Concord Times (Freetown)
Moses A. Kargbo
30 June 2011
analysis
Freetown — More sneering revelations continue to emerge as the Le543 billion debate heats-up with the usual political blame game between the ruling All People’s Congress and the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party, who continues to stand its ground that it indeed left behind the amount in question when relinquishing power to their fierce political rivals in 2007.
Director of media at State House on Tuesday told Concord Times that what the SLPP government left behind was Le2.1 billion in cash and “promissory note” of some Le524.9 billion which could have been accessed by the government had the ex-President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah administration met certain benchmarks set by donors under the multilateral debt relief initiative (MDRI). But the issue of what is apparently the “missing money” continues to see some twists and turns with even more revealing documents from both the Finance ministry and State House providing records as to the true situation in 2007.
Concord Times can authoritatively state that the issue of the over Le500 billion said to have been left behind by the SLPP was a subject of discussion in cabinet last week. Briefing notes on the said cabinet meeting (in the possession of this press) held on Wednesday June 22, 2011 support what Finance minister Dr. Samura Kamara said in last Thursday June 23 Ministry of Information weekly press briefing that in 2007, “the Bank of Sierra Leone had the sum of Le524.9 billion in a special account which should have been used to finance future debt services”.
The State House media director did concede that the APC too could not access the “promissory” Le524.9 billion because it also failed to fulfill the donors’ benchmarks; but what did not initially come out clear was whether the APC was later able to access the said money and utilize it to service its development programmes. The cabinet briefing notes of Wednesday June 22, 2011 clearly indicate that Le524.9 billion was in a special account at the Bank of Sierra Leone and the notes even provide evidence as to how the said money was expended.
What also came out clearly from the notes was that the government did not follow the guidelines set by the IMF that the said funds “should be used to scale up spending on poverty related programmes and through the medium term macrofiscal framework programmed in the annual budget”.
Most of the funds (43.4%) were spent on fuel in the APC government’s emergency power programme (EPP) to ensure improved electricity supply in the city and some areas in the provinces, while only 9.3% of the money was spent on poverty related programmes.
According to the table of expenditure provided in the cabinet briefing notes, Le38.9 billion was spent in 2007 on fuel for NPA generators; in 2008 – Le68.5 billion spent also on fuel while Le22.2 billion went as government’s counterpart contribution towards the completion of the Bumbuna hydroelectric project; in 2009 – Le59.5 billion was also spent on fuel under the EPP; and in 2010 – Le38.5 billion also went on fuel under the EPP. Therefore, the total money spent on fuel under government’s emergency power programme (EPP) from 2007 to 2010 was Le228 billion, which represents 43.4% of the Le524.9 billion believed to be left behind by the past government.
On poverty reduction related programmes, as indicated in the cabinet briefing notes, Le27.8 billion was expended in 2008; nothing spent in this area in 2009; while Le21.1 billion was spent in 2010 – giving a total of Le48.9 billion and representing (9.3%) of the resources.
On infrastructural projects, Le139.3 billion was spent on roads construction in 2010, while Le56.0 billion was spent in 2011 also on roads – giving a total of Le195.3 billion representing 37.2% of the resources.
According to our calculations, the above expenditures represent 89.9% of the Le524.9 billion, with the remaining 10.1% spent on water supply and “repayment for ways and means advances from the Central Bank used to finance priority infrastructure projects”.
What is worthy of note is that the utilization/draw down table of the MDRI resources on the briefing notes shows that the entire Le524.9 billion has been spent by the APC government as nothing is indicated in the 2011 column.
The table reads thus: 2006 – Le524,991 billion [was in the special MDRI account]; 2007 – Le486,018 billion; 2008 – Le367,588 billion; 2009 – Le317,583 billion; 2010 – Le113,511 billion; 2011 – nil.
AllAfrica – All the Time
Continued here:
Misplaced Spending! Did APC Chop Le524.9 Billion