Accountable Governance Project - Sierra Leone

As part of the overall Project's objective – which is to improve resource management, transparency and accountability of government systems for enabling delivery of local development projects and basic services, the Accountable Governance Project has financed several ICT systems that are on now live and operational to improve government's systems to enable service delivery.

One of the Government systems that has been funded by this Project is the Public Financial Management SMART System that is called PFM-SMART System. It replaces the PETRA System, and it is an automated financial management system that is being used by all the Local Councils across the country to initiate, execute and report all their day-to-day and monthly financial transactions.

While in Moyamba on a supportive supervision, I grabbed the opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with the Finance Officer of the Moyamba District Council, Mrs. Alberta Watta Abu Feika on her day-to-day working experience with the newly introduced PFM-SMART System in the Councils.

On Thursday 7th May 2026, the National Secretariat of the District Development Coordination Committees (DDCCs) conveyed its first quarter meeting at the Conference Hall of MoPED. The coordination meeting brought together officials from the Ministries of Planning and Economic Development and Local Government and Community Affairs, reps of devolved sectors (Agriculture, Education, Primary Health Care, Gender and Social Welfare), NaMEA as a Govt monitoring entity and Accountable Governance Project.

The purpose of the meeting was to provide updates and chat the way forward on the DDCCs National Secretariat's interventions, achievements and challenges faced in carrying out facilitation role of national and district development coordination amongst devolved sectors, the development partners, District Councils and local authorities across the country with support from the Accountable Governance Project.

Attached are a couple of meeting photos and a short presentation of key updates of the Secretariat's interventions, achievements, challenges and status of previous quarter action points reached.

The Senior Planning Officer in the Rural Development Directorate - MoPED, Sylvester Macavoray presented the National Secretariat's update.

The Grant Management Team in collaboration with the Project Management Unit of the Accountable Governance Project have successfully completed supportive supervision and participation in bid openings and evaluation for the awards of contracts for the implementation of Round III subprojects in all 15 Local District Councils across the country. Below are photos of bid opening and evaluation sessions held in Moyamba and Karene District respectively.

The Director of Fiscal Decentralization Division in the Ministry of Finance calls on the Local District Councils to collaborate and strengthen synergies with their respective Chiefdoms to boost their own source revenue generation. He made this statement on Friday 17th April in response to a laudable statement made by Paramount Chief Larry Bojohn Fangawa in support of collaborating with the Kenema District Council on behalf of all his colleagues Paramount Chiefs in the District during a revenue mobilization engagement hat brought together the District Council, Chiefdom authorities, None State Actors and CSOs.

The engagement like in the other districts, led to the review and signing of MoUs between the Kenema District Council and eight Chiefdoms in Kenema District including a week-long awareness raising on the local revenue mobilization drive. These engagements are led by the FDD in collaboration with the Local Government and Community Affairs Ministry with support from the AGBSD Project.

Actual implementation of revenue mobilization strategies developed for all 15 Local District Councils to boost own source revenue generation with support from the Accountable Governance Project, is ongoing right across the country.

On Thursday, today 16th April, the FDD with support from the AGBSD Project continues to facilitate engagements between Paramount Chiefs, Chiefdom Council Administrative Clerks, the leadership and team of the Pujehun District Council and None State Actors and other CSOs to discuss local revenue collection in Pujehun District.

The revenue mobilization session in Pujehun was climaxed by the review and signing of MoUs between the District Council and eight Chiefdoms within the district and the kick-start of a two-week long district, chiefdom and community level awareness raising on the importance of local revenue collection in Pujehun District.

Striking amongst the sessions and views shared during the session, was a testimony of revenue collection success story shared by the Chief Administration, - while in post at the Kenema City Council.

The revenue mobilization drive led by the Fiscal Decentralization Division in the Ministry of Finance with support from the Accountable Governance Project continues to facilitate revenue boosting engagements between the Local District Council across the country.

On Wednesday 15th April, a joint team from the FDD, Dec Sec and the PMU of the AGBSD Project facilitated couple of revenue generation strategic activities that included the review and signing of MoU between the Bonthe District Council and eight of its Chiefdoms to boost own source revenue generation in the district.

In addition, a set of sensitizations on the importance of generating own source revenue by the Bonthe District Council in collaboration with Chiefdom authorities in the district to advance service delivery within the district.

As the implementation of the Revenue Mobilization Strategies for Local District Councils continue across the country, the FDD in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs on Tuesday 14th engaged the Bo District Council leadership and local authorities drawn from eight Chiefdoms in the district on revenue mobilization drive.

The engagement saw the review and signing of revenue mobilization MoUs between the District Council and eight Chiefdom authorities and joint district and community level sensitization to boost own source revenue generation in Bo District.

With support from the AGBSD Project, the Fiscal Decentralization Division (FDD) in the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs on Monday 13th April have commenced implementation of the second phase of Local District Councils’ revenue mobilization strategies in Kambia District. The implementation of own source revenue mobilization support activities as part of the strategy, is targeting all 15 Local District Councils in country.
This revenue mobilization is inline with the Project’s overall objective which is to improve resource management, transparency and accountability of government systems for enabling the delivery of local development projects and basic services. The project has supported the preparation and rollout of revenue mobilization strategies and memorandum of understanding (MoU) on revenue collection and sharing for all 15 District Councils and the Chiefdoms.
These strategies are part of the reforms in the Fiscal Decentralization Policy supporting local councils to enhance their own source revenue mobilization in the medium term.
Activities in the preparatory workshop includes the review of the signed MoUs between the Local District Councils and Chiefdoms, together with the Chiefdom authorities, District Office and other stakeholders agree on appropriate bye laws and enforcement of revenue collections.
The conduct of sensitization meetings for selected communities on each critical activity of the proposed support through radio discussions, public address systems, use of jingles and messages in the local languages and during congregational prayers in churches and mosques as deem fit.

Thursday 9th March was day 3 of the ongoing AGBSD Project Implementation Support Mission led by the World Bank. On the third day of the Bank’s ISM team together with the reps from the National Monitoring and Evaluation Authority (NAMEA), the Project Management Unit, the Grant Management Team (GMT) and the Fiscal Decentralization Division (FDD) the following

provided updates on the LOMEMIS implementation
• Current update on LOMEMIS implementation
• Interoperability of Supply with LOMEMIS

The GMT updates the team on the following:
Local Development Grants (LDG) and FDD-led activities
• Update on Round 3 LDG implementation by LCs
• Present a revised and sequenced Roadmap for Rounds 3 and 4 with the intent that 1st tranche for R4 will be paid to LCs before end Dec 2026
• Overview of FDD-led activities

And then next steps which include the following:
The GMT together with the PMU to keep strict adherence to the roadmap developed for the implementation of Round 3 and 4 of the Local Development Grants n close overlap and succession.
Increased supportive supervision of the Local District Councils in the implementation of both Rounds 3 and 4 of the LDG.
Improved planning and simultaneous implementation of grants implementation related project activities in order to permit the implementation of both Rounds of the LDG within the project’s closure date of July 2017.

The week-long AGBSD Project Implementation Support Mission continues in Freetown. On Day 2, Wednesday 8th April, the Mission held sessions with three of the project Implementation Units – IGR, PIMS of MoPED and IMC from the Office of the Vice President. Below were the issues on which implementation updates were provided by the respective Implementing Units

Institute of Governance Reform (IGR):
• Status of contract amendment to address IGR related activity timeline and changes in scope
Assessment of progress under activities and forward planning

Public Investment Management in the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development (MoPED)
• Status of PIMIs in terms of review of bidding documents including functional specification, nature of procurement process with clear timelines when PIMIS will be developed and deployed
• Aspect of PIMIS to be taken on board the SALONE PFM P4R Project

INTER-Ministerial Coordination (IMC) operations

• Status of recruitment of the international devolution expert
• Relationship between the IMC technical team, MLGCA, FDD and other stakeholders
• The unbundling assignment and role of IMC technical team in the unbundling assignment
• Level of engagement of the IMC technical team with stakeholders in the decentralization process
Update on preparation for the review of the LGA 2022