Minister of Local Government, A. Y. Brewah addressing participants at the workshop
By Max A Konneh
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Anthony Brewah disclosed plans to introduce reforms that would strengthen and deepen the on- going decentralization process in the country. Speaking at a two-day Orientation Workshop, organized by the Decentralization Secretariat for key local councils officials from PortLoko, Bombali, Freetown and Western Area Rural Districts on clarification of roles and responsibilities in the implementation of Community Management Initiatives, Participatory budgeting and Grievance Redress Mechanism initiatives at the Port Loko District Council Hall, the Minister who also revealed plans to revitalize the rural development sector of his ministry, intimated that in the last 100 days, his ministry has undertaken a number of activities including the issuance of correspondences to colleague ministers and heads of ministries, departments and agencies which are yet to devolve their functions, detailing out the outstanding functions, providing guide and guidelines for the devolution of functions in line with President Bio’s directive. The minister also revealed plans to organize a National Orientation and Induction programme for Mayors, Chairmen and Councilors, saying that his ministry has held discussions with the office of the Vice President to reactivate the Inter-ministerial Committee meeting on decentralization. In an effort to address the Human Resource Management challenges facing the on-going decentralization process, he said his ministry has initiated high level policy discussions on the possibility of harmonizing the local government human resource service and the civil service, adding that his ministry has also commenced a comprehensive audit of the human resource situation of local councils. He also informed his audience that his ministry has undertaken  the review of the National Decentralization Policy and Local Government Act, 2004 has been reactivated and that the Drafting Instructions for the review for the Act has been shared with council of paramount chiefs, Tribal Heads and Association of Headmen. He thanked the government of Japan and the World Bank for providing funds for the implementation of the “Strengthening Community Mobilization and Local Councils Service Delivery in the post- Ebola context. The Director of Decentralization Secretariat, Alhassan Kanu said the main thrust of the programme was to orientate key officials of the local councils participating in the project on the fundamentals and processes of the Participatory Budgeting, Community, Monitoring, Initiatives and Grievance Redress Mechanism, Roles, Responsibilities and functions, discuss linkages among the three initiatives to better understand how they will reinforce each other towards promoting effective service delivery, validate the list of communities in the Port Loko and Freetown City Councils and discuss indicators and data collection procedures for CMI. He said the project was designed to capacitate councils worst affected by the Ebola pandemic and averred that since the project commenced, implementation has taken a smooth path.
Whilst thanking all for gracing the occasion. Resident Minister, North West, Isata Kamara described the workshop as an opportunity to build the capacity project implementers in councils and entreated them to always work in close collaboration with their communities to ensure effective service delivery. Welcoming guests earlier, the Chief Administrator, Port Loko District Council, Raman Tom Farma, appreciated the effort of government in rebranding the local councils, saying that the initiative will help address social accountability at local level. In his closing remarks, the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Philip Tetema Tondoneh described the workshop as an important experience sharing initiative and urged participants to always consider quality control to achieve desired outputs.
Presentations were made by facilitators from the Decentralization Secretariat and Freetown City Council on various topics including, General overview of the Japanese Social Development Fund Project (JSDF), Participatory Budgeting and Importance of Community Monitoring Initiative under the JSDF and Roles of the Local Council Staff Association (LCSA).