Sierra Leone Telegraph: 6 August 2025:
Just when taxpayers of Freetown – the capital of Sierra Leone are beginning to breathe a sigh of relief from the Bio-led government’s recent onslaught and campaign of attrition aimed at bringing Freetown City Council and the Mayor to their knees, political tension has once again been ratcheted up by the government, following its decision to transfer both the Chief Finance Officer and the Valuation Officer of the Council to other Local Councils.
Freetown City Council is an opposition APC party run Council, headed by Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr who is one of the leading presidential aspirants of the APC for the forthcoming presidential elections in 2028.
Policy analysts and critics of the Bio-led government believe that the move by the government to transfer the Chief Finance Officer and the Valuation Officer, is to make Freetown City Council ungovernable.
The government’s recent plan to break-up Freetown into two unsustainable cities, have been strongly rejected by the people of Freetown and described by many as crass stupidity.
The majority of the elected Freetown City Councillors are strongly opposed to the government’s decision, announced yesterday evening Tuesday, 5th August 2025 by the Local Government Service Commission.
At an emergency meeting also held yesterday evening, Freetown City Councillors voted overwhelmingly in support of a motion to reject the transfer of the Chief Finance Officer and the Valuation Officer.
35 of the 40 Councillors were present; 34 Councillors voted in favour of the motion, and 1 Councillor abstained.
According to a statement by the Freetown City Council, “the votes reflected strong concerns that the transfers would be damaging for the smooth running of the council and detrimental to the delivery of services to Freetonians.”
Freetown City Council is currently piloting the new PFM Smart financial accounting system with the Ministry of Finance. It is also transitioning to the MOPTAX 2 property rate system with the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank.
The transfer of the Chief Finance Officer and the Valuation Officer who are the technical experts on these systems, will shadow of doubt put the successful implementation of these systems at risk.
Both the government and the Local Government Service Commission are yet to respond to the democratic decision of the elected Councillors.
In another development, Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr yesterday had a meeting with the British High Commissioner to Sierra Leone – Josephine Gauld, aimed at strengthening cooperation and build on ongoing transformative work for Freetown.
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