BOARDS OF PARASTATALS AND STATE COMMISSIONS ON EXPIRED MANDATES
We make bold to call De Pa's attention to some gaps in the institutional governance architecture of the country that he should deal with very quickly. Our information is that the boards of a good number of parastatals and commissions are still holding office long after their terms of office came to an end. We will hold back naming all of those we know about at the moment so as not to embarrass anybody. But we believe De Pa must move quickly to re-appoint or sack those board members hanging on right now and replace them.
We could actually now see some long faces in those boardrooms asking whether it's our business to alert De Pa to their status. Sorry people, we are only doing our job. We were expecting people to quit and not wait for De Pa to push them.
The Independent Media Commission has only two out of the eleven commissioners prescribed by law. It's been like that since May and the result of that is clear for to see. SLAJ has been called to parliament twice now to answer questions for its members because of the paralysis at the IMC. We know that names have been forwarded the appropriate authorities already to fill those positions but the commission is still empty. And ordinary people who have problem with the media cannot go to court - it's expensive and time-consuming.
We are also watching an interesting situation at NASSIT relating to its board members.
We know the nation's attention is focused Ebola. But the state of Sierra Leone must go on. Some new board members have been warming up on the sidelines for so long that they are now exhausted. We plead with De Pa to clear them now. We really don't want the question of the legitimacy of those boards to be raised when they take certain decisions.
TWO WEEKS TO GO FOR DR. ORMAN AT SLBC: A NEW REGIME BECKONS
Change is on the horizon at the state broadcaster, SLBC. It looks as though Dr. Orman has been completely unable to hide under the Ebola outbreak to extend his mandate. Authoritative sources have told us that the board of trustees has given Dr. Orman two weeks to write his handing over note and pack his bags out of the SLBC building where he has been pretending for about four years.
The fencing of the SLBC compound is still not complete, the SLBC is debt-ridden, staff morale is low, professionalism is in peril and public confidence in the ability of the SLBC to be fair to all shades of opinion is non-extent, we reference the EU report on the 2012 elections. So what's Dr. Orman's legacy? Weeeellllll, we will hold that for now. But you can bet your last penny that we will deal with that with real force. Very soon indeed.
We also serve notice now that all those official reports commissioned by the government and the UN are in our files and will form the foundation of some of the conclusions we will be making about the tenure of Dr. Orman. We want people to be accountable to the state. That's why we think those official reports are so important. We will analyse them thoroughly.
When we passed through the place in the last few days, a good number of the staff were quietly happy that Dr. Orman was leaving. They told us that. In a few hours, we interviewed many of them and they gave us documents - good ones. We are waiting for Dr. Orman to quit before we start publishing because we don't want any of our sources to be identified and punished. We are very clever.
CRUNCH TIME IN CAMEROON: THE QUEEN vs. THE POPE
The civil war in the football family of Sierra Leone has moved to Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon. The main battle now is for control of the national team. Pope John Paul has appointed one set of coaches for the team and the Queen has also appointed her own coaches. Both parties would be in Cameroon by the time you read this. How did we get to this point? When it was taking place at Kingtom and Syke Street, we thought it was a local matter. Now, we are fighting in the heart of the sister republic of Cameroon. AaaaaayyyyyySalone!
The Queen and the Pope have withdrawn to their trenches and are busy firing missiles at each other. It's not funny anymore. We must end this absolute disgrace today.
We didn't allow the truth to prevail over one year ago when 35 of 47 delegates were set to elect Rodney Michael as president of SLFA but were prevented from doing so by the manipulations of the Pope and his foot soldiers in the SLFA. Now the Pope must be disappointed that he underestimated the Queen's capacity to think and act independently. The Queen is using the last trick in the book to get the Pope off direct football administration in Sierra Leone.
From his holiday home in the UK, Michael should be smiling now, not at the calamity that has befallen the beautiful game at home, but at the opportunity provided for him to now say, I TOLD YOU SO.
We don't think we have any chance against Cameroon or to even get out of the vice-like grip, the other three countries in our group have held us in. But some people believe in miracles.
It's not about the ability of our boys to play good football to match Cameroon who are also re-building, but we are simply not organised both physically and mentally to cause any havoc in Yaoundé in two games that are only four days apart. This is the time to learn some lessons in being fair to all - we said it at the time that the white Sierra Leonean - black Sierra Leonean racist nonsense was wrong. They dismissed us.
POLICE OFFICERS DISMISSED IN KENEMA OVER CHECKPOINT CORRUPTION
If we are not very careful, there will be only a handful of police officers left by the time the eastern districts of Kenema and Kailahun are released from quarantine. Not too long ago, police officers were sacked for unethical behaviour. Last weekend, five more have been recommended for the sack for allegedly illegally squeezing money out of a man who claimed to be a diamond dealer heading for Tongo Fields.
According to reports, the man had lots of foreign cash in his possession. Munu must be thoroughly embarrassed once again by the action of some of his men. Who can't blame the man. But here are a few issues we want to raise.
1. A good percentage of police recruits have a very warped idea of what their role in society is
I. They leave their homes in the morning with the clear intention to collect money on the streets
II. They see checkpoints as an ATM and their police ID cards as Master Card or a Visa Card
III. Sometimes the junior boys are part of a chain that goes right up to their superiors
2. Munu must now accept that the recruitment procedure has failed. How do you recruit a man into the police force this week and sack him three weeks later for corruption? We can understand the odd one or two, but this is getting very serious now.
3. Let's also try and improve the welfare situation in the whole police force to attract the best people to a very important institution. We promise to then encourage some of our children to join up. But first, the police must be very professional.
THE BUDGET DEBATE AND THE REALITIES OF OUR ECONOMY
An interesting debate is taking place about what the economy of Sierra Leone would look like in the next financial year starting this December with the budget speech. We say interesting because we have heard a lot from the various institutions and the ministry of finance. And you know, it's very important for Nkoroh Marah to pretend as if things are normal. The fact however is that things are definitely not normal.
I. Last year's budget debates took place in Portloko in the north-west. This year, Portloko is quarantined because of Ebola.
II. All the predictions we have heard so far from respected institutions are that the economies of the Mano River Union countries have been badly damaged by Ebola. So it's one thing to call people to discuss how to finance the workings of government, but where is the money?
III. Nkoroh Marah should not pretend not to know that many government institutions did not receive all the monies approved for them by parliament in the last budget. Where they received some of the money, it came so late that it made no difference to service delivery in those ministries, departments and agencies. Hey, Nkoroh, if you challenge us on this, we will provide the evidence. Maybe this year's budget debate should have been held in Koinadugu - interesting eh? They say there's no Ebola case there. Think about that, Nkoroh.
(C) Politico 09/10/14
