Community Development Initiatives, Sierra Leone (COMDI-SL) has on 9th January 9, 2021, trained 50 stakeholders in Sogbini Chiefdom on enhancing Community based structures for effective service delivery and accountability.
The one-day workshop took place at the Court Barrray in Tihun Village and it targeted traditional leaders and youths.
COMDI Programe Manager, John Kortu in his opening statement expressed delight over the huge turnout, and stressed the importance of the training workshop. He also encouraged the trainees to assume key roles in every development that comes into their Chiefdom for posterity’s sake.
Lead facilitator, Brima Frank Bameh did a presentation on Public Financial Management during the training. The described the concept as a set of laws, rules, systems and processes used by sovereign nations and sub national governments to mobilize revenue, allocate public funds, undertake public spending, account for funds and audit results.
He furthered that Public Financial Management encompasses a broader set of functions than financial management and is commonly conceived as a cycle of six phases, beginning with policy design and ending with external audit and evaluation.
The key objectives of the Public Financial Management system he went on, are the maintenance of aggregate fiscal discipline which should ensure that aggregate levels of tax collection and public spending, ensure that public resources are allocated to agreed strategic priorities and lastly to ensure that operational efficiency is achieved through maximum value for money in the delivery of services, stressing that it should follow due process and should be seen to do so by being transparent, with information publicly accessible by applying democratic checks and balances to ensure accountability.
Co- Facilitator, Bockarie Nemahun lecturing on records management described it as the supervision and administration of digital or paper records noting among others that it also refers to a set of activities required for systematically controlling the creation, distribution, use, maintenance and disposition of recorded information maintained as evidence of business activities and transaction.
The goal of records management he disclosed is to help an organization keep the necessary documentation accessible for both business operations and compliance audits.
Participants interviewed described the training workshop as an eye opener especially on issues relating to proper management of associations which mostly had been forced to shut down due to lack of accountability and transparency. They cited the issue of corruption which had marred most of their engagements leading to poor service delivery and vowed to uphold the concepts of accountability leadership and effective service delivery.
The one-day training workshop which was hosted in Tihun Village, hometown of President Julius Maada Bio, is a Non- State Actors Grant Support Programme funded by Ministry of Finance/Public Financial Management Improvement and Consolidated Project, the Third wave NSA Sub-Grant programme.
It’s a three month project which is expected to end in February 2021.
By Jonathan Hindolo Kurabu aka D, Catalyst
8/01/2021. ISSUE NO:7975