US President, Barack Obama
By Umaru Fofana
Barely one year after the country failed to meet a transparency and accountability benchmark that led to its suspension by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), Sierra Leone has faced a similar glitch, this time in the area of corruption.
The Board of the prestigious and lucrative US government Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) decided on Tuesday that Sierra Leone should not be reselected for consideration for its several hundred million dollars windfall, two months after Politico had broken the news about the possibility of that happening. It followed a hint by a senior US State Department official in Washington DC.
This puts ahead of Sierra Leone fellow West African peers of Liberia, Ghana and Niger who were reselected "as eligible to continue development of their respective compact proposals".
A press release from the MCC Board says even the supplemental information provided by the Government of Sierra Leone did not suffice and urged only "limited engagement" with the country.
A State Department source told Politico that this was "a little short of saying the country needs to do something spectacular in especially its fight against corruption to be considered any time soon".
Under the Compact the country receives nearly $ 400 million towards poverty reduction and other development programmes.
The Board discussed the fact that Sierra Leone "did not pass MCC’s control of corruption indicator...and did not put them up for a vote on reselection".
"We are very concerned when a country does not pass the control of corruption indicator,” the MCC CEO Daniel W. Yohannes is quoted as saying in the press release. He however recognises efforts made by the two West African countries to address graft.
In a press release, the US embassy in Freetown says it is "pleased to continue working with the Government of Sierra Leone and MCC on developing an MCC compact" adding that it will support the country's efforts to meet scorecard performance indicators.
Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy, Kathleen FitzGibbon said, “We applaud the hard work and resources the Government of Sierra Leone has put into the compact development to date".
An MCC team will arrive in the country next week and will work with the Government to outline next steps in the compact development process, continues the release.
The State House Chief of Staff, Dr. Richard Konteh who leads the MCC process, could not be reached for his reaction.
At the same quarterly meeting on Tuesday, the MCC Board selected Lesotho, for the second time, as eligible to develop a proposal for a new compact.
The first time the Southern African kingdom benefitted, it received US$ 363 million which it utilised within five years to expand its water supply for household and industrial use, as well as strengthened its health care system and removed barriers to foreign and local private sector investment.
The MCC Board is chaired by the US Secretary of State and comprises such members as the US Secretary of the Treasury who is the vice chair, the administrator of USAID and the US Trade Representative among others.
(C) Politico 12/12/13
