True to his word of running his government like a business entity, President Ernest Bai Koroma has today got members of his cabinet to sign new performance contracts for this year.
Speaking at the ceremony at State House, the Head of State reminded ministers that his government would be two years old next September. “We made commitments and promises to the people that we would effect changes that would improve their circumstances, and essentially we would be left with two years to effect those changes. We must effect those deliverables that we promised,” the President asserted. He said the new contracts have very high targets set for each ministry, while stating that, “I must insist that ministers must take full responsibility of their ministries. You must know everything in your ministries; and at the end of the day, you’ll take the praise for the success, and the responsibility for anything that goes wrong.”
The President said the Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) and State House will be involved in the monitoring of the contracts: “I’ll be visiting ministers not only in their offices but where all other activities are being carried out,” giving an example that he would go to the farms, to the hospitals, to the schools, and to the tourist attractions.
Responding on behalf of his colleagues, Information & Communications Minister I. B. Kargbo recalled that on assumption of office, one of the very first statements of the President was that “the people’s expectations are very high, and you brought this innovation of signing performance contracts not only for ministers to be effectively part of the government but to be in a position to monitor their ministries.” “You continue to remind us to take full charge of our ministries, and we are not going to negotiate that statement,” the minister stressed, while stating that it is now clear that political engineering is a euphemism for a cabinet reshuffle. While stating that the contracts signing is a novelty in Africa, and while expressing concern over some capacity weaknesses in some ministries, I.B Kargbo assured the President that they would work to the best of their ability to ensure that the government succeeds, “ because when the government is up, we are up; when it is down, we are down. But we are going to refuse to go down.”
Abdul Rahman Turay of the SPU conducted the ceremony, while Ramadan Dumbuya of the same unit gave the vote of thanks.
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