Marking the opening of the second meeting of the City and District Revenue Mobilization Committee since it inauguration in June 2022, the Deputy Mayor of Bo City Council, David J.N. Smart has at the Bo City Council Chamber urged all City and District stakeholders to join forces with the Councils to mobilize their much needed revenues.

Bo City Council Deputy Mayor reiterated the District and City Revenue Mobilization Committee mandate, pointing out that the Central government via the Ministry of Finance is implementing the Resilient Urban Sierra Leone Project (RUSLP) and that project has given birth to the District and City Revenue Mobilization Committee as a component of the said implementation.

The Deputy Mayor who chaired the second meeting of the committee intimated committee members that “a day will soon dawn when Local Councils will be wholly and solely responsible for the funding of their activities”, and thus if they have no prudent revenue mobilization and collection mechanisms in place, it will be difficult for them to be up and running.
“Our mandate as a committee is to improve revenue mobilization and collection in our respective localities,” he reminded other committee members and the media.

He went on to say that bringing Inboard all the players like the CSOs, Sierra Leone Traders’ Union, the two councils in Bo, the Chiefdom Administrative Council, Market Women and the media for this common goal is a step towards integrated revenue mobilization; “and that’s why we have you all here with us,.” Deputy Mayor, David J. N. Smart admonished all. “Councils are not just about elected representatives or staff but should be the business of the people in the locality and so it is necessary that we all take things of this committee seriously so as to ensure we bring growth and development to our respective localities”.

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He ended by saying that, the central government has spotted the lapses of revenue mobilization in local councils and is concerned and thought wisely that with this crop of persons possessing the know hows for nation building, revenue problems in the twin Councils (Bo District and City) will be salvaged.

Update on revenue collection in the respective councils for first and second quarters 2022 and the strategies set to achieve estimated income was provided to the committee.

To this, Chairman, Non State Actors, Claude Sheriff proffered that the Councils embark on more public education and ensure a proper governance structure in the revenue mobilization so as to ensure revenue mobilized increased to meet the expected targets.

Newly elected Chairman of the Civil Society Organizations, Bo District, Abdul Banya Braima advised the Councils to be printing and delivering demand notices earlier and on time as he believes that is a reason for the low revenue mobilization thus far.

With these and several other proffered strategies documented and put in consideration, the District and City Revenue Mobilization Committee is expected to meet in October 2022.