NEW PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS SIGNED AS PRESIDENT

UNCLAS FREETOWN 000174 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR AF/W (JHUNTER/ESPRUILL) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL SL SUBJECT: NEW PERFORMANCE CONTRACTS SIGNED AS PRESIDENT KOROMA CRACKS THE WHIP AGAIN ¶1. Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma renewed his business-like approach to government on May 7 with a performance contract signing ceremony for his cabinet ministers. The recent move, which complements the President's cabinet reshuffle in late February, underlines his attempt to strengthen the current administration by holding its highest officials accountable for their actions. During the ceremony, Koroma reminded his ministers that his All People's Party (APC) government would be two years old in September, and that they would only have two more years to deliver on the promises they made to the public during the 2007 election. ¶2. The media hailed the President's introduction of performance contracts last year, as they were viewed as a welcome innovation in Africa; however this year's renewal has failed to garner much media attention. Some of the apathy can be attributed to the administration's failure to publicly follow-up on the original contracts. While Koroma made several statements throughout the year regarding some ineffective ministries, he chose not to publicly shame ministers or link the cabinet reshuffle to performance failures. While the President has said the new contracts set very high targets for each ministry, the exact details have been withheld, which has led to speculation that the government would rather hide the targets rather than deal with the political fall-out if the targets are unmet, or the ministers responsible too important politically to dismiss or disgrace. ¶3. COMMENT: Despite the non-response from Sierra Leonean media outlets, Embassy Freetown applauds President Koroma's effort to ensure some level of accountability at the cabinet level. While shifting the blame onto lower ministry officials has traditionally been the norm in Sierra Leonean politics, the President's address to his ministers stressed, "You must know everything in your ministries; and at the end of the day, you'll take praise for the success, and the responsibility for anything that goes wrong." President Koroma has appointed former well-regarded UNIDO representative Joseph Koroma as Minister of Presidential Affairs to monitor Ministers' performances. With the next presidential elections looming in 2012, it appears that the administration will have only themselves to blame if their performance does not equal its promises. PERRY