𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐅𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬

Before the end of December 2023, some local contractors were very optimistic about the government’s firm promise to settle a huge chunk of the verified domestic arrears owed them. However, they were deeply disappointed when they started getting all sorts of excuses from some senior officials in the Ministry of Finance including the Minister himself.

In the beginning, they were told that, the World Bank was to disburse a US$65Million grant to support the government’s macroeconomic stability. Part of that amount was to be used to pay contractors. That did not happen.

On December 21, 2023 the World Bank made the US$65M disbursement through the Bank of Sierra Leone. Contractors were told to wait until salaries and wages were paid to civil and public servants for the month of December before any payment could be made to them.

Few days later, they were told that the Minister of Finance, Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura, had stopped coming to the office because of personal reasons.

In the first week of January 2024, they were again told that State House needed to approve all payments before disbursements could take place.

It appears that the Ministry of Finance has run out of excuses. They are now dodging local contractors. This has frustrated some local contractors to the point that some of them hardly visit their offices these days for fear of being kidnapped by angry suppliers and/or workers.

This lack of payment or late payment to contractors is also undermining the implementation of key government projects especially in the water, agriculture, energy, health and roads sectors.

The implementation of most of these projects in the provinces has stalled because of the lack of disbursement of funds or the late disbursement of funds by the Ministry of Finance.

The implementation of President Dr Julius Maada Bio’s Big 5 development agenda, including Feed Salone, stands to be undermined by the Ministry of Finance because of the lack of disbursement of funds or the late disbursement of funds to contractors implementing key projects under the Big 5 development agenda.

“The Ministry of Finance should stop frustrating local contractors by making timely disbursement of funds for the implementation of major government development projects”, warned a retired senior civil servant in the Ministry of Development.

All attempts to contact senior officials in the Ministry of Finance proved unsuccessful over the weekend.

Investigations continue