Decentralization in Sierra Leone - Research for Development

Decentralization in Sierra Leoneleft to them, they went on, they might have voted for a different candidate since no electedcouncillor has ever visited them. But, for them, an order from chiefdom authorities is law.Another settlement visited by the research team is located on the main provincial highwaynear Makeni. The focus group interviewed there included smallholder farmers and schoolteachers. When asked who was their preferred political authority to manage a hypotheticalmicro-credit scheme, the farmers opted for a chief on the grounds that chiefs always “knowwhat is going on” in a village. However, the teachers opted for a local councillor on thegrounds that councillors represent an entire ward and are thus better placed to ensure thatresources are distributed fairly. Farmers objected strongly to the idea that local councilsshould take over responsibility for local revenue collection from chiefdom authorities. “Weall have our culture”, said one; “chiefs are the government in the villages, not the governmentin Freetown, and central government authority in the villages goes through chiefs”. If chiefsdidn’t get their rebate from local tax, the farmer continued, they would have to make a livingby other means and wouldn’t be able to do their jobs. Furthermore, paying tax is subject tochiefs’ law and people would not pay tax to anyone else.Even so, all participants in this particular FGD agreed that they do not pay much attention tochiefs when deciding on which candidate to vote for in local and national elections. “Chiefsare not so powerful now that we have democracy”, remarked one teacher.Views expressed by youths and market women in an FGD in Makeni town were a further stepremoved from those expressed in the remote village. When asked which was their preferredpolitical authority to manage a local development project, the market traders opted for thelocal council while the youths opted for the Ministry of Youth, Education and Sports on thegrounds that the Ministry caters specifically for youth interests. There was little reverence forchieftaincy in this focus group. One youth pointed out that he was “not one day aware ofchiefs getting involved in devolvement”. All chiefs did, he claimed, was sit in theircompounds waiting to serve summons on people so that they could make money from cases.All participants were in favour of local councils taking over local revenue collection. Thatreform, they reasoned, would make it more likely that local revenues would be reinvested indevelopment. Furthermore, they went on, people could vote out a badly performingcouncillor, but they couldn’t vote out a chief.In Kono District, chiefs remain key political players even in urban areas, having accumulatedwealth and decision-making power over land and settlement rights during the peak years ofdiamond mining. FGD participants in Kono reported that chiefs are now brokering landtransfers for the agricultural rehabilitation projects, financed by IFAD and other internationalagencies. It was claimed that chiefs often hold up these investments in search of kickbacks, incontrast to the alacrity with which they once made land available to diamond capitalists.Some chiefs allegedly make it a local “byelaw” that they should always be the maincontractor for projects undertaken in their chiefdoms. If contracts aren’t awarded to them, theproject will not happen. Participants criticised this behaviour on the grounds that workundertaken by unpaid “communal labour” gangs organized by chiefs is often of poor quality.Yet there was little support among Kono focus groups for the idea that local councils shouldtake over revenue collection (See section 5.8, however). One participant observed that it ischiefs who have the authority at the grassroots. Handing tax collecting responsibilities to thelocal councils would, others claimed, place an extra administrative burden on them and leavechiefdom authorities with nothing to do. Another participant noted that chiefs have a “popularFanthorpe Consultancy Ltd Page 29