The Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Planning and Economic Development, chaired by Hon. Peter Yamba Koroma, has engaged the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) and the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA).

The institutions were engaged on Monday 01 July, 2024 in Freetown.

The purpose of the oversight was to discuss the Medium Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) and government’s Big Five (5) Game Changers Agenda and their alignment with the global development plan of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how the latter are implemented to achieve SDGs’ indicators.

In his statement, at NASSIT’s headquarters, the Chairman while speaking about the global development goals, underscored the positive alignment of MTNDP and informed participants of the aspiration of the president to fulfill the development targets.

“The Country’s Medium Term National Development Plan and the Big 5 Game Changers are in line with the global development goals which other countries’ development themes are tied to,” he maintained.

He told the officials that the oversight committee is geared towards taking stock of how institutional activities are thriving to achieve the MTNDP.

He said, soon, they are going to attend a United Nations’ global conference to present a position paper on the Medium Term National Development Plan as their own framework in consonance with the SDGs Agenda 2030.

“On everything institutions are required to give their data,” he stated.

He noted that some MDAs needed to localize global development with the Medium National Development Plan. The MP said they wanted to know how far the various institutions have gone with the popularization of the MTNDP. “Our visit today is not to investigate you like other Committees, but also to look into matters relating to the development indicators,” he reiterated.

He also stressed that the Committee did not only visit the entity to know how far the latter has gone with the Medium-Term Development plan but to know their successes and challenges and how they could intervene.

Hon. Peter Yamba Koroma informed NASSIT that their findings would culminate into a report that would be tabled in Parliament and concurrently be shared with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development for further consideration.

In his welcome address, the Acting Director General of NASSIT, Mr. Edwin Mohamed Kamara underscored the alignment of global development with the MTNDP.

He said their entire responsibilities and activities are intertwined with global developments atrgets and national plan.

In his presentation, the Director of Research, Planning and Services, Joe Hassan Kalokoh, said the Medium Term National Development Plan is very clear to their operations.

He reiterated that social protection is very critical in the SDGs.

According to him, NASSIT is purely dealing with the social insurance branch.

He said they have a key role to play when it comes to the fulfillment of the Big 5 Game Changers.

He went on to highlight the importance of the development indicators and their contributions towards same.

The researcher explained their operations in that direction, saying that they have the responsibility to provide financial benefit or assistance.

He said their operations would seek to eradicate hunger in tandem with supporting the Feed Salone project.

According to him, SDG1, 2 and Big 5 game Changers 1 and 5 are related to managing government pension’s schemes, and amongst others.

He went on to underscore their operations in investment, job creation, hospitality, agriculture, technology, innovation and infrastructure, etc.

“Social protection is very critical in the SDGs,” he maintained.

He said they are working towards promoting the informal sector and other felt-needs areas.

He informed the committee about the challenges and key among them includes compliance from employers to register their workers or provide accurate information.

“Poor investment in the environment and existing strategy for the stock exchange, performance of the economy and encroachment on their land forms parts of our challenges,” he said.

The Committee Members were satisfied with NASSIT’s deliberations and underscored that they touched on all aspects of the SDGs.

During an engagement with SLRA’s Deputy Director General, Ing. Vandy French, he explained the legal framework, mandates and other core values of their institution.

He said development is a process and every year, they achieve a certain percentage.

He said roads play a very key role in development and reaffirmed that their activities align with all the domesticated global development, Big 5 Game Changers.

He went on to highlight the construction of roads, graduate internship programmes, technology, employment and other developments.

SLRA Chief Engineer, Ing. Patrick Lavalie, in his PowerPoint presentation, specifically categorized their projects geared towards the improvement of the road network, adding that transport system is very crucial.

He explained their operational activities on primary, secondary, and feeder roads amongst others.

According to the Chief Engineer, they give more priority to the Medium Term National Development Plan, adding that they were having donor and government projects.

“238 .4 KM out of 345.9 KM donor project roads have been completed, ” he disclosed.

He went on to unveil several government-sponsored road projects, including trunk road projects that are on the pipeline.

But their challenges include harmonization of SLRA Acts.

“SLRA are not key players in the local council disbursement of Road Maintenance Fund,” he admitted.

“It also faces problems with delays in making payments to contractors.”