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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