Govt. Failure To Disburse Budget To Local Council Threatens Service Delivery
By Mohamed Konneh
The Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) has expresses grave concern over the continued non-disbursement of statutory transfers for devolved functions by the central government to local councils across Sierra Leone for the 2025 Fiscal Year and partial disbursement of statutory transfers for devolved functions to selected local councils and devolved sectors for the 2024 Fiscal year.
The Budget Advocacy Network made this known through a media briefing at the Hill Station office in Freetown on Monday 11th August 2025.
According to the National Coordinator of BAN, Abu Bakarr Kamara, said the inaction and action are not only paralyzing essential service delivery but also eroding public trust in the government’s commitment to decentralization.
Mr. Kamara noted that Local councils are the frontline institutions responsible for delivering basic services such as basic education, healthcare, agriculture, social welfare, water and sanitation, and rural infrastructure, particularly in underserved communities.
“Yet, as of today, August 11, 2025, not a single council has received any portion of their budgeted allocations for the 2025 fiscal year and a number of local councils continue to wait for their outstanding allocation for the 2024 fiscal year.
Despite legal mandates under the Local Government Act of 2022 and explicit commitments in the national budget, the result is a dire situation: financially crippled councils, unable to perform core administrative functions or respond to urgent community needs,” he said.
“This persistent failure to release funds is crippling local governance,” said Mr. Abu Brima, Chairman of BAN.
“Councils cannot implement community projects or respond to citizens’ needs. It widens the gap between government promises and actual development.”
This failure, he said, represents systematic sabotage of the decentralization agenda, as it undermines local governance and amounts to an injustice to millions of citizens who rely on councils for critical services such as healthcare, education, water, sanitation, and rural development.
Although local councils consistently receive less than 2% of the total national budget, actual disbursements are even lower. In 2024, councils were allocated NLe199.8 million, but received only NLe120.9 million a disbursement rate of just 61%. Further, only NLe28.9 million was transferred in April, May, and July 2025 as part of the outstanding funds for the 2024 fiscal year.
For 2025, the national budget initially allocated NLe344, 1million to local councils, later revised to NLe287.4 million in the supplementary budget. Yet, as of August 11, 2025, no disbursement has been made.
BAN therefore urgently calls on the Ministry of Finance to:
· Immediately release all outstanding disbursements to local councils; and
· Publish a transparent and time-bound schedule of transfers, including amounts due to each council.
BAN further urges Parliament, the Public Accounts Committee, and citizens to demand accountability and transparency in how public funds are allocated and utilized at all levels of government.
“The promise of decentralization will remain an illusion unless local governments are empowered with timely and adequate resources to meet the needs of the people,” added Mr. Brima.
This call by the Budget Advocacy Network is part of effort to ensuring government support the local councils for service delivery at the local level.
