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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 FREETOWN 000535 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM SL
 
SUBJECT: Decentralization Two Years On: Hopeful Signs 
Abound, Significant Challenges Remain 
 
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Summary 
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¶1. Since May 2004, when Sierra Leone held its first local 
elections in 32 years, local government has made 
tremendous progress.  Devolution of government 
responsibility and funding have begun to occur in a real 
way, and local communities are starting to see the 
benefits.  Although there is still much progress to be 
made in terms of skills of local government staff, 
financial transparency, local revenue collection, and 
cooperation with chiefdom authorities, there are hopeful 
signs that local government is starting to take root and 
will become a positive force for local governance and 
development.  Over the longer term, strong local 
government structures will act to widen the political 
playing field and help develop better-equipped 
politicians to govern at the national level.  End 
Summary. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Devolution Hurts.  Donors Can Help. 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶2. Devolution is a complex process in which local 
councils assume some responsibilities for service 
delivery previously held by central government 
ministries.  The ultimate goal is to bring government 
closer to the electorate.  If successful, devolution 
could solve a host of Sierra Leone's post-war problems: 
it increases the space for citizens to participate in 
politics, can restore citizens' trust in government, 
rebuild social capital, and address immediate needs for 
recovery.  Spreading a culture of inclusion and 
accountability will go a long way in improving Sierra 
Leone's dismal history of official vice and 
mismanagement. 
 
¶3. In May 2004, Sierra Leone held the first local 
elections in 32 years.  There are now 19 local councils 
in Sierra Leone: five town councils (Makeni, Bo, Kenema, 
Bonthe, and Koidu), 13 district councils (Makeni, Bo, 
Kenema, Bonthe, Kono, Kailahun, Koinadugu, Pujehun, 
Moyamba, Bombali, Port Loko, Tonkolili, and Western Area 
(rural)) and one city council (Western Area (urban), the 
capital city of Freetown). 
 
¶4. There are many hurdles to successful devolution, and 
among the most fundamental are a clear understanding of 
how the process should work, what local service delivery 
should look like, and how councils should be held 
accountable to their electorate.  Since local government 
has been defunct for so long (and was not effective even 
when it was active), there is no collective memory of how 
to govern at the local level.  Councilors and citizens 
have struggled with these issues since the 2004 
elections, and some local councils have clearly done 
better than others. 
 
¶5. The World Bank just granted Sierra Leone another $25 
million to support its two-year-old Institutional Reform 
and Capacity Building Project.  The project focuses on 
public sector finance reform and devolution, which World 
Bank officials theorize would be the two most effective 
entry points to improve governance. 
 
¶6. Other donors are complementing the World Bank's 
efforts with their own devolution support programs. 
USAID, for example, is sponsoring a local governance 
project for six councils that strengthens the basic unit 
of government - the ward committee - and develops 
Regional Information and Community Centers, which serve 
as repositories of resource material relevant to local 
communities as well as centers for local meetings in some 
districts.  The Japanese Government is funding the GoBifo 
project, a two-district pilot project aimed at increasing 
community participation in development planning.  (Note: 
GoBifo is a Krio word for "progress."  End Note.) 
 
------------------------ 
Money Changes Everything 
------------------------ 
 
 
FREETOWN 00000535  002 OF 005 
 
 
¶7. In FY 2005, the Government Budget started making line 
item provisions for spending by local councils.  Although 
the actual transfer of funds was significantly delayed, 
in FY 2006 monies started to flow: approximately $8 
million was allocated to local councils for 
administrative fees and devolved ministry functions, 
including Health, Education, Agriculture, Social Welfare, 
Youth and Sports, as well as solid waste management, 
water, and fire prevention.  Development grants, which 
came mostly from the European Union and the World Bank, 
totaled over $5 million.  This represented approximately 
7 percent and 5 percent respectively of the government's 
total non-salary recurrent budget and development 
expenditures. 
 
¶8. Local revenue varies from district to district but is 
generally based on income taxes, licenses, and market 
fees.  In diamond mining areas, councils also receive a 
portion of the export tax collected through the Diamond 
Area Community Development Fund.  Over the years, 
chiefdom authorities have been the collectors and 
beneficiaries of such revenue, but the collection process 
was rarely transparent and there was little incentive to 
make it so.  After the passage of the 2004 Local 
Government Act, most districts raised individual income 
tax rates from 500 Leones (approximately $0.17) annually 
to 5,000 Leones (approximately $1.67) and most agreed 
that chiefdom authorities would be entitled to 60 percent 
and that the remaining 40 percent would be given to 
district and town councils.  (Note: This figure does not 
include diamond revenues.  End Note.)  Mechanisms for tax 
collection are not standardized, however, and are not 
always effective.  In sparsely populated Bonthe Disctict, 
for example, chiefdom authorities assessed 28,658 
taxpayers a total of approximately $46,000 in 2005, but 
had only collected 60 percent of it by May 2006.  In 
Koinadugu District, chiefdom authorities have collected 
taxes but have not turned anything over to the District 
Council. 
 
¶9. Most international development funds for local 
councils were given through the World Bank's Rapid 
Results Initiative (RRI), which gave local councils an 
opportunity to identify, fund, and complete local 
development projects (e.g., feeder roads, bridges, grain 
drying floors, slaughter houses, water pumps, etc.).  The 
RRI started in 2004 and gave each local council small 
grants of approximately $30,000 to complete projects 
within 100 days.  The initiative was meant to build new 
councilors' capacity and to introduce, according to the 
World Bank, "a culture of performance, accountability, 
and results."  The biggest success with the initiative so 
far, World Bank officials say, is Bombali District, which 
took advantage of a high level of community participation 
to complete nine bridges and 14 box culverts for one 
fifth the price it would have cost to use an outside 
contractor. 
 
¶10. The rapid infusion of World Bank funds have given 
local councils important practice in handling money, even 
more so because the systems for central government 
payments and local revenue generation are still being 
developed.  Although the Accountant General has committed 
to streamlining the process for handing over central 
government money to local councils, the process currently 
reflects the current GoSL's current dysfunction.  Each 
check written to a local council requires 237 signatures 
in Freetown before it can be released.  Once the checks 
are released, accounting procedures at the councils are 
not yet sufficient.  Only eight councils have properly 
accounted for the expenditure of the first tranche of 
government money and therefore qualify for the second 
tranche. 
 
¶11. World Bank assistance will continue through a 
transition period, which will last until at least 2008. 
As World Bank RRI funds wind down, local revenue 
collection will take on a much more important role.  This 
will be difficult, since local revenue generation is 
still far behind in development.  At present, only two 
local councils are collecting enough revenue to sustain 
themselves: Koidu and Bo Town councils. In the diamond 
mining area of Kono District, the Koidu Town Council has 
been most successful in collecting local taxes: 5,000 
 
FREETOWN 00000535  003 OF 005 
 
 
leones per person per year.  In the northern area of Port 
Loko, however, the District Council is only collecting 32 
leones (approximately $0.01) per person per year. 
 
----------------------------- 
Councilors, Citizens Practice 
New Skills: Results Vary 
----------------------------- 
 
¶12. Community participation in local government 
activities is generally poor throughout the country and 
occurs for a number of reasons.  NGO monitors found that 
sometimes meetings among ward committees, local 
councilors, and members of the public simply do not 
occur.  When they do occur, community members are 
sometimes kept out or are not allowed to speak when 
allowed in.  Also, community members who believe their 
representatives are corrupt have demonstrated no interest 
in attending local meetings.  Many councilors do not live 
in their wards and therefore are out of touch with their 
constituents.  A survey of residents in Bonthe District 
revealed that over 80 percent of them knew the names of 
their paramount chiefs, but only 44 percent of them knew 
the names of their local councilors.  The survey also 
revealed that just over 20 percent of Bonthe residents 
have ever seen their local councilor.  (Note: Of course, 
the same survey revealed that less than 10 percent had 
ever seen a Member of Parliament, but still.  End Note.) 
 
¶13. Revenue collection is still difficult.  In most 
districts, chiefdom authorities are responsible for 
collecting local income taxes.  While there is often an 
agreement that chiefs turn over 40 percent of their 
revenue to the council, this does not always happen.  NGO 
monitors reported that there were many cases where there 
is no accountability - among either unwilling taxpayers 
or chiefdom authorities who do not account for the money 
collected.  People who have a family or friend connection 
with local authorities often refuse to pay tax, as do 
people who do not trust that tax money will be spent 
responsibly.  World Bank officials have calculated that 
Freetown City Council, which has collected 1.4 billion 
leones (approximately $470,000) in local revenue, could 
be collecting at least 4.4 billion (nearly $1.5 million). 
(Note: We hear that they are starting to solicit the 
assistance of international NGOs to begin withholding 
local tax from employees' paychecks, but it is still a 
work in progress.  End Note.) 
 
¶14. Strained relations between councilors and chiefs, 
administrative staff, and ward committees hindered the 
performance of a number of local councils.  In fact, a 
recent National Accountability Group (NAG) report cited 
generally cordial relations among all stakeholders in 
only seven councils.  In the remaining councils, 
observers reported on absentee councilors, frustrated 
ward committees, dictatorial council chairmen, hostile 
chiefs, and even conflicts between overlapping town and 
district councils.  One of the most contentious rivalries 
are between council chairmen and chief administrators, 
who are currently civil servants seconded by central 
ministries.  Francis Johnston, Chief of Party for USAID's 
decentralization project, noted that most local chairman 
view chief administrators as government hacks who refuse 
to cooperate with them because they are doing the bidding 
of the central government.  This situation should 
improve, Johnston said, when administrative mechanisms 
are put in place for councils to recruit their own 
administrators. 
 
¶15. Service delivery will be the most important component 
of decentralization, because other functions (community 
participation, revenue collection) will depend on it. 
While some councils (Bo) are assuming their devolved 
responsibilities more quickly than others (Port Loko), 
all have had the opportunity to get their feet wet in 
development work with the World Bank-funded Rapid Results 
Initiative projects.  Generally speaking, experience with 
the RRI has shown that local councils can implement 
development projects cheaper and faster than central 
government ministries.  Each council has multiple 
projects underway, and community members have a concrete 
way to evaluate their performance.  The NAG report 
identified major problems in only six councils (Freetown 
 
FREETOWN 00000535  004 OF 005 
 
 
City, Makeni, Kambia, Koinadugu, Bonthe, and Pujehun 
Districts). 
 
--------------------------------- 
A Glass Half-Full? The Makeni 
Town Council Embezzlement Scandal 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶16. In 2005, the Makeni Town Council received nearly 165 
million leones (approximately $59,000) in the second wave 
of World Bank RRI money for three development projects 
(construction of culverts, dustbins, and mechanized swamp 
rice cultivation).  Makeni residents, however, were 
suspicious about the way the contracts for the projects 
were awarded.  As a result, a group of civil society 
representatives raised the red flag, and a joint 
government/donor/civil society investigation conducted. 
The investigation revealed that the Town Council Chairman 
and other councilors had misappropriated 88 million 
leones (approximately $31,400). 
 
¶17. The discovery of corruption made national headlines 
and gained the attention of opposition All People's 
Congress (APC) Party Leader Ernest Bai Koroma, who called 
for the Chairman to step down from his post.  (Note: 
Makeni is an APC stronghold, and the entire Town Council 
consists of APC representatives.  End Note.)  Makeni 
residents also organized a series of protests using civil 
society groups, radio, stay-at-home and market strikes, 
and civil disobedience to force the Chairman and his 
Deputy to resign, which they finally did in February 
¶2006.  (Note: Koroma acted only after being pressured 
privately by the NAG founder Zaynab Bangura, who reminded 
him that his anti-corruption credibility was on the line 
ahead of next year's presidential election.  End Note.) 
 
¶18. Although the incident put a damper on taxpayers' 
willingness to pay their local taxes, the protests and 
involvement from civil society were a sign that Sierra 
Leoneans can, when confronted with hard evidence of 
wrongdoing on the part of their elected officials, get 
involved in local politics and get rid of them peacefully 
and effectively. 
 
---------------- 
Making It Better 
---------------- 
 
¶19. Community involvement is a key element in improving 
local governance and service delivery, but the 
involvement requires the commitment of both community 
members and their local representatives.  Ward committees 
need to meet with their fellow citizens to learn about 
their concerns, and councilors need to meet with ward 
committees to represent their constituents at Council 
meetings.  Results of meetings, decisions about local 
projects, and budget information should be available and 
posted publicly.  Outreach by councilors in the form of 
notice boards, radio, and open meetings can go a long way 
in improving community access and communication. 
Community radio, a relatively new phenomenon in Sierra 
Leone, will be a valuable tool in helping representatives 
communicate with constituents. 
 
¶20. To increase their stake in revenue collection, local 
councils need to become more involved in revenue 
collection, whether it comes as a division of labor 
between chiefs, councils, and ward committees, side-by- 
side collection, privatizing collection activities, or 
increased oversight.  While this may be a difficult 
negotiation with traditional chiefdom authorities who are 
seeing a dwindling of authority, it is necessary.  Also, 
taxpayers need to pay their taxes in order to see public 
benefit.  This will only come with trust that their 
elected and traditional representatives will do the right 
thing with tax money, which starts with transparent 
accounting procedures. 
 
¶21. Lines of responsibility and authority remain unclear 
among councilors and administrative staff as well as 
councils and chiefs.  Clearing up these grey areas will 
go a long way toward improving stakeholder relations and 
increasing performance. 
 
 
FREETOWN 00000535  005 OF 005 
 
 
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Comment 
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¶22. Decentralization is still a work in progress.  The 
World Bank-funded Rapid Results Approach gave an 
opportunity for local councils to get their feet wet with 
development projects, but much of the devolution of 
responsibilities from the Central Government remains to 
be done.  There are a number of hopeful signs that 
decentralization is serving its intended purpose: for the 
most part, interested citizens now have nearby elected 
representatives to complain to about the inevitably 
imperfect process of public administration.  In some 
cases, citizens have confronted, opposed, and sometimes 
reversed blatant corruption by public officials and 
contractors.  The next round of local government 
elections, set for 2008, will present an opportunity for 
voters and prospective candidates alike to make more 
informed choices about who should be a local government 
representative.  Experience so far has shown the task to 
be more challenging and less lucrative than previously 
thought, and hopefully increased devolution of 
responsibilities and improved revenue collection 
mechanisms will coincide with a more informed and engaged 
public who will elect better-qualified candidates to 
office. 
 
¶23. Over the longer term, local councils will open the 
political system, which has been mainly the purview of 
traditional paramount chiefs and their relatives in 
senior positions in the central government, judiciary, 
and parliament.  Politics will become less exclusive, 
with more opportunity for political mobility, especially 
in the urban councils, which should translate to even 
brighter prospects for presidential and parliamentary 
elections in 2012. 
HULL