Freetown, Sierra Leone-2022: The Minister of State-Vice President Office, Mrs. Francess Piagie Alghali has on Thursday 10th November, 2022 formally presented the SLEITI 2022 Validation Report to H.E. President Julius Maada Bio at State House, Tower Hill-Freetown, on behalf of the SLEITI Multi-stakeholder group (MSG).
In attendance were H.E. Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources- Mr. Timothy Kabba; Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Mr. Tamba Lamina; Secretary to the Vice President Mr. Baba Fortune; Director General Petroleum Directorate Mr. Foday Mansaray; Commissioner General National Revenue Authority Mr. Samuel Gibao; representatives of development partners, large scale companies, and senior staff from related government agencies.
Presenting the report, Mrs. Alghali gave a brief overview of the EITI process detailing each requirement along the extractive industries value chain and the new validation model under 2019 EITI Standard. Mrs. Alghali spoke well about the MSG particularly the ad-hoc 2019 Validation Committee for their commitment and effective participation in the processes leading up to the validation.
Mrs. Alghali ran through several progress recorded in the the Validation Report noting that “through strong government leadership, Sierra Leone is commended for achieving a very high score on outcomes and impacts” as a result of inclusive thematic representation, gender diversity, industry representation, and among others.
She used the occasion to speak about how SLEITI has moved from “meaningful Progress in the last Validation under the 2016 EITI Standard, to obtaining high overall score which has culminated to Sierra Leone being regarded as one of leading EITI implementing countries. With this and more, Mrs. Alghali humbly presented the SLEITI 2022 Validation Report to H.E. President Maada Bio-a moment which turned out to be one of the high points of the occasion.
This followed a PowerPoint presentation of the Validation report by the National Coordinator-Mohamed Baimba Koroma. He spoke eloquently on the three components which constitutes the Validation process and the overall outcome.
The occasion took a new momentum as stakeholders listened and watched while H.E. President Bio was responding to the Validation report. In his remark, President Bio said the remarkable overall score of 87.5 reflects his government’s transparent and accountable management of the extractive sector; adding that EITI provisions such as Beneficial Ownership, Project Level Reporting, and among others were prominently embedded in the new Mines and Minerals Development Act 2022 and the Extractive Industries Revenue Act, 2018 respectively.
While speaking on the implementation process, President Bio said “his government remains committed to adhering to the provisions of the EITI standards in order to harness the full potential of our extractive sector to benefit all Sierra Leoneans”. In addition, President Bio acknowledged the role of the Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh for effective supervision of the EITI process and the Multi-stakeholder group including the national secretariat for a successful validation under the 2019 standard.
“Thank you to my able and hardworking Vice-President for your leadership of the SLEITI process. Congratulations to the dynamic SLEITI MSG and Secretariat for an excellent and comprehensive Validation Report. I am pleased with the progress recorded in the 2022 Validation Report, and I urge the ‘SLEITI Team’ to remain steadfast in their deliverables.” In order to sustain this, President Bio urged stakeholders to improve on areas where low grades were scored.
The Hon. Vice President- Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh responded to the President’s statements. In doing so, he explained the approaches used in ensuring that all international benchmarking institutions under his supervision continue to thrive well and score high grades progressively.
