Sierra Leone state broadcaster on the brink

Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) was off air yesterday after staff went on strike, calling for the dismissal of Director General Elvis Gbanabom Hallowell and other senior management staff for failing to provide sound professional leadership. A female staff of the national broadcaster, who spoke to Politico on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said the “digital studio facilities installed when this government came to power in 2007, have all broken down and the management is making no effort to repair or change them…we have now returned to the analogue system of broadcasting”. She said Hallowell and his team “care only for themselves because they are paid huge salaries with lots of allowances including fuel for their private vehicles even though they are the only ones who use official vehicles”. Workers claimed they have not been paid since the end of March and nobody was talking to them about that. As we went to press last night Hallowell was under pressure to get his staff to return to work before their grievances will be considered. Other staff members told Politico that some of their colleagues were sent on early retirement contrary to their terms of employment while Hallowell and his team are busy doing “backdoor recruitment of family members and friends”. Deputy minister of communications, Theo Nicole, said they had asked the aggrieved workers to return to work while a committee was being set up to look into the matter. At a ceremony to unveil the merger in June 2010 UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, said “SLBC is born from a marriage of UN Radio and the country’s state-controlled radio. It is a historic gift to every man, woman and child in Sierra Leone.” In just over one year the organisation started having problems. In November 2011 the auditing firm KPMG investigated the corporation and reported that “the corporation had no documented recruitment policy or procedure in place and management was not able to demonstrate how the recruitment of the staff taken on in October 2010 was carried out.” By the December 2012 the Elizabeth Smith report, commissioned by the UN, also found out that the corporation was facing major financial problems, which could impact on its reputation and independence. “It has not put in place the necessary basic financial procedures. It has been operating through 2011 without any management or departmental budgets, its financial authorization procedures are very inadequate. As a result expenditures have been incurred far beyond its income. So SLBC is now in a financial crisis,” the report stated. It also found out that “the present situation is one of disagreements between the Board and the Director General (DG). There are accusations from the Board that the DG is not providing good enough leadership, and lacks knowledge of procedures in large public institutions. From the DG there are accusations that the Board is interfering, micromanaging and usurping his role,” and recommended a recovery plan that would allow the organisation time to develop.