He informed this medium that currently, the Local Councils receive quarterly funds from the central government to implement development projects in their districts and municipalities. He added that there are several chiefdoms in a particular district, which do not benefit from the Local Council’s development projects.
“If government starts to give Chiefdom Councils grants, we will be able to champion our own development projects. We will embark on clearing of bushes along roads in our village, which is currently not being done properly by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA). We can also enforce laws on proper waste management, among other things,” he said.
He noted that some of the roads leading to some villages in his chiefdom are so bushy to the extent that they were considered impassable for motorists and pedestrians.
He said some youths in those villages sometimes refuse to clear the bushes along the roads on the grounds that they are not being paid by the government to undertake such a project in the same way the government is paying SLRA which is not doing the job properly.
According to him, if the Chiefdom Councils receive government grants, they would be in a position to provide monthly stipends to young men, who would be obliged to clean up these roads.
He lamented that currently, the only source of revenue for the Chiefdom Council is the sale of Local Tax, of which only two thousand Leones (Le2,000) goes to them, while the remaining three thousand Leones (Le3,000) goes to the Local Council.
“Whenever we call the chiefs to meetings from their various villages, maybe to tell them about government’s agenda or the prohibition of early marriage, or to urge them to expose sexual and gender-based violence and other sexual offences, we also have to pay their transport fares. And we are not empowered financially to do so,” he further lamented.
PC Hon. Lappia Boima IV made the above call in an exclusive interview with this medium on Thursday (21st February 2019).
