By: Mohamed Sahr
Sheku Fantamandi Bangura, Minister of Finance, disclosed the short-term measure in the 2025 Financial Year Budget, including a statement of economic and financial policies with the theme “Improving the well-being and quality of life of Sierra Leoneans,” on Friday, November 15th, 2024, at the well of Parliament.
During his first reading, which captures some aspects of the short-term measures proposed in the Strategy, the Minister of Finance said Institutionalise separate annual payroll budget discussions for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Stating that this is an opportunity for MDAs to present their payroll plans to the Ministry of Finance, particularly on recruitments, promotions, retirements and salary adjustments.
“The Ministry of Finance will use this information to allocate realistic budgets to MDAs within the available resource envelope and institutionalise workforce payroll planning, which entails prescribing recruitment quotas for the various payroll categories, taking into consideration the available fiscal space.
Mr. Bangura added that this will reduce in-year requests from MDAs for recruitments, institute a moratorium on salary adjustments to all Sub-vented Agencies for FY2025, considering that the Wages and Compensation Commission is now operational to address wage disparity issues, adopt the policy of not operationalising newly established agencies during the year. Recruiting staff for new agencies should be aligned with the budget planning process and reconstitute the payroll Steering Committee.
He said the Committee will lead the monitoring of the reforms implemented in the Medium Term Wage Bill Management Strategy (MTWBMS). He set up a Wage Bill Forecasting Working Group. Emphasising that this group will be responsible for producing quarterly payroll forecasts that will support the leadership of the Ministry of Finance to make timely
decisions in managing the payroll budget effectively and developing a data warehouse that brings all data related to the payroll to one place, including foreign missions, pensions, and national registration data, to improve the analysis and monitoring of the wage bill.
Minister of Finance underscored that the Government will improve Budget Planning and E based on prudent management of the economy in the last twenty-two months and the ministry’s proposed reforms over the next three years, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board approved a new economic and financial programme supported under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), with expected disbursements of about US$253.0 million over the next three years.
Giving some insights on improving budget planning and execution, Mr Bangura stated that with technical assistance from the IMF, the Government is piloting Baseline Budgeting for the 2025 budget planning process to ensure the issuance of realistic medium-term expenditure ceilings and avoid under or over-budgeting by MDAs. A Baseline Budget shows the budget impact of existing programmes and projects for upcoming financial years.
Thus, baselines include ongoing programmes and projects and new ones which have been approved by the competent authority. Baseline Budgeting, therefore, ensures accurate costing of ongoing and new activities. He said the results of the Baseline Budget are compared to expenditure ceilings to determine the available fiscal space.
“Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, a total of 11 pilot MDAs were trained in Baseline Budgeting. These MDAs are the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Defence, Sierra Leone Police; Sierra Leone Correctional Services; Sierra Leone Roads Authority, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Planning and Economic Development; and Audit Service Sierra Leone,” Mr Bangura said.
The Minister of Finance highlighted that consistent with ongoing efforts to build resilience to climate risks, the Ministry of Finance will institutionalise Climate Budget Tagging. The Minister of Finance also noted that it seeks technical assistance from development partners to integrate climate budgeting into the budget process.
He said the approval of the new programme had paved the way for the negotiation of another programme under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), which will also lead to the disbursement of between US$207.0 million to US$415.0 million to support macroeconomic management and address climate-related risks. Adding that on the back of improvements in social and economic performance and governance, the Government signed the Millennium Challenge
Corporation (MCC) Compact Agreement with the Government of the United States of America for US$480.0 million to support the energy sector.
Mr. Bangura emphasised that the Government mobilised US$800.0 million in pledges from
development partners, including the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund, Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Qatar Fund for Development, and Africa 50, at the Investment Roundtable for Sierra Leone in Vienna, Austria, in support of
our Feed Salone Programme and investments in renewable energy. These pledges have begun to materialise.
He revealed that the European Union (EU) has resumed budget support operations, with expected disbursements of €90.0 million between 2024 and 2027. He stated that under the Feed Salone Programme, the ministry had reduced the importation of basic food items, including a 16 per cent reduction in rice imports, a 34 per cent decrease in onion imports, a 13 per cent reduction in chicken imports, and a 25 per cent decrease in egg imports.
He said the Feed Salone Programme distributed machinery, including 200 rice mills, 142 rice threshers, 144 combine harvesters and three landing crafts to farmers, including the distributed agricultural inputs, including 20 metric tons of foundation seeds to certified rice growers and supplied 4 million cocoa seedlings, and 1,000 plantain suckers to farmers.
Mr. Bangura mentioned that the program facilitated the cultivation of 23,438 hectares of land and rehabilitated 1,950 hectares of Inland Valley Swamps (IVS) across the country.
He said the Government constructed 200km of feeder roads and four rural bridges in Kailahun, Karene, Bonthe, and Pujehun districts to enhance connectivity and market access. Developed 5,000 hectares of irrigation infrastructure in Tormabum with support from BADEA and IsDB; The Bank of Sierra Leone launched a US$10.0 million Agricultural Credit Facility with low interest rates for rice, onion, and poultry farmers. The government mobilized an additional US$7.9 million
through the World Bank-funded Food Systems Resilience Project (FSRP) for the rice, cassava and livestock value-chains;
The Minister of Finance stated that the Salone Access to Finance Project, launched with support from the EU and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), totalled US$10.0 million to provide interest-free loans and insurance products to protect farmers against climate risks, among other things. He said the IsDB provided US$2.0 million for an interest-free loan scheme for agribusinesses in the rice value chain.