Although Parliamentary leadership have instituted a Committee to investigate on the recent sackings of 137 staff in Parliament, some SLPP and APC Members of Parliament have disclosed that, they will soon raise a motion in the Well of the House to debate on staff sacked when Parliament resumes from its recess.
According to MPs, the manner in which staff of Parliament were sacked is uncalled for and unwarranted, adding that this is just to further scaled up and/or add more unemployment rate in the country.
Other opposition lawmakers said they believed that the sacking of these staff is politically motivated and already has led to the death of some staff due to perceived heart attack caused by post-traumatic stress disorder.
They pointed out that, most of those sacked have been in the institution since late Tejan Kabba and Ernest Bai Koroma and now under President Bio’s regimes and therefore are well experienced in terms of Parliamentary work.
“We don’t believe that the said sacking is informed to address the already skyrocketed wage bill, but we believe it is based on malice or to enable other party loyalists to be brought in Parliament,” he said.
Many MPs recently challenged the ruling government for the unstoppable increase of the wage bill which tends to affect Parliament and the economy of the State.
Others revealed that the government should now do things differently rather than depriving Sierra Leoneans who have sacrificed and work for the development of Sierra Leone.
“Sacking these workers will further broaden the unemployment rate and will create problem for the State in the future,” a female MP said.
The Whip of the opposition in Parliament, Hon Abdul Karim Kamara, has condemned the sporadic increase of the wage bill year-in-year-out.
He also stated that the proposed recruitment of 700 military officers in the 2023 budget meant no use because the country, he said, is not at war and all that account for a waste of government resources.
During the presentation of the budget, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government Wage Bill is projected to increase to NLe6.5 billion in 2024 than it was previously at about NLe5.3 billion in 2023.
In the Well of Parliament, recently, the Minister of Finance, Sheku Fatamadi Bangura, informed MPs that, the wage bill targets as effective July 2024 the recruitment of 700 military personnel (including 58 military health workers); to also include 1,000 new employees for Sierra Leone’s Correctional Services.
He pointed out that the wage bill increment is further squeezed as 200 new employees will be recruited by Fire Force Authority as of July 2024; adding up 100 consultants to be enlisted in public office in 2024.