April 13, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
Responding to the much talked about increment of wage bill under his government, President Bio has in the recently organized Town Hall meeting disclosed that his government has been consistent in paying timely salaries to all public and civil servants without resulting to bank overdraft and accumulation of huge domestic and external debts as was in the case during the previous government with low wage bill.
Addressing audience at the town hall meeting, President Bio noted that before now, everybody especially the teachers and nurses were demanding for pin-codes. He said the past government was used to training a lot nurses and teachers and just abandoned them. He said in actual fact, the country needs their services. He added that the country still needs more nurses as well as more teachers.
“We have taken onboard about 5000 teachers and 4000 nurses and that is still inadequate. How do you want to be taken care of if you go to the hospital today and effective and efficient nurses are not there? A lot of them have been trained and they were never on the pay roll but rather served as volunteers in most government hospitals. We are talking about education and how can we embark on education without the quality aspect which is provided by the teachers. Thousands of teachers are still languishing after having been trained and no pin codes. And the opposition of those who talk about increase in the wage bill were not able to pay that small number during their administration, but we have been able to pay ours consistently since we came to governance”, he affirmed.
President Bio reiterated that, Human Capital Development is his government’s flagship programme and for him and his team to deliver on that especially on the education aspect, they need good and well-motivated teachers. He said because teachers are very key in his Human Capital Development drive, that was the very reason his government increased the allowance of teachers by 10%, and also increased their salaries by another 30% of which, the same increments were replicated for nurses adding that those monies were not monies wasted but a firm justification for the continuous increase in the Country’s expenditures.
Addressing the issue of job opportunities especially in the mining sector, President Bio has also assured that his government is government is going to provide more jobs but only that, he urged all and sundry to correct the mistakes that were done in the mining agreement during the last administration. He further reassured that whatever his government is doing is aimed at salvaging the situation that would be in the best interest of the country. He said he want to see a situation wherein, Sierra Leoneans are benefiting more from the country’s natural resources of which the country is not getting much at the moment. He refrained from delving into the SL mining situation since the matter is in court, but gave his only option that at the end of the day, his government will have a better deal with SL Ming and that Sierra Leone will benefit more from the natural resources.
He denied claims that the government has given the railway and Port to a single mining company as completely wrong. He confirmed that that the asset now belongs to the state and will make more money.
“I am saying again “paopa salon go betteh” (Sierra Leone will develop by all possible means). if we are saying it was a messy situation therefore we cannot just jump into it and let things continue as usual. I know I need to give job to many Sierra Leoneans but I am deliberately holding on to this so that we can have better arrangement.