By Sylvanus Blake, PRO, ACC.
The Deputy Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Sierra Leone Augustine Foday Ngobie has told hundreds of trainees and enumerators of the Productive and Social Safety Net and Youth Employment (PSSNYE) project to uphold integrity, be diligent, patriotic and work within the established rules and best practices to ensure a successful implementation of the World Bank-supported project. He made this statement while addressing them at the Conference Hall of the New Connection Hotel, Kabia Drive in Makeni on the 16th of April, 2024.
The training brought together staff of the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA), ACC, Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Security (MELSS), Statistics Sierra Leone, and Orange Mobile Company, who will be deployed for the registration and enrollment of 154,066 aged and vulnerable beneficiaries in ten districts in Sierra Leone. It is aimed at refreshing participants on the core values, objectives, and principles of the project and seeks to facilitate a participatory community dialogue and beneficiary verification exercise, which will allow for unbiased targeting, line listing, verification, and enrollment of potential beneficiary households for the aged cash transfer program based on the number of aged in the community.
The Deputy Commissioner admonished all present at the training to continue to display the highest level of dedication to the delivery of PSSNYE project, as was done for the implementation of the just-concluded Social Safety Net (SSN) project. He said they should ensure that every identified community was visited and the needful done, regardless of the difficulties in accessing some of these communities. “All of us gathered here are fully aware of the enormity of the tasks ahead of us. We have to ensure we reach every locality that we are required to reach, and talk to everyone we are required to talk to, he said.
Mr Ngobie said the ACC will monitor the process and ensure due diligence is done. “We do not want excuses at this stage. We have done it before, and we believe all of us here have what it takes to do this again in an even better way with far better results than before,” he said while also encouraging all the stakeholders to ensure that the objectives of the project are achieved. “Any attempt by anyone to do things improperly or wrongly will be picked up and such person(s) will be held fully accountable,” he said.
The ACC Deputy Commissioner encouraged everyone to feel free to contact their respective institutions and/or the ACC and NaCSA in the event of any constraints, assuring them that every effort aimed at ensuring the smooth and effective implementation of the project was underway. “My presence here and the presence of the leadership of the other stakeholder institutions involved in the rollout of the PSSNYE at all levels, from planning, implementation, and evaluation, should continue to reassure you that this project is dear and integral to the Government and people of Sierra Leone,” Mr. Ngobie said.
He told them to abstain from all forms of dishonesty in the line listing and registration of beneficiaries. He stated that the 8515 toll-free grievance/complaint line manned by the ACC was in full operation and should be popularized across all communities.
It could be recalled that in March 2022, the World Bank and the Government of Sierra Leone approved theUS$40.0 million PSSNYE Project, with an expected project implementation period of five years. The project will provide the much-needed technical and financial support to the Government to advance the agenda of social protection and jobs. The current trend in social protection however prioritizes the universal inclusion of vulnerable persons and populations at risk including the aged.
With funding from the World Bank through NaCSA, the Ministry of Employment, Labour and Social Security in collaboration with the National of Social Protection Secretariat (NSPS) embarked on mass registration of the country’s population 60 years and above, in April 2023.The registration exercise was conducted in all sixteen (16) districts across the country with a total of 154,066 in 150 chiefdoms, 752 sections, and 3,336 communities registered. The total number of aged Household Heads registered was 84,662.
The pending enrollment of beneficiaries will cover the ten districts of Bo, Bonthe, Moyamba, Kailahun, Kono, Bombali, Tonkolili, Portloko, Kambia, and Koinadugu, with each beneficiary household receiving two tranches of $: 45 equivalent in Leones.
