Q.1. Could
you tell us about the major arguments behind
the formation of the SLRA and about its historical
background?
A.1. The SLRA was created in 1992
as a body responsible for the construction
and maintenance of all roads in Sierra Leone.
Before, the SLRA used to be the Roads Division
within the Ministry of Works, Housing and
Technical Maintenance. Soon it was realized
that because of bureaucratic reasons it
was better to keep the road reconstruction
and maintenance outside of the Ministry.
The main argument was that within the Ministry
there are too many divisions and there was
not enough time and energy to deal with
these important issues on a daily basis,
so they decided to make it semi autonomous.
Like that we can prevent often interference
into the activities connected to road maintenance.
When the Roads Authority was created, it
was decided that it will have a Director
General to be assisted by 5 Directors and
supervised by the Board of Directors. All
decisions have to be approved by that board
and they are also in charge of creating
the policy of the SLRA without interfering
in its everyday work that is how we became
a semi autonomous. We have a lot of freedom
in the organization and design of our work
without any interference from above. When
we were part of the Ministry it used to
be very hard to work effectively
Q.2. What are the major differences
that this freedom has given you in this
post conflict period to succeed fast?
A.2. Formerly, when we were still
part of the Ministry there was already a
lot of work to do and we always had to consult
or get permission to carry out the jobs
from the Permanent Secretary or the Minister.
I will give you an example, if I have to
close a pothole that is 1 m. x 1m. I will
have to make an estimate. That estimate
will have to be approved by the Permanent
Secretary and the Minister, by the time
they approve it, the pothole got bigger
several times. While now, if I have to repair
a pothole, I have the authority to give
an order to carry out the work, provided
the pothole is not very big. Another new
thing is that now we are getting the resources
from the Road Fund, before we were getting
them from the Ministry of Finance. The Road
Fund is put together from different taxes
that are included in the price of fuel,
for example and that money is going directly
into the consolidated Road Fund that is
at the disposal of the SLRA. Once my board
approves my programme of work, I can work
and carry out reconstruction and rehabilitation
and there is no delay. Before I needed approval
for my programme, then in each case for
the funds I had to go to the Minister of
Works, they had to forward it to the Ministry
of Finance and so on.
Q.3. What sources do you have for construction
purposes and what have been the latest results
of such activities?
A.3. The Road Fund is there to make
sure that we have means to carry out routine
and periodic maintenance. To do rehabilitation
or construction of roads, we fully rely
on donor funding from the World Bank, the
Kuwait Fund, the Islamic Development Bank,
the African Development Fund and the EU.
All these organizations are helping us greatly;
they provide the funds for us to open new
roads, feeder roads, trunk roads. Through
the World Bank, we have been able to rehabilitate
300 to 500 km of feeder roads and to re-gravel
from 400km to 500km of trunk roads. With
the help of the Kuwaiti Fund we are rehabilitating
the peninsular road, which is a very important
bypass through the beach areas; it will
be very good for tourism, because the scenery
that you pass by on that road is beautiful.
About 70% of the work is already done, once
finished it will make accessible important
tourist and fishery regions of the country.
Q.4. How are you creating the priorities,
when there is so much to do?
A.4. The first priority is to link
the remote areas of the country. We will
first connect the villages with the towns,
the main agricultural areas. We are paying
special attention to the reconstruction
of the feeder roads because they are vital
for the transportation of goods from the
farmers. If we are not able to bring their
goods to the cities than the Government
will not be able to derive anything from
agriculture, also the people in the village
will stop producing and it will have a negative,
long lasting impact on the whole of the
economy. Therefore it is vital to get the
produce to the cities and to the export
markets. Another important matter is health.
The Ministry of Health is putting up a lot
of health centres throughout the country;
these have to be included in the road network,
so that patients and medication can move
freely. The Government is also endorsing
education, so there are a lot of new schools
being built, these schools are located in
towns and we have to make sure that they
are accessible from villages and other towns
too. Accessibility is of key importance
for the Government, without that there will
be no progress in education, agriculture,
health and many other areas of development.
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Q.5. You have an ambitious 5 year development
plan, for 2003-2007. Participation by the
private sector will be crucial to the plan's
success, what can you tell us so far about
it?
A.5. Yes we have an infrastructure
development programme that will last till
2007 from this year. Once this program is
finalized the Government will have access
to about 60% to 70% of the whole country.
The estimated cost of this project is around
300 million USD. The participation of private
capital is vital, so far we have commitment
from our donors for up to 100 million USD
and we are now seeking financing for the
rest. From the 100 million provided by donors
we will fund roads that will connect Machiaka
with Makeni, we also want to reconstruct
the road to the Guinea (Conakry) border.
We have carried out several studies for
the reconstruction of these roads and we
have come up with very good results. By
connecting Guinea to Sierra Leone, it will
bring a lot of benefits to us, such as the
movement of goods and people between the
two countries. We also plan to connect Machiaka
with Bo, which is the second largest city,
the EU have already provided for the funding
of that road.
As you may know, the traffic in and around
Freetown is highly congested, we have planned
a new road called the inside road, it will
run on the perimeter of Freetown, so you
don't have to go all the way through the
city centre to get to the other end of the
city, it will be a bypass. An estimate has
been made and OPEC and the Kuwait Fund expressed
interest in funding that road.
Q.6. Some countries are looking at Build,
Operate and Transfer schemes to get financing,
will that be of interest to you?
A.6. Yes, certainly. I have seen
such projects in other countries and I think
it may bring good results to us too. However,
nobody has offered such a scheme to us yet.
If somebody would express their interest
in such a project we would first have to
evaluate it and if considered viable, we
would probably approve it. For instance,
we have several bridges that could be interesting
for such projects.
Q.7. There are several foreign companies
present here, how are you encouraging them
and to what extent are you satisfied with
their work?
A.7. They are quite satisfied with
the investment climate that we have here.
Every time when there is a project, we make
sure that the estimate we make includes
a certain percentage of profit for them.
We have to calculate it like that, because
if not, then these companies will not come
for the second time. The fact that we have
several foreign companies operating here
proves that the investment climate is good.
We always advertise our projects and invite
interested parties to bid, we encourage
them to come. We want to accommodate both
big international companies and smaller
regional or local companies. We used to
have some big names here, but they left
because of the war so now most of our contractors
are smaller, regional companies. At the
same time we are also developing the capacity
of our local contractors. For example, all
the work on the feeder roads is being done
by local contractors which we have trained
over the years. When we were part of the
Ministry of Works, the road construction
used to employ 7000 people, but when the
SLRA was formed, only 500 of them were employed
here. These people were engineers and supervisors
and people with various professional backgrounds.
Some of these people became consultants,
some of them became contractors and we are
encouraging them to come together and form
their own companies to work with us. Some
of these companies will become big and prosperous
in the coming years. We will make sure that
the good ones get jobs and we can give the
bigger contracts to bigger companies. Like
that it is good for the country and good
for the companies too. If we would have
to use foreign companies to do all the works
that we have it would be too expensive.
Q.8. The upcoming privatization will
also affect your organization, what are
your plans regarding that?
A.8. The SLRA is on the list of
companies intended for privatization. The
SLRA has a component that is called the
Mechanical Services Unit (MSU), that unit
has a lot of equipment that we used to hire
to our local contractors. I think that its
privatization will bring enormous benefits
to both the Unit, to the SLRA and to our
contractors that use their services. I don't
think that the Roads Authority will be privatized,
since we are not a profit making organization,
we are just providing assistance services
to the country. As for the MSU, I believe
that it will be easy to find a partner.
They provide us with indispensable machinery
necessary to carry out the work, whenever
we have work to carry out, we hire their
machines and we pay them. In fact I always
encourage the constructors to hire the machines
from the MSU. When it will be privatized,
the SLRA will probably remain a minority
shareholder of the MSU.
Q.9. As you know, our readers are businessmen
what would you like to tell to the ones
reading the report on Sierra Leone?
A.9. I would like them to know first
of all that Sierra Leone is at peace. There
are a lot of areas offering interesting
business opportunities and it will be beneficial
for them, they will not regret it, I am
confident. I would like to invite them to
come and see for themselves.
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