The Minister of Finance, Dennis K. Vandi stated in an official letter to the World Bank Country Director, Mr. Pierre Laporte that, “The untimely and unexpected withdrawal of financial and technical support to the mid-term census in the nick of time does not only undermine the credibility of the census but also the good working relationship that we have painstakingly nurtured between Stats SL and the World Bank Technical Team over the period.”
It could be recalled that on Tuesday, December 7, 2021, the World Bank Country Director, addressed a letter to the Minister of Finance informing the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) of the Bank’s inability to neither provide further technical assistance nor disburse any further funds under Grant No. D584-SL to support the mid-term census following the announced inception of data collection on Friday 10th December 2021.
The Finance Minister stated that, “It is both shocking and unfortunate that this unexpected and untimely decision is at the end of an intense technical engagement between WB’s Technical Team and Stats SL over the last fifteen months and as the training of 15, 000 field staff was ending on the 8th December for their deployment to enumeration areas on the 9th December (the Census Night).
According to Mr. Dennis K. Vandi, “You have been privy to the agreed roadmap (see attached doc for reference and records) between Stats SL, WB and UNFPA leading to the Government’s timeline of 10-23 December 2021 for the enumeration,” noting, “In submitting this document, the Bank’s statistics adviser in Freetown Ms Elizabeth Foster clearly stated that, the Bank would no longer question Stats SL’s timeline for the enumeration as long as the key issues listed in the document had been satisfactorily handled.”
The Finance Minister furthered that, “I have been informed by the Management that all technical queries from the World Bank Task Team Leader, Mr. Abdoullahi Beidou, on the Mid-Term Census were promptly and adequately responded to by Stats SL,” adding, “These exchanges were copied to you as WB Country Director, as well as to the World Bank Country Manager.”
Mr. Vandi further stated that, “apart from the issue of ‘month of December being a festive season,’ we are not aware of any substantive technical issues raised by the WB Technical Team that were not fully addressed by Stats SL, prior to the official announcement of the dates for the enumeration.”
“In this regard,” the Finance Minister stated, “the only concern raised by TTL Abdoullahi was the likelihood that the main enumeration might overlap with the festive season in December. Stats SL, however reminded him that December is the traditional census month in Sierra Leone, with the most recent three censuses happening in December 1985, 2004 and 2015. He reminded the World Bank Country Director that “based on a multilateral arrangement, international consultants supported by the WB are on the ground assisting Stats SL with CAPI application and cartographic work until the end of the enumeration,” noting, “Also United Nations Economic Commission for Africa consultants arrived in Freetown yesterday, December 8 to support the logistics and dashboard implementation for the census.”
Mr. Vandi concluded in the letter that, “In view of the foregoing, Government has unavoidably decided to carry on with the census enumeration, which starts tomorrow 10th December with the available technical support, stating that, “Going forward, we are requesting a high-level meeting with you on ways to implement the other components of the IDA Grant to avoid future misunderstanding.
Meanwhile, many well-meaning Sierra Leoneans this medium interviewed on the World Bank withdrawal of technical and financial support to the Mid-Term Census opined that the WB withdrawal on the aforesaid ground could be an ostensible reason, but the reality is that the WB Country Director would have connived with the opposition political parties to undermine the credibility of the Mid-Term Census.
