13/07/2025
*DEBT WITHOUT DEBATE: HOW SIERRA LEONE IS FAILING THE NEXT GENERATION*
By Mahmud Tim Kargbo
Sunday, 12 July 2025
Sierra Leone’s political class stands at a defining moment. For decades, successive governments have pursued public programmes, infrastructure projects, and political patronage schemes funded through borrowing, donor dependence, and fiscal opacity. This model is not only unsustainable; it is unjust. Intergenerational justice demands that we stop mortgaging the nation’s future to finance short-term political gains.
In the United States, economist Sita Slavov has warned of entitlement spending trends that place heavy financial burdens on future generations. This caution applies with even greater urgency to Sierra Leone, where the problem is not social security schemes but unchecked spending on political initiatives, unaudited subsidies, inflated public payrolls, and infrastructure contracts often concluded outside parliamentary scrutiny to gain favour to imperialist masters.
*A Constitution Betrayed*
Section 7 of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone places a solemn duty on the state to harness national resources to “secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen”
(source: Sierra Leone 1991 Constitution, http//www.sierra-leone.org/Laws/constitution1991.pdf).
This clause is inherently forward looking. Current governance must not compromise the prospects of future generations.
Yet successive Auditor General reports reveal the opposite. From the Koroma administration to the current Bio led government, audits have exposed widespread abuse: unretired imprests, misapplied funds, and unexplained variances in public accounts across ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs). These irregularities are regularly published by the Audit Service Sierra Leone
(http//www.auditservice.gov.sl/reports), but rarely followed by meaningful accountability.
To borrow Slavov’s words, we are engaged in a dangerous “fiscal imbalance” that may necessitate steep taxation or harsh public spending cuts in the future. This will most deeply affect the poor, who already struggle with high inflation and low employment.
*Borrowing, Projects, and Unseen Liabilities*
The recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Government of Sierra Leone and Acrow Corporation for the proposed Lungi Bridge epitomises this issue. Marketed as transformational, the project’s financial terms remain undisclosed to the public. This raises urgent questions:
What happens if projected toll revenues fall short?
Will public funds be used to subsidise the bridge’s operations or to guarantee investor returns?
Were debt sustainability implications under the DBOT (Design, Build, Operate, Transfer) or BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer) model independently assessed?
No comprehensive answers have been shared with citizens. Parliament was not clearly involved in the process, a practice which contradicts Section 93 of the Constitution, mandating parliamentary oversight over government expenditure, procurement, and contracts
(http//www.sierra-leone.org/Laws/constitution1991.pdf)
This secrecy reflects a broader institutional pattern. Major financial commitments are increasingly made without public debate or parliamentary scrutiny. This is neither normal nor inevitable. In fact, several African countries have institutionalised transparency:
Ghana: The Atuabo Gas Plant project underwent a public review with full project documents available online.
(http//www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atuabo_Gas_Plant)
Kenya: A High Court ruling compelled the release of the Standard Gauge Railway contracts, enhancing public accountability.
(http//www.theconversation.com/kenya-standard-gauge-railway-contracts-what-released-documents-say-and-what-they-dont-194354)
Rwanda: The Bugesera International Airport contract included full publication of its terms and stakeholder obligations.
(http//www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugesera_International_Airport)
Sierra Leone must abandon the tradition of treating infrastructure deals as elite negotiations. In our democracy, the people are the ultimate stakeholders and they must be informed.
When an infrastructure or a specific so-called investment project is being promoted by the ambassador of an imperialist and exploitative nation like the United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone, it sends a signal that our tax base resources are being exported by a selected few elites to their imperialist masters to score cheap political goals at the expense of the country. Sierra Leoneans have witnessed the same Ambassador actively promoting the state sanctioned looting of our national wealth in the energy sector
(http//www.sl.usembassy.gov/dfc-sierra-leone-promote-access-to-reliable-energy-with-up-to-412-million-in-additional-financing-and-political-risk-insurance) and the Lungi Airport refurbishment project
(http//www.dfc.gov/sites/default/files/media/documents/9000105360.pdf).
To many rationally minded
