February 16, 2021
By: Mohamed M. Sesay
Honorable Members of the Local Government and Rural Development Committee in Parliament have yesterday the 15th of February, played a mediatory role between Chief Administrators (CAs), Mayors and Chairpersons in Local Councils over what they considered as centralized, unmandated and unprocedural recruitment of Core staff for their respective Local Councils.
Chairman of the Local Government Committee Hon. Aaron Aruna Koroma said they are abreast with section 20 of the Local Government Act, affirming that the Act provides the full legislative powers to political authorities to carry on with the respective activities in Local Councils. He added that parliament summoned chairpersons and Chief Administrators of Local councils based on a letter they received from cross-section of Chairpersons and Mayors across the country which were co-endorsed by the Local Councils Association of Sierra Leone (LoCASL). He noted that, LoCASL is recognized to be the body charged with the responsibility to coordinate the affairs of the Local Councils. He added that the letter addressed to the committee dated the 9th of February, raised concerns on what they referred to as unmandated and unprocedural recruitment of cores staff for Local Councils which precipitated the need to summoned the Chief Administrators, Chairpersons and Mayors of Local Councils in order to have a roundtable discussion.
The Deputy Leader of Government Business Hon. Bashiru Silikie also said most of the times; Ministries, Departments and Agencies do not normally respect the very Act that created them. He encouraged colleague members of the committee to deal with the issue in tandem with the various provisions of the law adding that, they don’t have any personal interest neither support anybody but rather fulfilling their social contracts with the people that elected them.
“All of us have a social contract as elected officials between ourselves and the people who elected us and we need to deliver for them. Our excuses after our tenure will not be accepted by our people and most of the time we are voted out because of these discrepancies. We are voted out because we don’t respect the laws that created us” said Hon. Silikie.
The President of Local Councils Association Sierra Leone (LoCASL), who also doubles as Chairman of Bo District Council Joseph Munda Bindi, affirmed that LoCASL which constitutes the twenty-two Local Councils across the country indeed raised concerns on the recruitment and personnel management in the Local Council. He added that the current issue was raised under the auspices of Minister Brewah, but the issue was not addressed until Minister Brewah was replaced with Hon. Tamba Lamina at the Ministry of Local Government.
He added that on the 5th August 2020, the Local Government Service Commission released an advertisement for recruitment of core staff in all of the twenty-two local councils, but said LoCASL frowned at that recruitment process indicating that it was wrongfully done taking into cognizance of section 31 and 32 of the Local Government Act of 2004 which says, “there shall be a Chief Administrator of each Local Council who shall be appointed by the local council”.
He continued that when the advertisement was issued without referencing any council, Munda Bindi said they wrote a letter to the Minister of Local Government but said the Minister never took action neither acknowledged the letter they wrote. He furthered that on the 26th of August 2020, LoCASL also wrote a complaint letter to the house of Parliament which members of the committee in their wisdom advised them to go and resolve the issue as a family. He added that based on the advice given by Parliament by then, he said the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government invited LoCASL at a meeting but sadly, they did not get to a conclusion indicating that, the chairman of the Commission told them that they got a directive from the Minister of Local Government not to talk to LoCASL.
President Mundi Bindi concluded that the wrongful and unprocedural recruitment of staff by the Local Government Service Commission was an affront to the Local Government Act, and a clear violation on the Human Resource Guideline gearing towards removing the autonomy for which the councils were established. He said LoCASL is very concerned with the manner in which things are going, adding that decentralization is the only way out for the country.
In her contribution, the Chief Administrator of the Bombali District Vivian Sally Senesie said they have gone astray over the years and therefore, encouraged all to begin again as a family with the nitty-gritty unifying the twenty-two councils. She added that immediately after the election, they were asked to bring their credentials for interviews of which they were all interviewed just after the election. She appealed to other members to respect authorities desist from taking issues of Local Councils and discussed it on radio.
Having heard from members of Councils, the Chairman of the Local Government Hon. Aaron Aruna Koroma, also appealed to Chairpersons and Chief Administrators of councils to live as a family, and vehemently condemned the recent radio engagement by members of councils. Hon. Aaron Koroma continued that the committee would not pass a judgment, but rather to invite the Executive Secretary and his team of commissioners, and probably the minister of Local Government and Rural Development in order to have an interactive session about the recruitment process of cores staff for local councils.
