Summit Communications: We understand that you will be holding a Consultative Group meeting at the end of November to invite donor representatives from different parts of the world to help raise resources for the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Mr. Kamara, please share the importance of this event with the readers of The New York Times.

Mr. Samura Kamara: This will be the second Consultative Group meeting for Sierra Leone. The first one was held in Paris in 2002 and at that time we were busy mobilising funds for post conflict type of expenditure such as emergency relief, immediate rehabilitation requirements, the resettlement of refugees and rebuilding the security forces. As well as carrying out the DDR program, we were also focused on resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The second Consultative Group meeting will take place on the 29th and 30th November in London. We are expecting 100-150 people and are inviting all big and small institutions as well as government representatives. We hope it will be successful because we are pushing for funding for the successful implementation of our Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The first cycle of the PRSP runs for three years from 2005 to 2007 and the second from 2008 through to 2010. The initial costing indicates something like nearly $250-$300 million a year. In addition to already identified resources, we have identified sources of domestic revenue and factored in the medium to long-term programs we have with the World Bank, the EU and DFID to get what we call the base line scenario. This means that we have an indication of the resources we are supposed to get and can formulate the 2008 budget based on that. Any other resources that we receive after the Consultative Group meeting will enable us to carry out supplementary budget spending focussed on poverty reduction.

Summit Communications: It has been quite a historic year in terms of debt relief with the decision of the G8 in July to cancel up to $55bln in debt in the coming years. Mr. Kamara, how would you reassure donors that any money they give to Sierra Leone will be efficiently and wisely used?

Mr. Samura Kamara: There are so many uses for the funds involved in the G8 debt relief as well as the scaling up of aid. We have the capacity to easily absorb it given that the present budget cannot handle major capital spending projects in infrastructure. Take energy for example; you can see in Freetown the serious blackouts mean we need to make serious investment. Water supply, sanitation and road construction are other huge expenditure items, which cannot be easily handled by the budget. We are looking for extra funds from donors to assist us in these types of projects. In terms of HIPC debt relief, since reaching the decision points a couple of years ago we have been working hard to reach the completion point. We will reach this only after the completion of one full-year of the PRSP and once we reach the completion point we will enjoy considerable debt cancellation. The G8 will cancel the bulk of Sierra Leone's residual external debts owed to multilateral institutions such as the ADB, the World Bank and the IMF.

We are doing a debt sustainability analysis for now in preparation for that. 50% to 60% of Sierra Leone's external debt of around $1.6bln is owed to three institutions; the IMF, the World Bank and the ADB so that gives you a clear idea of the scale of debt forgiveness. These debts have a life span that means we will receive relief spread over twenty years. Debt relief works that way. It will help tremendously because it gives you the space to really concentrate on the concrete type of spending that really alleviates poverty. By 2006, we should be able to access a variety of debt relief and we are also making efforts to access the United States' Millennium Challenge Account after missing out last year.

Summit Communications: A major concern for donors is corruption. The President has said that the Government is committed to putting effective sanctions in place to root out corruption. Please tell our readers how this commitment has been translated into concrete action on the ground.

Mr. Samura Kamara: Well, the Commission was set-up a couple of years ago as a way of improving the utilisation of public resources. We developed a National Anti-Corruption Strategy and using that template we went on to develop departmental and ministerial anti-corruption strategies. The most important issue for us is to implement systemic changes to improve public financial management. We want to make it impossible for corrupt practices to occur in the first place. Through prevention and education, you can ensure that the rules of public financial management are very clearly laid out and that there are serious sanctions for any breach of those rules. Over the last two years, this is what we have been working on in the Ministry of Finance. We spearheaded the development of legislation for the judicious and economic use of state resources through public procurement reform. Before, procurement was centralised and the Central Tender Board was in the Ministry of Finance but we had a lot of complaints, so the government moved it to the Vice President's office and enlisted the help of a joint committee of government authorities and donors. The Procurement Act has passed into law and now the National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA) directs and supervises national procurement. Above the NPPA there will also be an independent panel and if you have any grievances you can demand that this panel look into it.

With the advice and support of our international development partners, we have developed the new Government Budgeting and Accounting Act. This law is all embracing and much more detailed than the previous law that actually supported or guided the utilisation of public funds. Now we have oversight responsibilities fully legislated and every district has an oversight responsibility or committee. The Act clearly explains the responsibilities of the Public Accounts Committee in parliament and also the Auditor General's functions. Once again, rules and responsibilities are clearly laid out. Now, it is clear who is responsible if anything goes wrong and there are sanctions for the first time imposed in these laws.

On top of that, we are concentrating on reporting and accounting. The use of public funds was never satisfactory so we are installing a new Integrated Financial Management and Information System (IFMIS). We have never had such a comprehensive system. Once it is up and running it will help a lot.

Another aspect that I think should help considerably in the fight against corruption is decentralisation. We have decentralised the departmental and ministerial functions of government and now the budget itself, which makes it easy for you to pinpoint exactly what is happening with expenditure. Over and above that, we've established what we call a Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS), which has produced three reports now. We are now finalising the fourth report. What this does is to track the flow of public funds from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministries and then to the intended beneficiary. During the past couple of years, we have been looking at the flow of funds with respect to the purchase of drugs and the supply of school materials, agricultural inputs etc. We just finished the one for 2004, which is coming out soon and we are now starting another one, which will cover expenditures for 2004, and part of 2005 although, under the PETS program, there is no need to wait for the post mortem as it were. You can also follow budget expenditure from the time it is approved here in the Ministry of Finance and track it even before it gets to the intended beneficiary. I think these measures have helped us considerably in providing a true sense of confidence to donors of multilateral funds.

Summit Communications: Do you feel there has been a marked reduction in corruption in terms of leakage in public finance and if so what indicators would you point to demonstrate this?

Mr. Samura Kamara: Firstly, I think public awareness has helped a lot. Now, the public complains if they feel something is not working as it should. For instance, contractors who bid for government contracts can complain and have a forum to voice their concerns. Then, the results of the PETS are also helping. The performance under the PETS is showing progressive improvement.

Many more stakeholders are involved in the utilisation of state funds. Before, the Vote Controller had the sole responsibility to request and disburse funds even for and on behalf of program officers in their ministries. Now, the program-officer has to initiate the expenditure for as long as it affects his program. He is the one who must prepare fully costed and prioritised strategic plans, which we are also forcing all Ministries to prepare now. So the program officer starts by initiating the expenditure; it goes on to the Vote-Controller and then to the Minister. These three people are responsible in the event of any misprocurement.

We have made significant progress in managing public expenditure along the lines suggested by HIPC. We follow a HIPC action plan. We have public expenditure and management reviews done by the World Bank to guide us. We have carried out a Country Financial Accountability Assessment (CFAA) run by the World Bank and DFID. We had an EU Audit on the first post-conflict budgetary support program. Our programs with the IMF, the PRGF, the Economic, Rehabilitation and Recovery Credit under the World Bank, the ADB; all of these programs come with indicators relating to accountability and transparency and efficiencies of public expenditure. We are being assessed in various indicative programs. We have a program that tries to reconcile the monetary account as well as the treasury accounts so that if there is any misprocurement there, it will show up in our monetary statistics. You can always track it. I think we have made substantial improvements in public financial management to the satisfaction of our donors because, if we had not, they would not continue to work with us.

The donors are happy; to the extent that donors supporting the PRSP are ready to apply a multi-donor budgetary support framework where those supporting the budget would put all their monies into one basket with clearly defined simple criteria. I think that's a great improvement. And we are also pushing for a trust fund to take care of the major expenditure requirements as well for those donors who do not have physical presence in Sierra Leone but who would want to support the country. They could support us through the Trust Fund to be managed by one of the Donors.

Summit Communications: Sierra Leone enjoyed GDP growth of 7.4% last year. It has become one of the most promising economics in Africa in the last few years. What is your vision of the future of economic development? How important a role would the private sector play in the future of the country?

Mr. Samura Kamara: I think the private sector, both in theory as well as in practice, has a strong influence in promoting growth. But of course the indigenous and foreign investors need to be empowered. For now, the indigenous private sector investors do not have the type of capital we are looking for. Even if we bring in a PPP (i.e. Public/Private partnership) very few of them would be in the position to undertake that. Now what we are doing nonetheless is to ensure that we prepare the environment by improving service delivery and improving the rules and regulations governing the disbursement of government funds. This is very important - a private sector investor wants to see quick payment and a very good operational policy dialogue with government officials. We would like to see a less corrupt group of government workers - more people who do not ask for bribes.

We are also carrying out a series of studies of administrative barriers with the assistance of the World Bank and others. The Ministry of Trade & Industry is handling that. We are progressing on that front but the critical barriers remain things like electricity, water supply and roads. For the first time, we have a comprehensive and clear Investment Code, which takes care of the most critical concerns raised by investors such as capital remittances. Government will never acquire private sector property. We are now preparing a set of investment incentives to go along with that. The critical thing about assessment incentives is that we don't want to encourage the wrong kind of investors who look only to immediate short-term benefits and we have to be careful that people do not come in with failing companies that have enjoyed incentives for all these years, to renew them by changing their corporate name and that type of thing. Then, you also have to be careful that it doesn't unduly jeopardise your fiscal regime because and when you give away taxes you have to have compensative measures because we have a huge expenditure framework to address. These are some of the concerns that are coming up.

Now, if one has the opportunity really to look ahead, you would like to see Sierra Leone identify itself in key priority areas that would bring in investors; the Quay for instance. If you have very good port facilities then you can transform Sierra Leone into a transhipment country like Singapore. I'm sure by the time the cross- continental road is completed then countries like Mali and other landlocked countries will trans-ship through Sierra Leone. Things are picking up and many sectors are performing well from communications and construction to agriculture and diamond mining. I think that is a very good sign that things are moving in the right direction.