IRCBP Mission Team Visits the Bonthe Councils
The multi-donor Implementation Support Mission (ISM) for the Institutional Reform and Capacity Building Project (IRCBP), led by the task team leader of the IRCBP, Vivek Srivastava, is in Sierra Leone, holding a series of review meetings with the Project, its line ministries and selected Local Councils. The mission is being held from the 3rd to the 11th of December 2009.
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| Just off the helicopter at Bonthe Island, being received by the Mayor, Gilbert Caulker (2nd R) |
On the 7th and 8th of December, IRCBP officials led the Mission team on a field visit to Bonthe Municipal and District councils. The purpose of the field visit was to have interactive discussion sessions with the councils, to better understand their operations and know how best to support the councils’ agenda. Discussions at the local councils centered around council’s Local Government development grant projects, the Comprehensive Local Government Performance Assessment System (CLOGPAS)scores, the attraction and retention of staff at the Municipal council, relations with chiefdoms in the District council, and both councils relationships with their ward committees and also the effect of Party politics on the councils.
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| The mission team is being escorted by the Mayor (2nd L) and the PRO ( 1st R) of the Bonthe Municipal Council |
During the meeting on the Bonthe Island, the Municipal council attributed their ranking as 16th in the 2008 CLOGPAS scores to political instability which had left administrative proceedings in disarray, as compared to the 2006 scores when they were ranked 2nd. According to the Chief Administrator, the situation has been resolved since the departure of his predecessor. He said that now, despite the party dynamics, issues that require policy response are discussed realistically and unanimously adopted devoid of any political indifference.
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| Cross section of the meeting at Bonthe District Council |
The Municipal council also grappled with the problem of attraction and retention of qualified staff to the island because of the natural barrier of the sea. However, the council has surmounted the problem with their eight core staff in post and offer incentives such as accommodation facilities to help retain their staff.
The visiting team inspected Local Government development grants projects which included amongst others, two wooden motorised commercial boats, procurement of computers for the computer center, and the embankment of the Victoria road bridge.
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| Wooden boats built with Bonthe Municipal Council's Local Government Development grant |
At the Bonthe District Council, the councilors reported that all their wards were constituted of women as ward committee members with the least composition being four females in a ward committee. They attributed this to the fact that the women shy away from taking up leadership roles in their wards. They reported that the relationship between the district council and the chiefdoms in the district with regards to needs assessment and prioritization of projects is mainly by community participation. They also maintained that despite the “rainbow” council in terms of party colors, decisions in the council are made based on the priority interest of the ward communities.
The visiting team returned to Freetown on the 8thof December.
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2005, IRCBP.
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