Head of Civil Service Advises MoFED

Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of Civil Service in Sierra Leone, Ernest Sururr (in photo) has in a recent meeting at the Miatta Conference hall, Youyi building in Freetown call on the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) to avoid extra budgeting expenditure.

He made this statement in respect of the benefit and impact of an activity based budgeting approach and training on Revised Strategic Planning template consistent with policy objectives in the Agenda for Prosperity.

Ernest Sururr disclosed that the government of Sierra Leone has started processes that determine performances of groups that benefit from government funds.

He stated that budget and performance are linked together for the fact that government Department and Agencies can perform well on adequate funding and encouraged the Ministry of Finance to consider this as a fact adding that there are certain government activities that must be implemented including the President’s legacy programs like electricity supply, road construction, water, health, agriculture and education and that these areas need adequate funding.

He further said that MoFED should always allocate funds for emergency issues and that will help save the nation from future embarrassment in addressing these emergency issues.

Sources further revealed that the Cabinet Secretary maintained the need to provide the people their basic food, water, transportation, shelter, adding, the number of homeless people sleeping in market places and on the streets more so that the recent disaster that has caused the thousands homeless should be considered for an address.

People die of minor causes in this part of the world as a result of poverty, he said and that Sierra Leoneans in trusted positions working in humanitarian interest should help in bringing out a clear picture of current issues.

Development Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, John Sumaila pointed out that the objective of the event was to increase awareness of activity based budgeting across all Government Departments and Agencies, adding, it will guide members of the Budget Committee to deliver effectively and that will also help Civil Society Organizations in budget monitoring and an increase in knowledge of budget allocation.

In his conclusion statement, he said that the workshop was to set an enabling environment for the implementation of the 2016 budget and encouraged participants to build on the outcome of the meeting.

By Abdulai Mento Kamara

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