News

By Hajaratu Kalokoh

The Independent Media Commission (IMC) has commended Sierra Leone’s media houses for complying with their regulations.

Officials of the media regulatory body made this statement during the launch of the ninth IMC media awards competition last week, noting that complaints from the public against media institutions and practitioners had drastically reduced. 

IMC Chairman, George S Khoryama said there was more compliance than default.

By Mabinty M. Kamara

The Director General of the National Civil Registration Commission (NaCRA), Mohamed Massaquoi says they hope to wrap up the process of preparing the national register in four months.

This week the commission announced the opening of the verification process for personal information. The data was collected during the 2017 registration process for the 2018 elections.

By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay

SL Mining, the iron ore miner which had its license cancelled by the Sierra Leone government last year has got a new favorable ruling from the International Chamber of Commerce, the company announced on Tuesday.

The new ruling known as Arbitral Tribunal’s Peremptory Order, orders among other things that the government of Sierra Leone rescind the cancellation of the license of the mining company, a subsidiary of the US-based Gerald Group.

By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay

The Minister of Energy, Alhaji Kanja Sesay has completed a tour around power stations across the country. The minister visited sites in the North, East and Southern part of the country.

Sesay’s visit was to inspect power stations that have been under construction through the West Africa Power Pool Project (WAPP). The WAPP project will take electricity from the Cote D’Ivoire through Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.  Known as the CLSG project, it is implemented by TRANSCO Company.

By Mabinty M. Kamara

The Archbishop of the Freetown Catholic Archdiocese, Edward Tamba Charles has responded to recent talks around the legality of the proposed Catholic wedding between President Julius Maada Bio and First Lady Fatima Bio.

In a rare press statement on Thursday, Father Charles said it was legal for President Bio to marry Fatima Bio in a Catholic church.

Bio is a Christian who is attached to the Catholic denomination. His wife, Fatima is a Muslim. They both got married under a civil administration.

By Hajaratu Kalokoh

In an effort to instill the culture of integrity at an early stage of growth, the Anti-Corruption Commission has engaged two schools who are members of the Integrity Clubs in Lungi.  

The engagement which was done through the Public Education and External Outreach Unit of the commission targeted both Bullom Ahmadiyya and St. Augustine Secondary Schools on the 11 and 12 February respectively. 

By Mabinty M. Kamara

An audit scorecard published by a coalition of civil society and donor groups has revealed that between 2014 and 2017 a total of Le 221, 545,652 was unaccounted for by the Ministries of agriculture, health and education as well as the National Revenue Authority (NRA).

The coalition known as the Public Finance Monitoring Consortium is made up of Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), Christian Aid, Center for Accountability and the Rule of Law, Restless Development and UK Aid.