YELLOW CARD DISAPPEARS FROM PRINCIPAL’S BACK POCKET
From another ministerial retreat came another cryptic comment from Principal. Principal talks very little and smiles sparingly. He is reported to have told ministers and parastatal bosses that he has lost his “yellow card” and that he will be more “intrusive” as from now on in the running of what we call MDAs – Ministries, Departments and Agencies in this country. Well, there were some dry smiles across the room masking anxiety for some and resignation for others.
We’ve spent the last few hours trying to understand how Principal wants to administer a whole football match with just a RED CARD. And what more “INTRUSIVE” means in terms of political governance in Sierra Leone.
Surely a referee who goes into a match without a YELLOW CARD will do one of two things – oversee a match in which all the players are as well behaved as Sierra Leoneans being interviewed for a US visa, or produce a farce of disgraceful proportion with only a handful of players remaining on the pitch even before the regulation time of NINETY minutes. Remember, once a player is thrown out of the field by means of a RED CARD, they cannot be replaced. Translated into running the country, Principal will end up running half his ministries within the next six months because a lot is now happening in some ministries and homes that are threatening his New Direction Agenda. We are not talking about the alleged loss of thousands of US dollars somewhere or a parastatal boss who spends all his time challenging constituted authority.
We understand that even before he left for London recently, Principal was completing plans to do what he promised during the last re-shuffle of his government. He promised then that: “more appointments will be announced soon”. He has overstretched the meaning of the word SOON but it’s beginning to look like things are about to happen. Our sources tell us the next strike will be wide-ranging and will take out even heads of Parastatals, Commissions and other agencies of government. Watch out!
Now let’s turn to Principal’s pledge to be more “intrusive” in 2020 into the work of his MDAs. Here’s how we think this “intrusive” approach will be carried out in practice.
1. For ministers who come to work late, they are very likely to walk in one day to find Principal sitting in their chair and working their files. Those who leave early for Number Two River with friends will be called back to the office at 4:30 for a meeting chaired by Principal inside their office.
2. An intrusive Principal also means that heads of parastatals and ministers who hold on to files for days just to demonstrate how powerful they are while ordinary people suffer; Principal will ask for those files and approve or reject them in a very timeous manner and of course that defaulting minister will see a RED CARD.
3. In 2020, Principal will tell all failing ministers and parastatal bosses to disband their many media teams and send home their hired social media assassins because there’s too much spinning going on. Principal wants actual delivery on the ground that reflects on the lives of the ordinary Sierra Leonean not social media stories of ministers “exceling” just because they turn up at international conferences.
4. Principal will also intervene directly in the waiting rooms of his ministers. What happens in those places is absolute madness. Many people are packed into those small rooms waiting to see ministers, sometimes on appointment. They spend hours there without getting to see those ministers. Principal will introduce a strict booking system and make it impossible for anybody to sneak into Youyi Building in particular with a clear appointment. Principal will also clear those boys selling cars in the open ground of Youyi Building close to the fence with China House.
5. At least we now know that all this talk about orders from Principal was all wicked lies. By announcing he would now be “intrusive”, we take it that for two years he appointed people and allowed them to do their jobs without much question. Realizing now that many have disappointed him, Principal wants to get the job done himself. We wish him well. We must add though that doing this means he will not attend many international conferences even when personally invited and he should be ready to go home exhausted on a daily basis.
HALF OF ALL GUEST HOUSES ARE NOT REGISTERED
We saw the outcome of a recent survey telling us that 44% of all guest houses and hotels in Sierra Leone are not REGISTERED. This is totally unbelievable! We didn’t get the details so bear with some of our very stupid questions. Is it that some of the operators refused to register or have NEVER been contacted since they started operations? The point is the last thing we want to hear is that people who make so much money, particularly in Freetown and the peninsula have never paid or have refused to register so that they can operate outside the law?
For the operators, remaining outside the law simply means not paying taxes. How wicked! If it were only a few of them we would not be so concerned about them to write this comment but we are talking here about 44% of this huge number. This is very serious.
It’s a good thing to commission such an investigation because it now serves as the document with which to go after them. Because these guest houses and hotels are so many we will suggest the following measures to make sure we recover every penny they have attempted to steal from us.
1. Hand this file over to Afro Boy for him to start inviting them to his office for questioning. Soon the national coffers will be over-flowing with cash
2. Close those guest houses and hotels that defaulted on their tax payments and ask them to pay all arrears before they can return to business. No bogus payment plans please.
3. Or we should put out a statement telling all their customers not to pay a cent for using those facilities unless they were presented with a valid business registration paper. There is nothing wrong with that.
4. Please we don’t want to hear any nonsense about “de gron dry”. We know how profitable this guest house business is. The operators don’t pay taxes yet they charge big money and they pay their staff-starvation wages. We cannot allow this to continue. Let’s act now.
5. Should the good and regular customers decide to settle the bills of these guest houses because they find them useful, we have no problem with that. We sound a note of caution though that keeping such information secret is NOT our responsibility at all. So if a woman finds out that her husband who can’t pay their children’s fees is paying to keep a guest house in business, they will know where the priorities lie.
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