By Fasakie S Kamara
Defence Minister, Major (Rtd) Alfred Paolo Conteh says that effective next fiscal year the government will be allocating US$ 20 million annually for the construction of new military barracks throughout the country. The minister made this statement in a ceremony at the Wilberforce Barracks for the start of the construction of a new market. He said the new barracks would have many facilities including dwelling units, good water and electricity supplies, schools, hospitals, churches and mosques. “That was the type of barracks I used to know 50 years ago when I was a boy” the minister said, adding that accommodation for the serving military personnel was very close to his chest. He said the market was the start of his wider plans for the barracks community. The minister spoke on international peacekeeping by soldiers saying: “I am keen on peacekeeping operations for the military personnel [as] this will improve the living standards of serving personnel”. He said that US$ 800 dollars was paid every month to each soldier in a peacekeeping operation to which there was a huge applause by the market women present. He urged the women not to allow their husbands to take another wife. But rather to use the money accumulated from peacekeeping operation to improve their life after service. The Joint Force Commander, Brigadier Bureh Sesay said that the defence minister had explored many avenues to bring about the market until he wrote to NACSA which he said had brought it to reality. He said the market would solve some welfare problems at home and would enable the women complement the efforts of their husbands. Representing the Chief of Defence Staff, Brigadier Kestoria Kabia said that a “market is a workplace for women and it has to be comfortable”. She said that many successful people from Wilberforce Barracks had their fees paid from proceeds from the market and encouraged the women to take care of the market when it would have been completed and thanked NACSA for the project. The Deputy Commissioner of NACSA, Isatu Kamara said that the project was being funded by the African Development Bank and the Government of Sierra Leone with the first tranche of payment already released to the contractor. She urged the contractor to keep within the 6-month deadline which ends in February next year. She also called on women to make use of it so it would not become a white elephant. Speaking to Politico after the pouring of libation for the start of the project, the Deputy Commissioner said the project cost over Le 200 million and stressed that the commission expected the contractor to keep to the original plan of the market. (C) Politico 19/08/13
