By Ilyasa Baa

Institute of Governance Reform (IGR) in its thirteenth edition Critical Perspective Report published recently, has exposed the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party (SLPP) government of Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio claiming that his government has not delivered much in the areas of Agriculture and Sanitation.

Defending the report during a radio interview, the Executive Director of IGR, Andrew Lavally explained that there is need for the government to declare delivery targets to Sierra Leoneans for them to be informed and be able to hold government accountable.

Dr. Lavally expressed fear that the country is almost losing this planting season without much being done in the area of procurement for farming inputs by the government as 60% of the funding is spent on the procurement of fertilizer and other inputs to boost Agriculture in the country. 

He expressed the need for government to use GPS coordinate to track farms in the country for better productivity and sustainable food security.

He said some serious farmers that need government intervention and support are being neglected and left on their own unlike the so-called master farmers who parade the corridors of government offices for support.

He lamented that in the 1970s the country used to produce about 2.3 million tons of rice noting that productivity has dwindled over the years due to corruption and the lack of delivery target by the government of Sierra Leone.

According to him, the Office of the Chief Minster should step up to acquaint citizens with government’s delivery targets for Ministries, departments and Agencies. 

The Critical Perspective Report also throws light on sanitation establishing that government has spent millions of Dollars on sanitation for the past eighteen months.

The report is calling for a national force to boost sanitation noting that the sustainability of proper sanitation in the country should be a process and not an event that warrants frivolous spending of national resources in the name of national cleaning.    

The Strategic Communication Unit at the Ministry of Information and Communications has not commented on the Critical Perspective Report (thirteenth edition) released by IGR but it is clear that the unit has been defending government’s stance in so far as sanitation and agriculture are concerned.