that when he used to deal with budget, amounting to 3-4 million dollars, he is sometimes prompted to make tough decisions for certain institutions to merge together, taking into consideration their terms of reference and if they perform contrary, which will result to the reduction of the budget allocation.
Secondly, the lawmaker added that Kambia District, like Kailahun and Kabala Districts, is one of the biggest revenue generators in the state, with tons of agencies like the National Revenue Authority (NRA) and others collecting revenues. He boasted that Kambia District has the largest international market in the country, but ponders as to how much of that amount stays in the said district.
Hon. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella pointed out the 2019 allocation to Bonthe and Kambia Districts, which is less than four hundred thousand (400,000) United States dollars. He said the money will not make much difference in those areas as such allocation is nothing but a pittance.
Such realities point to the fact that the country is very poor with too many institutions benefiting from the national cake and also not performing properly.
What is allocated to the Kambia District Council for health care and garbage collection further speaks volumes to the fact that they can’t function, because the said allocation is just for the upkeep of the staff. This is why hard decisions are needed because the state has to pay its citizens well to perform their functions. So real resources, to certain institutions, for the delivery of services effectively must be given same, he pinpointed.
The vibrant legislator also cited the public sector expenditure and management, which he said speaks volumes as the country continues to recycling staff. He said unless the nation built strong institutions the problems will continue unabated.
Past and present governments continue to give institutions little money, he said, adding that those institutions can’t be effective and it kills governance and development and weaken growth, which makes the nation run around actively but still living in the same spot.