LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE DEPARTMENT-MOF FY 2019 LOCAL COUNCILS’ BILATERAL BUDGET DISCUSSIONS 2018 FINAL REPORT 0 | P a g e LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCE DEPARTMENT(LGFD) TABLE OF CONTENT 1.0 Background ............................................................................................................................................. 2 2.0 Objectives ............................................................................................................................................... 4 3.0 Justification ....................................................................................................................................... 4 4.0 Methodology/Implementation Arrangements ................................................................................... 4 5.0 Key Participants ................................................................................................................................ 6 6.0 Summary of issues discussed ............................................................................................................ 6 7.0 Detail outcome of the discussions per local council ......................................................................... 9 1.PUJEHUN DISTRICT COUNCIL ........................................................................................................ 9 2. BO DISRTICT COUNCIL ................................................................................................................. 17 3.BO CITY COUNCIL ........................................................................................................................... 25 4. KOIDU NEW SEBEHUN CITY COUNCIL ..................................................................................... 33 5. KONO DISTRICT COUNCIL ........................................................................................................... 42 6.TONKOLILI DISTRICT COUNCIL .................................................................................................. 51 7.MAKENI CITY COUNCIL ................................................................................................................ 62 8.KAILAHUN DISTRICT COUNCIL ................................................................................................... 72 9.KENEMA DISTRICT COUNCIL ....................................................................................................... 78 10.KENEMA CITY COUNCIL ............................................................................................................. 85 11.MOYAMBA DISTRICT COUNCIL ................................................................................................. 91 12.BONTHE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL ............................................................................................... 100 15.PORT LOKO DISTRICT COUNCIL .............................................................................................. 128 17.WESTERN AREA RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL ....................................................................... 146 18.PORT LOKO CITY COUNCIL ...................................................................................................... 152 19.FALABA DISTRICT COUNCIL .................................................................................................... 156 20.KARENE DISTRICT COUNCIL .................................................................................................... 164 21.BOMBALI DISTRICT COUNCIL ................................................................................................. 172 22.KOINADUGU DISTRICT COUNCIL ........................................................................................... 178 1 | P a g e 1.0 Background As you may be aware, the Local Government Act of 2004 places significant responsibilities on local councils in the delivery of services in their respective local council jurisdictions. This is done through the preparation and implementation of a local council budget, which is one of the most important processes of governance undertaken by a council and its staff at the local levels. Local Councils shall provide: Opportunities for the community to have input into councils' activities through participatory development planning; Information on a council’s efforts to raise revenue and priorities in providing services; A framework for the number of council employees and a council’s staffing organization; The legal basis for the activities of a council throughout the year; A basis for transparency and financial accountability within local council jurisdiction; and A basis against which the achievement of council objectives can be monitored, measured and evaluated. The requirement for councils to have a budget and some of the arrangements associated with its preparation, are held in the Local Government Act 2004. The Act says that: . Section 67 sub section 1: Every council shall prepare and approve a budget for each financial year and submit it to the Local Government Finance Committee, three months before the beginning of that year. Sub section 2(a) further states the budget shall reflect the priorities and needs of the council as contained in the local council’s development plan and sub section 2(b)(c) states the budget shall be a balanced budget and a public document . Section 85 sub section 3: A development plan shall form the basis for the preparation of LCs budget . Section 85 sub section 4: A council shall, before approving or reviewing a development plan, consult the residents. Section 96 sub section 1: Ward Committees shall regularly discuss local problems and needs and make proposals for project identification and the collection of council revenue. The relevant provisions in the LGA 2004 for the preparation of local councils’ budget are strengthened by the Public Financial Management Act of 2016 (PFMA 2016). Specifically, section 100 sub section 1 of the PFM Act, referring to section 67 sub section 1 of the LGA 2004, states a local council shall approve its budget of a financial year no later than 1 month before the beginning of the financial year. And after first submitting the draft budget to the Ministers responsible for Finance and Local Government who may make comments on the draft budget to be considered by the local council (section 99 sub section), the revised budget shall be submitted to the Local Government Finance Committee. 2 | P a g e Notwithstanding all these fine legal provisions for preparing councils budget, the question is, how can we make Local Council’s Budget a public document and the budget preparation process more participatory and transparent as already provided for in (section 67 sub section 2(b) and section 85 sub section 4 etc., of the LGA 2004), which states local should post their financial statements on notice boards, make pubic monthly council meetings, consult residents before approving and or reviewing development plans and more importantly to make council budgets a public document. After the transition period ending 2008 during which most of the key devolved functions were fiscally devolved to local councils, it was evident citizen’s involvement in the budget process and transparency in the budget are not evenly carried out by councils despite the above legal provisions. Citizen’s involvement was never felt during the budget planning and preparation stage but to some extent for some council, after approval of the budget by council. The process for the latter actually involved presenting the draft budgets by council to the residents of localities. That is, local councils explaining policy objectives and fiscal plans for the budget year especially the pattern of expenditures and size of grants expected from central government including own source revenue projections to their constituents. In 2015, local councils were invited to join MDAs present their FY 2016 budgets to NSAs and District Budget Oversight Committees during the national budget hearing session. It was latter agreed that the presentations of local councils should be done in their respective localities to achieve its desired objectives. This will provide for better feedback from their constituents who are expected to be in attendance than when the presentations are done in Freetown. Furthermore, it has been revealed that councilors have very little information in the preparation of their councils sectoral strategic plans especially how priorities are determined and or selected by the authors devolved staff). This over the has affected the timely approval of such budgets in councils hence submissions of the approved budgets to the Local Government Finance Committee (LGFC) Also, it is evident from the Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) findings that there were leakages in the management of resources at the local council level and the distribution of resources from local councils to facilities (schools, health centres etc) and that information on such leakages seems not to be fully known to the ordinary local citizens. It is these aspects of the transparency and accountability of local councils to ordinary local citizens including full participation of the citizens themselves right from the budget planning and preparation stage that this concept note to facilitate local councils budget hearing sessions seek to address 3 | P a g e 2.0 Objectives The broad objective of is to ensure local councils budget formulation processes are participatory, inclusive and transparent. To improve budget planning and credibility, financial control, accountability, and