• Written by  Kalilu I. Totangi
• Print
• Email

The Author Kalilu Totangi

A report issued Friday by the Africa Progress Panel, which is chaired by Kofi Annan, with Sir Bob Geldof and the chief executive of the Prudential, Tidjane Thiam amongst its members, is calling on G8 countries – and their fellow G20 members, including China and Brazil – “to enforce corporate transparency so that citizens in developing countries can see exactly who owns the companies involved in mining deals”. The panel

would also like to see a “crackdown on the international tax rules that allow multinationals to shift profits from one country to another with impunity”.

The report notes “while a number of resource-rich African states such as Equatorial Guinea and Angola have achieved impressive economic growth rates in recent years, widening inequality has often meant that development indicators, such as infant mortality, have failed to keep pace”. In 2011, a report authored by RWI in partnership with DanWatch, revealed that in Sierra Leone, “mining companies are using low tax rates and off-shore intermediaries to shift profits out of the country and leave one of the world’s poorest countries even poorer”. The report "Not Sharing the Loot: An Investigation of Tax Payments and Corporate Structures in the Mining Industry of Sierra Leone," explains how mining companies have negotiated “beneficial agreements with the government and relied upon tax havens to retain maximum profits for themselves”.

The report by the Africa Progress Panel sheds more light on the atrocious mining deals that pervade Africa and why that is leaving poor people whose farm lands have been given away to rich mining interests holding the bag. The question that has been repeatedly raised under the circumstances is who is benefitting from such slapdash deals.

THE SIERRA LEONE STORY

A report issued by the US Census Bureau in September 2012 noted that although “Sierra Leone has significant mineral, agricultural and fishery resources that could lead the country to economic growth, the country has to rely on international aid from organizations such as the International Monetary Fund in order to remain financially solvent, and inflation of 18% in Sierra Leone is a serious problem”. It further notes “Sierra Leone has the highest rate of infant mortality in the world, with 113.7 deaths for every 1,000 live births. Sierra Leone’s life expectancy of just 47.4 years old is the second lowest in the world”. That figure has since increased to 154 per every 1000 live births by recent reports put out in the 2012 UNDP index.

This revelation comes amidst the fanfare by Government and their media allies, who have continually told the public that the economy of the country is growing at 35 percent. What the Government and the press have not told the citizens of this impoverished nation is what it means for a country’s GDP to grow by x percent. It only means in the views of this writer that the volume of the nation’s exports have increased by x percent. It does not actually say what the nation is accruing from that increased productivity and export. The growth that has been alluded to in the case of Sierra Leone is pinned on the increased production and export of Iron Ore and other minerals over the years. The possible benefits accrued from such an “economic boom” have not filtered down to the nation. The RWI report finds that Sierra Leones’s top mines are owned by off-shore intermediaries that make "excessive use of low-tax and high-secrecy countries —tax havens like the British Virgin Islands or Bermuda. This enables them to declare minimal profits from Sierra Leone’s minerals despite the booming market”. The report also draws attention to what it calls the “laxity of Sierra Leone's own corporate tax regime, which combines abundant tax incentives and exemptions to appeal to foreign investors. As a result, only one of the country's top five mines pays any corporate income tax at all”. The report also called on the government to “ensure that all mining contracts comply with the reforms in Sierra Leone's Mines and Minerals Act 2009 and other transparency and good governance standards in order to enlist more mineral wealth for national development”.

This is consistent with the findings of the Africa Progress Panel, led by Kofi Annan, which presented its findings Friday. Writing in the foreword to the 120-page report, Kofi Annan notes, "Africa loses twice as much in illicit financial outflows as it receives in international aid". He went on, "it is unconscionable that some companies, often supported by dishonest officials, are using unethical tax avoidance, transfer pricing and anonymous company ownership to maximize their profits, while millions of Africans go without adequate nutrition, health and education".

MINING IN WHOSE INTEREST?

The 2009 Mines and Minerals Act pegs the corporate tax rate at 37.5 percent, however the mining agreements Government reached with at least one of the mining companies in the country was not consistent with the provisions of that Act. Press reports have noted before that the agreement with the mining companies gave a concession of 3 percent to a mining company, which concession was decried by even the Government’s own international advisors (consultants). At the time, the Advisors advised the Government that the concessions were very huge. For example, Duty waivers which stood at Le 46.1 billion in 2006, increased to Le 586 billion in 2011. Of this, Le 342 billion was waiver to mining companies accounting for nearly 60% of all waivers. This is in excess of about Le 250 billion budgetary support received from our international partners.

In 2010, mining exports stood at about US$ 200 million USD but Government received only $24 million USD as tax from these exports. That same year, corporate income tax revenues were only $24 million USD or 12 percent of government revenue from the mining sector. Add to this the environmental degradation and you would clearly see the extent of the damage that mining communities in the country are facing. Recent reports from Wilt Hunger Hilfe and their local partners clearly indicate that the mitigation plans are not adequate and where they are, they are not enforced.

IN THE INTEREST OF TRANSPARENCY

In a BBC interview following the report, Mr. Annan called on African Governments to be more open about what they receive from the mining companies so that the public can have a buy-in on the activities of their Governments and the mining companies. This may well be the 1000 pound gorilla in the cage. Is the Government of Sierra Leone prepared to come clean? The chances are rare, considering the fact that the country has been suspended from the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) on the grounds of none compliance. Several efforts to get Government to address the issues have fallen flat.

The million dollar question now is, will the Africa Progress Panel bring some light to shine on the dark corners of the mining industry in Sierra Leone? That is yet to be seen, but the fact remains that the facts revealed by that report are in tandem with the revelations in the Sierra Leone specific report put out by the RWI and DanWatch in 2011. Why no action has been taken by our leaders to address the anomaly is just another question.

FOOTNOTE

News broke about lunch hour, Monday that the erudite politician and legal luminary, Mr. Charles Francis Margai, leader and Flag Bearer of the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) in the 2012 Presidential Elections, was released from police detention without charge. Police told journalists that they were still investigating the matter of an alleged “sedition” or what have you. The question that is on the mind of this writer is why the police even moved to arrest and detain him all weekend long if they considered that they may not have much to charge him to court for. What this only does, in the humble opinion of this writer is put the credibility of our nation’s only police force into disrepute. This may be well in the interest of some who rely on the whims and caprices of their political masters to get ahead in the force or to maintain their positions. What the public recognizes is that such an action may not bode well for the image of our force which we all love to refer to as a Force for Good.

Is it that the SLP is no longer in a hurry to charge Mr. Margai to court for “threatening the security of the state” as ASP Samura told the nation Saturday? Yours truly will remain glued to this story as it unfolds.

The word ‘Cholera’ became a fearful household name in Sierra Leone when in 2012 the disease dealt a terrible blow on this nation with disastrous consequences. Apparently, the disease has become one of those human induced epidemics this country has come to cope with, albeit with at the cost of human lives.

Indeed, more than ever before, the recent outbreak of the disease in 2012 in a poverty stricken country like ours attracted huge global attention to the extent that no less a person than the president of the country, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma declared it an emergency.

It was the first time since this country started experiencing cholera that the international community had to step in robustly with millions of dollars to save lives, though the management of such funds became a subject of anti-corruption investigation.

Official figures of fatality were put at 300-500 throughout the country hitting all categories of persons – young and old, big and small, man, woman and child, etc. The sad part was that the Disaster Management Unit of the Office of National Security (ONS), the body that is charged with the duty to monitor and respond to natural or man made calamities as they occur, was unprepared for that kind of disaster. In fact, the unit does not have the capacity to deal with such as the magnitude of the 2012 cholera outbreak.

The major cause(s) of the disease was attributed to the filthy environment, poor sanitation and lack of access to pure drinking water, among others. Most affected were those living in slums or squalid conditions; even though it has been proven that people whose living standards were above average can be targeted by the disease if adequate precautions are not taken to clean their environment.

Usually, whenever the disease strikes Sierra Leone, it is mostly in coastal or fishing settlements like Yeliboya in the Kambia district or mining areas where access to good drinking water became a crisis and the casualty rate was almost always high among women and children.

Interestingly, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has often been declared a global threat to humanity, but the 2012 cholera outbreak in Sierra Leone where actual statistics of victims was a matter of guess, simply made the HIV/AID prevalence in Sierra Leone less alarming in proportion to the magnitude of the cholera outbreak last year.

Unsightly and unhealthy, trash littering our streets!

Given this grim reality, Sierra Leoneans have not even noticed that the rainy season has started, the period when cholera and other cholera related diseases invade our communities. When one walks around the streets, particularly our capital Freetown and it environs, one cannot escape the ugly site of garbage, filth, and untreated drains, all excellent breeding grounds for all sorts of disease.

Today, in the 21^st century, Sierra Leone is one country whose citizens continue to drink water from untreated boreholes and running streams. There are many communities in the western area and other rural communities where the inhabitants walk long distances to access safe drinking water. In other words, many Sierra Leoneans, for reasons beyond comprehension, do not have access pipe borne water. And with the lack of access to safe drinking water being one of the causative factors for cholera emergencies, efforts should be directed towards ensuring citizens have sustainable access to pure drinking water.

There has always been the problem of cleaning the filth in our cities. The local councils have been given that responsibility but they have never impressed the taxpayers. In the capital, Freetown, for instance, where last year’s cholera outbreak took a huge toll on its population, the picture has not changed a bit. The city is filthier than ever before and piles of garbage remain an eyesore, especially to visitors entering the city for their first time.

For us city dwellers, it is now a normal sight to see filth around us as we can sit by it and do our business or even eat our food on mounds of garbage without batting an eyelid. But it must be emphasized here that cholera is not a respecter of people who do not care about living in a decent environment or who do not pay attention to the kind of water they drink.

Now the rains are here; next to follow is our stranger, Madam Cholera. It is time to prepare for her so she doesn’t take us unawares as she did in 2012. This is especially for the authorities, our local councils, and the elders in our communities. The say make hay while it is yet sunny, however, a stitch in time saves nine!

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!

Third term: is APC testing the waters?

By Sulaiman Momodu (beyondborders2012@gmail.com)

When a rather stunned diplomat asked me the other day whether it was true that President Ernest Bai Koroma intended to go in for a third term, my answer was intuitive: “It can NEVER be true,” I said.  “Do you then think it is just a rumour?” he further enquired. “Of course! We have no shortage of bootlickers in the country so some people in the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) government may be testing the waters.”

In addition to the diplomat, other non-Sierra Leoneans have asked me the same absurd question about President Koroma’s alleged intension. My answer to all enquirers is that it will never happen on Sierra Leonean soil. I have also taken time to educate them on the Sierra Leone Constitution and our country’s decade-long  civil war which was fought with tears, sweat and blood partly because people were yearning for democracy and  to liberate the country from the oppressive and obnoxious one-party rule which the brutal and kleptomaniac APC had forced on the nation.

Come to think of it, President Koroma did not ascend to power because he had done anything for the nation, or the APC was the most suitable alternative. Absolutely not! Koroma was a businessman and people know what business is all about; maximize profit at all cost not least a business like insurance. If you asked Koroma whether he did anything outstanding for the country before he became president, he will tell you that apart from running a small insurance business at Cotton Tree, and then fighting legal battles with friends to be the APC presidential candidate, he only became president because the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) had failed the people in addition to other factors including alleged regime change conspiracy. In my view, instead of some APC sycophants talking about third term, they should be thankful that the party once again had the opportunity to clean up its soiled reputation of a deeply corrupt party with devious anti-democratic credentials which led to a national tragedy for which they apparently have no sense of regret.

A man with humble roots as a teacher in Makeni, I am sure Koroma is grateful for the opportunity to serve his country. If Koroma had taken up appointment in former President Kabbah’s government as efforts were made in that regard, he would never have become president. Perhaps, I should remind some shortsighted APC supporters that the excess of anything in life leads to self destruction. History is replete with names of leaders who had either discounted the respect their people or the international community had for them because they wanted to stubbornly cling on to power or met their tragic end in the process of perpetuating their stay.       

More than five years since the APC returned to power, many ruling party supporters readily admit that the government had not lived up to expectation. To put it succinctly, APC has been disappointing with falling educational standards, pervasive corruption and the gross inability to provide even basic services such as regular power supply and safe drinking water. All of this is compounded by a lame and chaotic opposition that has so far failed to serve as a check to the excesses of the APC.

While it is true that democracy may have its own weaknesses, especially in our part of the world where tribal and regional sentiments are excruciating realities, it is the only form of government the contemporary world embraces.  There is absolutely no way, absolutely no way Sierra Leoneans, who sacrificed their lives for  peace and democracy  to take roots in the country, will allow selfishness and unbridled greed of a few desperate individuals living in a world of third term hallucination to plunge the country into chaos.  It is very clear that the talk of third term must have come about because some people think they can once again go on a spending spree as it was reportedly done during the  2012 presidential elections when high-ranking SLPP supporters defected to the opposition and voters were ‘bought”.

Koroma came to power amid high hopes that things were going to change and get better in the country. The SLPP had laid down the structures; the country had been restored to peace and stability, so Koroma’s government was expected to deliver from day one. This was the expectation of voters. Over the past five years, a lot of things have changed in the country. I agree. But things have changed for the worse. From the first minute, Koroma had faltering steps to provide sound leadership. The priority of his then energy minister entrusted with the restoration of power to Freetown was to loot; violence resurfaced with his own defence minister tasting their own medicine when he was manhandled; mining and other concession agreements  had left tongues wagging; cost of living is high and so on. Let me at this point ask you a straightforward question: what would you think about a home where there is perennial shortage of everything? There is no wrong answer if you named mismanagement, gross inefficiency, lack of vision and the like. Like a government, the head of the family works with other members to ensure the smooth running of the home. The persistent shortage of petrol, for instance, is sickening and is an excellent example of maladministration. Incidentally, until recently, one person who was part of Koroma’s government was Madam Zainab Hawa Bangura, a compatriot and ally of Koroma, who once campaigned for good governance.

Last year, the country had its worst Cholera outbreak which claimed hundreds of lives. As if that was not enough, senior government officials in the Ministry of Health had been caught stealing donor funds. This was only discovered by the donors themselves and not the so-called Anti-Corruption Commission. A recent Human Rights Report on Sierra Leone stated, among other things, that “there is widespread corruption in all branches of government”.

In view of prevailing conditions and growing disillusionment, what some APC praise singers, who want to insult the intelligence of Sierra Leoneans and test their patience, should be talking about is for the APC government to get serious about addressing burning issues in the country. 

A Government press release a few days ago stated: “It has come to the notice of Government that certain individuals are peddling rumours that His Excellency the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma intends to run for a third term as President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. This is totally untrue and against the provision of the 1991 National Constitution which stipulates the tenure of President and restricts such tenure to two consecutive terms only…”

While stating that the third term bid talk is “untrue and that whoever is circulating the rumour is doing so out of ignorance or over-zealousness”, what is true is that the APC is making the same mistake which its predecessor, the SLPP, made by failing to provide essential services for people which led to the party’s demise in 2007. By all accounts, instead of correcting the wrongs of the past, most APC supporters in government think politics is about self aggrandizement and not transparent and accountable national service.

In an interview with Sierra Leonean writer and researcher, Dr. Lans Gberie, sometime last year or so, by his own admission, President Koroma said there were diehards in his party who believe in old ways of doing things – brutality, arrest people without warrant and lock them up etc.  APC supporters who think we are still living in the Stone Age, and those wallowing “in ignorance or over-zealousness” (to use Government words) must wake to the new civilization. Having tested the waters and coming to the realization that many well-meaning Sierra Leonean are resolute to protect our hard earned peace and democracy, APC supporters must start psychologically preparing themselves to bid goodbye to President Koroma at the end of his second term and let posterity be the judge of his leadership. At the same time, like the monstrous Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the National Provisional Ruling Council that were "kicked" out of power despite their guns and bombs, and just as the SLPP is out of power today, APC will also not be in power forever.

Where is Sierra Leone in this list? Kabs, I thought we have the fastest growing economy in Africa?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/may/14/labour-trade-africa-chuka-umunna

The 2012 Human Rights Report on Sierra Leone indicts the government of interference in the ACC, unlawful and arbitrary detention. These, when added to the already economic hardship, high unemployment rate, tribalism, patronage and regionalism are in themselves sufficient for civil resistance.