‘’TAKE A STAND AGAINST CORRUPTION’’ - BENN TELLS SIERRA LEONE
The UK’s International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn(photo) has called for the Government and people of Sierra Leone to take greater action against corruption as he backed a governance and accountability pact during a visit to the country.
The pact, supported by international partners and the Government of Sierra Leone, will monitor progress on ten critical reforms to address problems including money laundering, bribery, public theft, and election abuse which perpetuate poverty in the country.
As Sierra Leone looks ahead to next year’s elections, Benn stressed the urgency of improving governance and accountability, and also of citizens taking a stand against corruption. He said:
‘’Sierra Leone has made progress towards tackling corruption. Four years ago almost all pharmaceutical drugs bought by the Ministry of Health never reached the sick and needy; now that has fallen to a quarter due to better expenditure tracking. It’s a step in the right direction, but it shouldn’t happen at all. That’s why some of the UK’s aid is now linked to further progress in dealing with this problem.
‘’Leaders and citizens must take a stand to fight corruption together. Public accountability, and strong and effective institutions are key to fighting poverty. The public, often bearing the brunt of corruption, must expose wrong doing and leaders must listen. And wrongdoers must be brought to the courts, supported by a strong police force and legal system.
‘’The UK is committed to supporting Sierra Leone in tackling corruption. This pact will help speed up the pace for progress, but action has to come from the people of Sierra Leone’’.
This is Mr Benn’s first visit abroad since last week’s publication of the UK’s new International Development White Paper. This put better governance at the heart of the UK’s plan to tackle global poverty. It set out how the UK will continue to support fragile states through effective well targeted aid, and ensure aid is used to good effect and corruption tackled.
Mr Benn is joined on his visit by Dr Donald Kaberuka of the African Development Bank. They will meet with the Vice President and other leaders and visit a primary health care unit and a maternity hospital.
Speech By Hilary Benn in Freetown
“Shaping the Future: Governance and Accountability in Sierra Leone”
18th July, 3pm Miatta Conference Centre
Dear Vice-President, Solomon Berewa, President of the ADB Donald Kaberuka, friends and colleagues
I am delighted to be back in Sierra Leone. This is my third time in 3 years so a sign in itself of my personal and UK’s commitment.
SL is important to the UK. At £40m a year it is, in per capita terms, our largest programme in Africa and we will continue to support your efforts to reduce poverty and maintain peace and stability.
Progress since the end of the conflict in 2002 has been remarkable. You enjoy peace and security- I hear Freetown is one of the safest capital cities in Africa, and you have enjoyed a 6-7% per annum growth rate for several years. But clearly more needs to be done to tackle endemic corruption, high levels of unemployment, and unacceptable levels of infant, child and maternal mortality. The maternal mortality rate, for example, is the worst in the world at 1800 per 100,000, while the under-5 mortality rate is 283 per 1000 live births. Now that you have a full PRSP all of us need to get behind it to support its plan of action.
However the UK cannot do this alone. While we are your main bilateral partner, we all need to work together better. This is partly why Donald and I are here today, and Paul Wolfowitz, the new President of the World Bank, here on Thursday. We are here to learn about your post-conflict experience, but also to encourage greater commitment on the part of all Sierra Leoneans to the fight against poverty and injustice. Continued peace and security are essential to making this happen. But also experience around Africa shows clearly that good governance and improved accountability are fundamental to the fight against poverty. This is the message of the new White Paper on International Development I launched last week in the UK. Leaders cannot afford to be remote. They need to lead from the front and listen to the people. They need to be committed to improving lives and tackling corruption, which has blighted your country for far too long.
The fight against corruption is not just a fight that concerns the Anti-Corruption Commission, but a fight for reform of the civil service, in the way proper procurement procedures are followed and implemented in government ministries, and about exposing wrongdoing through timely publication of public accounts and audit reports. It is a fight on many fronts. Wrongdoers need to be pursued to the courts, and the courts have a responsibility to administer justice in an impartial and timely manner. Oversight bodies such as Parliament need to play their part, so that the Auditor-General’s reports are deliberated on quickly and efficiently. It is wrong that the public should have to wait sometimes years before they see these reports.
I am delighted that preliminary results from your most recent Public Expenditure Tracking Survey, which DFID is supporting, shows that 100% of drugs distributed in 2005 reached district level from the Ministry, and over 75% was recorded as reaching from district level to primary health units. However, while this is an improvement on previous years it is still unacceptable that 25% of drugs should go missing between the district and primary health unit either as a result of poor recording or misappropriation. Clearly much more needs to be done to make sure those drugs are reaching those that need them most.
Not just government but civil society has an important role to play in this, particularly in providing information to the public on governance issues, tracking the use of public monies and advocating for reforms. I was very happy to meet with a number of civil society representatives yesterday and also to see that they are represented here. I would encourage Government to view civil society as an ‘asset’ to help them in taking reforms forward.
We have agreed today with the Vice -President and our other principal budget support partners (the African Development Bank, the World Bank and European Commission) a ‘Governance and Accountability Pact’ to address the priority areas which need to be tackled over the next year. If the government fulfils its part of this understanding we and our partners will do ours. The pact is not just about asking government to do things, but also requires the donors to be more transparent and coordinated in the way we deliver assistance. We need to fulfil our side of the bargain as well. The purpose of making this pact public is to allow all Sierra Leoneans to participate and to monitor its implementation over the next 12 months.
Clearly as we move to elections next year the next 12 months will be critical in SL’s post conflict history. The eyes of the world will be on your country, and on the election process to ensure it is free and fair. The UK is contributing substantially to this process. We have already committed £3m and we can do more, but the process has to be conducted in an efficient, transparent and timely manner. For that we urgently need a good operational plan, sufficient technical expertise to deliver the elections on time and, above all, a date! Without a date planning is difficult. It is in all our interests to see a successful election next year and the transition to a new era in Sierra Leone.
Finally, I want to reinforce the importance of strong and effective institutions in the fight against poverty and corruption. Your civil service, army, police and judiciary are critical to this task. The UK has played a significant role in re-building the RSLAF and police and we will continue to help where needed. We have also launched an ambitious programme to strengthen the judiciary. To sustain all of this requires an efficient civil service prepared to implement reforms without fear or favour. We are prepared to support this reform process if it is well thought through and comprehensive.
Civil service, police and army restructuring all come at a price. While the international community can help, ultimately these reforms and institutions have to be self sustaining. Whatever any of us do in SL we need to make sure that it is affordable and sustainable. The government needs to increase its revenues to allow it to improve services to poor people and properly maintain its institutions. There are inevitably ‘trade-offs’ here and it will be important that the government protects priority poverty expenditures and those items in the budget directly related to these. This will mean some difficult decisions about priorities. The UK is here to support you in this, and we are already talking to your Ministry of Education about preparation of a 10 year education plan. I know the DFID team in-country is also talking to your Ministry of Health about support to an accelerated programme on child and maternal health. If all these plans come to fruition there are real prospects that SL will begin to make substantial progress to meeting the MDGs in health and education.
Without peace, stability and good governance none of these plans will come to anything. The pact we are announcing today gives us a solid basis to move forward together-donors, government and people of Sierra Leone. I assure you of our support, but we also need yours as well.
With many thanks.
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