A group of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) led by RHRAP with funding from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has organized a forum to join advocacy for the sole purpose to swell the calls for the passage of the Revenue sharing Bill of 2018 currently before the Ways, Means and Finance Committee, at the House of Representatives.
The Revenue Sharing Bill is among instruments stemmed from local governance act of 20218 submitted by President George Weah that is currently languishing at the House of Representatives awaiting passage.
Addressing a group of CSOs and the media over the weekend, the Executive Director of Integrity Watch, Harold Aidoo, described the local governance act of 2018 as a useless piece of legislation in the absence of the passage of the “Revenue sharing Bill”.
“I said it is because the Revenue-sharing bill will become the engine oil which the local governance act depends on, to function. In the absence of resources, no local government act will be functional,” he said.
“Why do I say so? This is because, it is like you have a brand new car, no matter how the vehicle is brand, or which country manufactured it, if there is no engine oil, it will be very impossible to move the car,” he said.
The former IREDD Executive Director reiterated that in an effort to buttress government, UNDP has developed a bill that is stemmed from the local governance act of 2018 that is currently languishing at the House of Representatives and the forum is intended to join the advocacy team to ensure the bill is passed.
Giving the purpose of the forum held at the YMCA on Broad Street on Friday earlier, Lorma Baysah, Executive Director HHRAP, said the gathering was purposely intended to bring to the media and CSOs, aimed at making sure that like-minded CSOs and the media to join the advocacy initiative to seek the passage of the Revenue Sharing Bill.
He reiterated that the purpose for the forum is to seek the devolution of power which is the best way of components that make this decentralization initiative workable.
Recently, Co-chairman of Ways, Means and Finance, Matthew Zarzar informed IREDD that “Revenue Sharing Bill ” has been passed at his committee level before the House went for break – now, it is left for the Committee to have it presented at the level of the plenary session and onward to the Senate for concurrence. Writes Alex Yomah
