Concord Times (Freetown)
Bhoyy Jalloh
21 August 2008
Presidential and public affairs minister Alhaji Alpha Kanu has insisted that the former SLPP government left a battered economy. But former finance minister John Benjamin maintains that the President Koroma has indicated that he inherited a government with a solid foundation.
Alpha Kan said: "what we inherited was a battered economy. When we came to power, they (SLPP) had no budget support from donors. We inherited nothing from them." He claimed that government had no programme with the IMF after all support was suspended because of perceived corruption.
And as such, they were running a day- to- day cash basis budget in the country, he said.
"That's no way to run a country, which means you cannot project your expenditures and your interventions in certain areas. We have been able to restore budgetary support from DFID and we now have a programme with the IMF." The minister noted that, that is why President Koroma would travel out of the country almost every month to inform donor partners that there was change of leadership in Sierra Leone that was business oriented.
"Within three months, we had the city lights on again. This is what a responsible government does. We are trying to fix the roads with very little money in our hands. If we have more money, in the next 24 months we will be in position to give you our report cards," he said.
But past SLPP government ministers, who argued that they came to power when things were difficult in the country as a result of the war, nonetheless said they were proud of their stewardship.
Former finance minister John Benjamin dismissed claims that they left behind a battered economy that was working on a 'cash budget.' "I think initially the APC were too excited to accept the reality, but if you listen to the President of late, he did indicate that, he inherited a government that had laid a solid foundation," he said.
He noted that one of the main components of the very foundation President Ernest Bai Koroma would always refer to could be the solid financial base the SLPP laid.
"We also got the Paris Club to write off 100 per cent of our debts. Consequently as a result of debt relief, government now gets a minimum of over 40 million US Dollars a year as money coming directly from the freed resources," he said.
Benjamin recalled that just before they handed over to the new government the first benefit they had from the international monetary fund (IMF) because of the debt relief, translated into Le543 billion and that was deposited into the account at the Bank of Sierra Leone.
This entire amount was left in the accounts of government for the use of the new government and there was no way they could deny that, he said.
While the minister suggested that the issue of 'cash budget' should now be something of the past, he agreed that there was an IMF's agreement for them to operate a 'cash budget' to maintain a programme with the Fund.
This development was a result of a 2007 donor partners' refusal to release agreed donor support funds because they thought the elections were coming.
He confirmed that the said donor action was going to collapse the economy but his government successfully salvaged the situation by using only cash generated internally to address and not borrowing from the Central Bank.
Meanwhile, former Bank Governor Dr James David Rogers said the APC government was in dilemma and could not tell the dichotomy between economic and welfare gains.
"Now if the government were to concentrate on economic gains the people will suffer and if it were to concentrate solely on welfare gains, again the economy will suffer. That is the dilemma," he said.
Sacked on November 17, just two days after the All Peoples Congress government was inaugurated, the business executive said under his leadership the country's national reserve rose from US$35 million in April 2003 to about US$152 million in 2007.
"We reduced inflation rate from 11% to 7.6% with a stable exchange rate."
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