April 23, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
Over an audio that was widely circulated on both social and mainstream media purported to be the voice of the Mayor of the Freetown Municipality preaching hate and tribal messages, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Tamba Lamina has yesterday the 22nd of April, demanded for an unequivocal apology from the Mayor.
Briefing journalists at the Ministry of Information and Communications’ regular Thursdays’ presser, Minister Lamina intimated that since the infamous audio was leaked from the Mayor of Freetown few weeks back, the Minister disclosed that they officially wrote the Mayor requesting her to unequivocally apologize to the public for such hurtful statements that she (Mayor) made against a section of Sierra Leone’s Population.
Since then, Minister Lamina added that his Ministry also informed the Mayor that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development will form an independent administrative investigation of the Freetown City Council bordering on relationship and that of the fiduciary management of the Free Town City Council.
“Today, I am here on behalf of the ministry to inform you that we are still requesting that the Mayor of Freetown makes an unequivocal apology without excuses to the public for statements that have hurt part of the country’s population. The remarks while being unacceptable, have caused so much pain to many people that have complained to the ministry. In that regard, the authorization based on the content of that audio and issues that emerged in the audio, require the ministry as a responsible ministry to the state to look into those issues that were raised by the Mayor of Freetown”, he demanded.
In that regard, minister Lamina further asserted that, they have developed terms of reference as a ministry for the aforementioned investigation. As part of the terms of reference for the investigation, Minister Lamina also disclosed that the inquiry into the action of the Mayor will last for three weeks including a two week in-depth investigation and inquiry within the Freetown City Council and its related environs. He added that anther week has also been allocated so that the report on the investigation and inquiry on the Freetown City for onwards submission to the ministry.
He emphasized that the terms of reference would also include; to review the Human Resources arrangement in the Council which including recruitments, Job allocations, performance managements, discipline etc; to assess the general administration of the Council, management structure, function, decision making, records management delegation of role and responsibilities etc; to review the composition and functioning of standing committee as per the Local Government Act of 2004 and to determine their effectiveness otherwise; to assess the quality of financial management policies and regulations as well as resource and funding utilization and documentations; to assess the general work or operating environment, attention to functional relationship between staff and management at various etc; and lastly, to assess the general execution of the council’s mandates or service delivery to community empowerment and development.
As part of the mandate of the Local Government and Rural Development, he said the ministry is to support local councils and supervise their operations.
He added that the ministry has completed capacity assessment for all local councils over the years with the aim of developing capacity strategy which is currently under implementation. He also disclosed that the ministry also instituted another institutional inquiry sometimes last into the Waterloo Rural District Council for staffing relating to non NASSIT payment and coupled with other numerous issues within the councils.
He reiterated that as public officers are accountable to the public as well as the supervising ministries, it is appropriate for public officials to take responsibility for statements that are completely unacceptable especially to the general public. He assured that the seven-man committee would be independent adding that, members of the seven-man committee have always exhibited fairness and impartiality in whatever they have done in public life.