By Marcus Bangura
‘’…the re-selection for the MCC Compact, Sierra Leone is once again… regaining its pride of place in the global community’’ President Bio says.
The statement was passionately made by President Julius Maada Bio, during his national address to the people of Sierra Leone on 18th January 2024.
The national address came, after the granting of bail to Ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma on 18th January 2024, over his alleged involvement in the November 26th failed coup attempt
Among other things, the president flagged the reselection of Sierra Leone for the MCC Compact and predicated the reselection to Sierra Leone regaining its pride once again in the global community. But why the re-selection, people asked, because the ball was in our court, and with a prospective goal from the penalty box, Sierra Leone could have won the $ 400m MCC Compact but the President missed the penalty from the spot and we lost the trophy to Mozambique, who was awarded the MCC Compact at the expense of the government and people of Sierra Leone.
However, the statement of the President was a reassurance of hope being that Sierra Leone has been re-selected. This development has made C4D Media replicate its Monday 18th December 2024 publication with the article:
Pres. Bio’s Missed-Penalty Kick-Ended MCC Compact Hope in Shattered Dreams:
According to the Scorecard presented to President Bio at the State House in 2019 by Maria Brewer, the then-American ambassador to Sierra Leone, the government performed quite well after just seventeen months in office. This development set the stage for Sierra Leone to tighten its seat belt and push for the MCC Compact. The success of Sierra Leone in passing 11 out of 20 indicators was a laudable move that saw four uninterrupted MCC scorecard passes between 2019 and 2022. In 2022, Sierra Leone was selected by the MCC Board of Directors as eligible for the MCC compact, which is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
However, the hopes and aspirations of Sierra Leoneans to get the MCC Compact has been liquidated into stress following the latest MCC pronouncement that saw Sierra Leone relegated, if not deprived of hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce poverty and increase economic growth in the country, especially when the Sierra Leone economy is in a coma and all efforts to resuscitate it to life has woefully failed. It is now imperative that Sierra Leone has missed the colossal MCC grant from the United States of America which has been put in place to support developing countries caught with economic constraints. The MCC Compact, it should be known is based on certain criteria or thresholds of democracy and good governance among others.
By and large, it is heart-rending that Sierra Leone has once again failed in 10 years to stand tall and convince the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) that, it is worth its salt to be granted the MCC Compact in hundreds of millions of United States dollars. A colossal amount that could have served as a panacea to Sierra Leone’s economic woes, poverty, and poor infrastructural development, and in providing and enhancing access to clean water and reliable electricity, education, good health care, and implementing reforms to combat corruption in a country, where corruption still thrives and poverty looms in every facet of the lives of the people. This could be seen in the cost of living which jeopardizes the human cost of living, with inflation at the rooftop and heavy tariffs on water supply, electricity, and taxation pressing on the throats of the ordinary man, who is suffering to breathe.
Sierra Leone has failed to stand out from the crowd and make a difference because the country has struggled for the past decade to win the MCC Compact but to no avail. On two occasions, the country has gone very close to being granted full compact worth hundreds of millions of United States dollars, the recent under the Bio-led government, being the obvious but it has ended up reverting to continue the process because we failed to score a spectacular goal from the penalty spot.
In 2013, under former President Koroma, Sierra Leone scored eleven (11) out of the 20 indicators of the MCC for which Sierra Leone was given a grant of $44m with the opportunity to improve in the ensuing year but corruption levels remained high in Sierra Leone and the MCC Compact grant ended in shattered dreams.
In 2019, the Bio-led SLPP Government passed eleven out of the 20 MCC Indicators with a good pass in the fight against corruption. In 2020, Sierra Leone was selected by the MCC Board of Directors to develop a compact. The MCC and the Bio-led SLPP Government embarked on a $44.4 million threshold program to enhance access to clean water and reliable electricity, alongside implementing reforms to combat corruption.
In November 2022, the Sierra Leone MCC Scorecard again gave Sierra Leone a pass score of 11 out of the 20 indicators on the MCC scorecard for 2023, marking it the fourth consecutive pass since President Bio assumed political office in 2018.
This development has been considered laudable since Sierra Leone has enviably progressed to capture the attention of the MCC for a substantial power Compact in hundreds of millions of dollars with the proclivity to reduce poverty through economic growth.
With such an unbreakable performance, the MCC Board of Directors, selected Sierra Leone as eligible for the MCC Compact grant program to reduce poverty and increase economic growth cum policy and institutional reform. Sierra Leone eligibility for Compact was received with open hands by Sierra Leoneans, who saw the opportunity as a sigh of relief and breath-taking.
However, the June 24 elections and their outcome seem to twist and turn the country’s hopes and aspirations of the MCC Compact grant for Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has come to be relegated from achieving the MCC grants of hundreds of millions of United States Dollars. It is heart-rending that Sierra Leone has lost the long-anticipated MCC Compact for 2023 and the Board of Directors selected Mozambique for a new MCC Compact for five years.
The latest statement by the MCC states:
“At its quarterly meeting on December 9, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Board of Directors selected Mozambique for a new compact—MCC’s five-year grant program—to reduce poverty through targeted investments that increase economic growth. The Board also selected Kenya for an MCC threshold program—the agency’s smaller grant program focused on policy and institutional reform’’
This is a clear indication that Sierra Leone has missed out on the MCC Grant. People now asked, for the rationale behind Sierra Leone missing the massive grant after, the country under President Bio had four uninterrupted passes. Poor governance and the outcome of the June 2023 elections could be underlying factors. It would be recalled that the outcome of the June 2023 elections faced a level of criticism for lack of credibility and the United States strongly opposed the outcome of the elections, which they described lacks credibility and transparency.
Meanwhile, the MCC is a United States initiative to support partner countries reduce poverty and increase economic growth. The MCC Compact is therefore a five-year agreement between the United States and its partner country by which the former provides grants to partner countries to support programs to reduce poverty and increase a country’s economic growth. The MCC Compacts are designed to target key constraints to economic growth and poverty reduction and generate increased income for beneficiaries. The fund is usually directed to address a variety of projects in infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, education, health, water and sanitation, agriculture, irrigation, ports, property rights, and financial services but all vary according to the needs of a partner country.
For a country to be eligible for MCC Compact it must be selected by the MCC Board of Directors. Once selected, the Partner country is responsible for the development of the Compact. The eligible Compact country is expected to commit significant financial resources and a high level of attention. It is also expected to demonstrate commitment to just and democratic governance, economic freedom, and investments in people. The eligible country should demonstrate ownership and commitment by providing leadership, mobilizing resources, and incorporating broad groups of stakeholders and potential beneficiaries through the Compact development process. The eligible country is also expected to focus on economic growth by directly confronting the constraints to private investment, irrespective of the bureaucracy of public policy decisions which may be involved in the root causes of the constraints
Accordingly, “MCC provides time-limited grants to developing countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, from fighting corruption to respecting democratic rights, as evaluated by MCC’s scorecard. MCC takes a business-like approach, with bedrock commitments to data, accountability, and evidence-based decision-making’’
The MCC Chief Executive Officer, Sean Cairncross stated:
“I am pleased to announce MCC’s new compact partnership with Mozambique and new threshold partnership with Kenya,” He added: “MCC works around the world to reduce poverty through/ economic growth—consolidating democratic and free–-market reforms, and enabling public and private sector collaboration to create jobs, sustainable growth, and better economic opportunities within our partner countries.”
The latest report by the MCC has shown that our dream of landing over four hundred million United States Dollars has not been achieved because we failed in the democratization process. This ascertained the doubts Ambassador Reimer expressed questioning the integrity of the election results, which led to the re-election of President Julius Maada Bio.
“The US …would review its government-to-government programs, including a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact grant worth hundreds of millions of dollars”.
“In the year or two preceding the compact, we were very clear with the government of Sierra Leone that to get a compact they needed to have a fair, free, open, and transparent election. Sierra Leone had done everything else up to that point to get a compact, given the fact that there are all sorts of questions about the results, we’re taking a look at everything, and that includes the MCC compact.”
Reimer went further to call for an independent investigation into the alleged irregularities of the election outcome and highlighted the importance of upholding transparent and reliable electoral processes. Reimer’s statement is a clear indication that the MCC compact grant has been predicated on the need to look at and sanitize the June 4 general elections. The failure with the plethora of unfortunate events might have contributed to us missing the MCC Compact grant.
It would be recalled that Sierra Leone passed the MCC scorecard in 2020 under President Bio and in 2013 under former President Koroma. According to the Sierra Leone Telegraph:
‘’The Sierra Leone Telegraph can report that out of a total of twenty policy areas assessed by the MCC, the Bio-led government passed only eleven, which is the same level of achievement as the Koroma-led APC government, back in 2013/2014.
The SLPP government scored well in the following:
Promoting Political Rights – 92%;
Promoting Civil Liberties – 88%;
Controlling Corruption – 79%;
Putting Good Trade Policy in Place – 70%;
Promoting Rule of Law – 58%;
Promoting Freedom of Information – 85%;
Promoting Gender in the economy – 61%;
Spending on Healthcare – 68%;
Promoting Business Start-Ups – 85%;
Girls Primary Education Completion Rate – 68%.
Investing in Primary Education (can’t account)
With the remarkable aforementioned passes of 11 out of 20 indicators, the Bio-led Government failed in nine policy areas that needed significant improvement to win the MCC Compact.
According to the MCC report, the SLPP government failed to score good grades in Fiscal Policy (raising revenue and government spending) with an appalling 4%; 16.9% in managing the economy; 42% in promoting high standards of Regulations in the country; 40% in government’s overall effectiveness in promoting justice; 58% in enforcing the rule of law; 24% in promoting Land Rights and access, 19% in promoting access to credit finance; 38% in Protecting Sierra Leone’s Natural Resources; 48% rates in Immunisation across the country; 21% for promoting Child Health.
Be it as it may, Sierra Leone has lost the MCC Compact, worth hundreds of millions of United States dollars. To many Sierra Leone could have won the MCC Compact, if the government had kept up with the MCC requirement but for the outcome of the June 24 elections and hurly-burly around it in which the main sponsor of the MCC, the United States of America questioned the lack credibility and transparency and proffered solutions that were not adhered to, could be a major factor among many other democratic failures, for Sierra Leone losing the MCC Compact. President Bio, therefore needs to up his game to put modalities in place for us to become eligible again and eventually win the compact.
