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The
European Union will contribute 17.8 million euros to a road
project linking Sierra Leone with its northern neighbor Guinea,
state radio reported Thursday.
Development Minister Mohamed Daramy signed an agreement Wednesday
with an Italian engineering firm to build an 86-kilometer stretch
of the Trans West African Highway between Rogbere in northern
Sierra Leone and the Farmoreah over the border in Guinea, replete
with bridges and drainage culverts.
Construction is projected to last two years, state radio
reported.
The announcement comes after the EU announced Monday that it would
not contribute funds to the upcoming local government election
campaign amid concern over corruption allegations from the last
polls in the west African state.
Though 2002 presidential and parliamentary elections were generally
described as free and fair, repeated allegations have been leveled
against the national electoral commission (NEC) about the misuse of
public funds.
Sidique Brima, Sierra Leone's minister of local government, told
reporters that a recent audit of the NEC did little to satisfy the
EU, which along with the United States warned in February that it
would not fund the elections unless progress was made on the
anti-corruption front.
The EU had earmarked two million euros for the election campaign,
which carries a price tag of roughly eight million dollars.
The EU has been one of the major donors to the massive effort to
return peace and stability to Sierra Leone, among the world's
poorest countries, after a decade-long rebel war that was
officially declared over in January 2002.
A team of EU auditors is expected in the capital Freetown in early
May to evaluate the use of EU aid in Sierra Leone, diplomatic
sources told AFP - Sapa-AFP.
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