World Bank Annual Supervision Mission in Sierra Leone, Liberia

Abidjan, CI, Tuesday, April 24, 2018: A joint team of the World Bank annual supervision mission and TRANSCO CLSG is visiting Sierra Leone and Liberia to validate ongoing activities as they relate to the Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) and Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) of the CLSG interconnection project.

The joint mission is being conducted by the environmental and social specialists (Roberts Robews and Akhilesh Ranjan) from the World Bank and TRANSCO CLSG (Pakidam Kolani and Marie Chantal Niambe) from April 23 -30, 2018 in the two beneficiary countries. Mr. Tony Moens of TRATEBEL, Owner’s Engineer of the CLSG project also forms part of the mission.

The objective of the mission is to identify and assess the potential impacts of the CLSG project on sensitive ecosystems, protected areas along the project corridor and ensure that people in the project areas are not negatively impacted.

Mr. Etienne Bailly, the Director of the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) of TRANSCO CLSG said the primary objective is for the World Bank to ensure that the ESMP and RAP guidelines were implemented according to international standards.

He said the joint mission will also ascertain whether people in the project affected communities were being informed and sensitized on their rights for compensation in case their assets are affected.

The mission, he said, will also ensure that recommendations from its previous mission were implemented by the EPC contractors and consultants during the topographical surveys and the RAP data consolidation through an operational action plan.

Mr. Bailly added that the joint team will visit key project corridors to ensure that guidelines relating to the ESMP and RAP have been properly implemented. He said the team will validate the compensation process for persons affected by the project to ensure it is transparent.