By Umaru Fofana
Some of the infrastructural initiatives happening in the country these days are flummoxing – in a very positive way. I cannot help but ask myself sometimes why we had to leave it until now to do some basic fixings to our basic needs. I am not talking about the impressive roads being and already built. I have probably said a lot too much about that already. I am talking about the Freetown International Airport at Lungi.
Sometimes you do not appreciate how much your child has grown up because you live with and see them almost always. So when, some time ago, Ipassed through the airport almost every other week, I did not know how much was being put into it. But when sometime last April I was taken on a conducted tour of the expanded area of the airport, I could not help but be impressed by the extension happening at the only airport the Sierra Leone Airports Authority now has. May be the “s” in “Airports” should be deleted this minute. But that’s for another day…
However, the check-in area of the expanded area of the airport made me feel as if I was somewhere at the Oliver Tambo Airport in Johannesburg. Plans for modern carousels to be laid out are far advanced. It takes away the shame that we have all been enduring for generations – the decrepit state of our international airport. The only one we have.
That said, the manner in which and the contractor was selected for the refurbishmentof the airport was suspect. I do not wish to say much about that, for now, as we are investigating it. Suffice it to say though that funds towards the work came from outside source – not from the Airports Authority funds.If anything came from there it was negligible. So it begs the question as to why travellers pay the huge amount they do as airport tax.
At US$ 65 we have one of the highest airport taxes anywhere in the world. When it was raised from $40 hardly was any reason given. It had nothing to do with inflation or the weakness of our currency because it has always been charged in US dollars or the black market equivalent. Then it was increased by over 60%. The reason, I have been reliably informed, was to create jobs for people who are largely unemployable all because a political promise had been made to Bullomites during the 2007 elections that jobs galore would be provided for them at the airport.And that had to be fulfilled even if at the expense of others and of reasoning. So even though there was no need for the people to be employed, and against the advice of the top management of the airports authority, it has to be said, they were compelled to employ people and determine their job description later.
Now a new one has been introduced. Since the introduction of the new Security Charge a couple of weeks ago I have not passed through the airport. On Sunday I went there to receive two of my colleague journalists who were coming to the country for the first time. While waiting for them, eighteen departing passengers almost got stranded because they did not have extra $ 24 on them to pay – in CASH – the so-called SC. I was told many similar stories since its introduction by airport taxi drivers and officials.
Rumours abound that a senior citizen has an interest – maybe shares – in the London-based company that was awarded this security contract. They are supposed to provide body scans and provide sniffer dogs to do screening, among other things. A post-9/11 measure, a spokeswoman of the airport said in a radio interview recently. Never mind the fact that 9/11 happened almost eleven years ago. This is killing!
I have spoken to some airport officials on why they have decided not to charge this to the ticket cost. The airlines have refused doing so because, they say, it makes the ticket cost very high and passengers would blame it on them. “The taxes are already very high” one airline boss said to me when I sought to find out why, “we cannot therefore think of adding another one to our ticket price”. He looked and sounded very testy at how according to him, things were being introduced here. “Air travel is not a luxury as many of those in authority here argue”, the airline official said to me.
Some officials I have spoken to have argued that air travel is a luxury and so travellers must pay whatever it takes. Like with many things in our country these days especially, the real argument for the introduction of the SC – if it exists at all – is lost.
Serious as that may be, the unnecessary haste and the incompetent handling by the SLAA public relations unit of the new tax, charge as they prefer to call it, made a terrible situation horrible. The very first interview I ever heard of it was on the day of its introduction. No publicity to build up to the day. Nothing! And it leaves a very bad taste in the mouth of all travellers, but especially foreigners who are in the majority of the travelling public in Sierra Leone. Equally important, at a time like this when some effort is being made to attract tourists into the country, such an additional burden on travellers can only pooh-pooh that strive.
Where are the flyers to be distributed on ferries and water taxis for the travelling public, the adverts to be placed in newspapers and on radio stations, and on TV? Where are the press conferences to explain this apparently inexplicable enterprise? Or is it a case of forcing it down the throat of travellers saying they will accept it willy-nilly? Where are the SMS text messages a lot of which we receive sometimes for things far less important and far less deserving of a robust public information campaign such as this one does?
Have we imagined how much it costs an air traveller – finance and time – on in-country travel in Sierra Leone? Take for instance someone coming from The Gambia, their ticket costs a little over $ 400 and it is up to that amount because of our $ 65 airport tax, among a whole lot of taxes. Time-wise it is just around one hour from Banjul to Lungi yet it takes sometimes hours to get to Freetown. Much as that seems to have improved somewhat in part because of the water taxis, it adds to the expenses.The water taxis charge $ 80 for a round trip.So you do the math.
I would safely say that the introduction of the new Security Charge will discourage a lot of people from travelling to Sierra Leone – especially genuine middle or working class tourists who are in the majority. Where it does not prohibit such, the cost will become an indirect tax on the poor people of Sierra Leone. Traders will pay it, without complaining. Then they will carry the charge forward to the hapless consumers who include some of the poorest people in the world and who already pay a number of taxes – directly and indirectly.
Like with the Goods and Services Tax, the false assurance that the SC will not affect ordinary people is a complete untruth. Or are the authorities using the backdoor to tighten the screw on us again even as we struggle to cope with the harsh economic reality that eats deep into even what we eat. A reversal of the SC, which by the way is forever, may be unachievable. But it is certainly not unreasonable to ask that it be reduced to $ 10. And government must intervene to save this, unless, of course, it is true that there is a senior citizen who has some financial interest in it. So the more that is charged the higher that person get on commission.
