As Correctional Service Takes on Mass Construction...
Acting Director General and Team Tour Construction Sites
By Mohamed Konneh
The Acting Director General of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service, Brigadier General, Sheikh Sulaiman Massaquoi, and team on Thursday 18th July 2024 tour various facilities under construction across the country. The tour is part of monitoring and evaluation activities by the management to assess the various construction work currently taking place.
The tour started in Freetown, where the construction of an administrative building is been constructed. This is the biggest construction work of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service in recent time, aim at expanding facilities within the various correctional centres.
Speaking at the construction site in Freetown, the Acting Director General, Brigadier General, Sheikh Sulaiman Massaquoi, said the current administrative building housing the SLCS headquarters is small and no longer befits the status of this important government agency.
Brigadier General Massaquoi noted that the current administrative building is small, but with the ongoing work, this will soon change.
"After the completion of this building, it will accommodate various officers with spacious offices. The ongoing construction is fully supported and funded by the government of Sierra Leone,” he said.
He said the construction work will last for about 12 months, after which the building will now be handed over to the management by the contractors,” he said.
Brigadier General Massaquoi said the ongoing work and expansion is to reduce overcrowding and provide a better facility for inmates.
He said that after the completion of the Waterloo facility, it will have the capacity to hold Three hundred inmates at a go.
“This is progress he said adding that the current facility was constructed to only house one hundred inmates. The facilities are constructed based on international standards with proper ventilation facilities.
The Acting Director General thanked the government for the funds provided and that monitoring of the work will continue until completion of the work.
The Waterloo Correction Centre was the next stop with two new buildings being constructed.
For the very first time, a separate building is been constructed that will house female inmates. After the completion of the buildings, female inmates in Waterloo will now have their own facility separating them from the men.
Also in Waterloo, rehabilitation work is currently taking place on the training school as very soon new recruits will be accommodated.
The contractor in charge of the administrative Building in Freetown and that of Waterloo, Moinina Jabbie explained the progress made so far noting that work has progress so far since the contract was awarded to him.
He said in just two months since the contract was awarded, there has been much progress adding that the Sierra Leone Correctional Service deserved more.
"We are hoping to finish the work by the end of this year and with the corporation from the management and the Ministry of Finance that is providing the funds work is moving gradually but faster, he said.
Mr. Jabbie said local contractors are now active in the field doing the best of work across the country.
"This is our country, and we must all contribute to its development. We continue to do our best whenever we are given a task. This is the more reason we are doing this kind of work that will stand the test of time," he said. The tour of the facilities continues.
