By Nasratu Kargbo
The latest Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) scorecard has indicated a drop in the control of corruption indicator. Even though the country met the standard set by MCC, the nation declined by three percent from last year’s scorecard.
The scorecard which was published on the 7th November 2023 shows that Sierra Leone scored 76%, - a 3% drop from last year’s 79%. The nation passed ten out of twenty indicators.
In 2022 and 2021, the country even had better scores 83% and 81% respectively.
Another indicator highlighted in the scorecard is Child Health, where the country made a little progress, despite not meeting MCC’s standards. For 2024, the country recorded 22%, which is a 7% increase from 2023’s 15%. Sierra Leone maintained 17% for in both the years 2022 and 2021.
Sierra Leone recorded its worst score in the area of Fiscal Policy with 7%, a drastic drop from 26% and 27% in 2023 and 2022 respectively.
Speaking in an interview with Politico, Head of Communication at the Anti-Corruption Commission Sylvanus Blake said they take the result as a positive one, if one is to compare Sierra Leone’s performance to that of other countries in the region such as Egypt, Nigeria, Liberia, Mali and Morocco amongst others.
“It’s a learning process, where we miss, we will readjust and improve our scores” Blake said.
In a meeting held on the 6th November 2023, American Ambassador to Sierra Leone Bryan David Hunt had presented the scorecard to President Julius Maada Bio.
The Ambassador said “This is an excellent way to assess the government's progress. This government has consistently continued to improve on the various scores in the MCC Scorecard”. He explained that the MCC Board will be meeting next month to decide on which countries will be re-selected for the MCC Compact.
President Julius Maada Bio said “From the MCC scorecard, I have seen that my government has consistently made progress in the area of gender, control of corruption, regulatory policies, and health expenditure, employment opportunity, among others. Apart from the MCC compact that we will eventually have to benefit from, it is good for us to know what progress we are making”.
The President expressed delight for the strides his government has made, and committed to work harder for the benefit of Sierra Leoneans.
He added that “Even though 2023 was political and an election year, my government did very well to pass the MCC scorecard. It shows that we did not lose sight of what we had planned to do in 2023”
Copyright © 2023 Politico (08/11/23)
