Amadou Oury Bah: "The 5th Republic stands for accountability and high standards..." Amadou Oury Bah

Of course, because if you don't have concerted work, as head of government, I have the obligation to ensure coherence in the implementation of many aspects of public policy, which is segmented across different sectoral ministries. My role is to ensure the coordination of this whole so that it happens in a concerted, coherent manner to deliver results. And these results must be measurable so we know whether what we are doing is going in the right direction or if there are constraints, blockages. The role of the Prime Minister is to ensure that all this is done in harmony with the regulatory texts, laws, and orientations set by His Excellency the President of the Republic. This is mainly what our interview today is about, because the policy letter, the general policy declaration before the parliamentary representation, is then broken down into mission letters to the various ministries, and of course with result obligations that go through the establishment of performance contracts that will allow judging the performance and tangible results obtained. This is why we are in a logic of seeking a culture of results, not just pretending to be busy. No, the government is a responsible government. The Fifth Republic is a Republic of demand for results and accountability, in accordance with the wishes of the President of the Republic.

Of course. You know that the Prime Minister's general policy declaration stems from the vision of the President of the Republic, which is concentrated in the historical period we are living through via the Simandou 2040 program. In this regard, what I must say is that the parliamentary representation set the rules of the game through the plan, the Simandou 2040 law plan, which was refined into the program law 2026-2030. It is this part of the implementation of the Simandou 2040 program that is mainly the subject of the general policy declaration of the Prime Minister, head of government, before the CNT in this period. That is, to indicate to the parliamentarians and to the people of Guinea what we intend to implement in this period, and that is the essence of the content of the general policy declaration. Afterwards, for implementation, to enable the steering of this action, the Prime Minister sends each minister a mission letter that indicates point by point the different priorities the minister should tackle, with measurable activities that can be followed. Now, to be even more effective in implementing our Simandou 2040 program, a delivery unit has been set up, directly attached to the President of the Republic. This unit also has the role of overseeing the steering to ensure that all the major structuring projects included in the program law Simandou 2040-2030, to be more precise, proceed according to schedule and objectives. That, broadly, is the essence of the activities we have put in place: the general policy declaration, mission letters, performance contracts. And tomorrow we will invite all the secretaries general of ministries, including the principal advisors of ministers, plus the heads of strategy and development offices of ministries, and the inspectors general of each department, because the mission letters addressed to ministers cannot be implemented if the men and women in the minister's cabinet are not sufficiently imbued to appropriate the dynamic. One person alone cannot succeed; it is a team that succeeds.

First, I must be more factual, more precise regarding this question. The President of the Republic has already instructed all members of the government to launch the projects that are inscribed in the first phase of the Simandou 2040 program, that is, the project phases inscribed in this period, say the first quarter, second quarter of 2026. And he will judge at the end of the elections whether or not there have been convincing results, and each minister will have to account for their management and action at that time. As for the deployment of this same system at the level of local administrations, we have indicated to each minister that the Prime Minister does what is within his purview. Ministers must also do what falls within their purview: set mission letters for their national directorates, for certain compartments of their decentralized services, so that there are results. They can even go further, since they have decentralized services at the prefecture and regional levels, to be even more present, more precise, so that the entire architecture of the ministry is impacted by a logic of results, not just a logic that concerns those at the center, that is, those in Conakry. Because the objective sought is an overall vision, a vision and programming that puts the whole country to work. You cannot consider yourself successful if you only care about one part of the national territory and other parts are not taken into account in your concerns and requirements for implementing government programs. This is what will allow our compatriots to realize that no one is abandoned, no one is forgotten, and that public action is a global action. It is not an action concerning a small parcel of the national territory; it is the entire national territory that is concerned by the government's action.

The missions of the year 2026 also take into account the unfinished missions of 2025. The coherence of government action is global. The missions and projects of 2026 cannot be fully successful if certain prerequisites contained in missions or projects of 2025 are not finalized. It's like leapfrogging doesn't work. There is coherence, there is logic. You cannot abandon something. If there is a missing link, it goes without saying that there will be no continuity. Therefore, the result will not be convincing. Government action, the implementation of the coherence of the whole, is also one of the actions and prerogatives that falls to the Prime Minister, head of government, to ensure that all this is done correctly. For example, I give an example. There were ferries; in 2025 we asked that the ferries be suppressed. If the suppression of ferries was not done across the entire territory, but there are projects to build bridges. I'm thinking of Kundara between Sambilo and the other bank of the prefecture of Gawan. These are subjects and projects that come up all the time. It hasn't started yet. On the other hand, when you go to Tega, there is a ferry that was suppressed, and I think that in a short time we will attend the inauguration of the bridge that will cross the Bafing and will allow the populations of Téguéréa in the prefecture of Mamou to be connected to the rest of the prefecture. To say that we cannot succeed if one aspect is not done. The bridges we inaugurated in Conakry last week, you see that they play an essential role in completing projects and investments concerning road infrastructure in the capital. So all this goes together; we cannot not do it. And 2025-2026, the mission letters are aggregated, and we think that in 2 to 3 years, with the missions and projects being implemented, we will have given Guinea the objective bases in terms of infrastructure and in terms of the capacity of public authority to have the means for easier governance and the bases for economic development, even for industrialization in all the areas that concern the public power.

Yes, perhaps we will leave the Simandou project for the second part. We will focus especially on that. The program project, yes. The first question. You know you have evoked many aspects. A minister, before talking about the minister, I talk about the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister, head of government, receives from the President of the Republic the major orientations and instructions that he is responsible for implementing, and that is what will constitute his essential missions for which he will be accountable to the President of the Republic. And the Prime Minister, from that point, breaks down certain aspects of the presidential instructions in terms of programs, in terms of action, which will be distributed through mission letters for their implementation. Consequently, ministers must be accountable to the President and the Prime Minister first for the results and actions they have implemented. The Prime Minister, head of government, since constitutionally it is a post that is already constitutional, is before parliament the one who carries, through the general policy declaration, the major orientations and commitments of the government before the population through parliament. Hence the fact that each one, to their just measure, is in a logic of sharing, of bringing each institution to fully play its role. For example, the general policy declaration is a commitment of the Prime Minister, head of government, on behalf of the government as a whole. The parliamentarians must also verify after a certain time whether the government is in line with the commitments they made. But since it is public, the opinion, the population can also judge whether or not the government is in phase with its declaration for its implementation. From this point of view, it is this logic of cascading accountability that must be measured, attested by performance contracts to oblige everyone to be in a logic of implementation and work allowing the achievement of results. And we will be even more demanding, more rigorous, because the phase that begins is the Fifth Republic. It is no longer the transition period. And I say and repeat, and I will repeat it tomorrow, the cabinets of ministers must fundamentally align with the absolute necessity of achieving results. We have, of course, constraints as you highlighted, our weak absorption capacity, which sometimes means that projects that should last a week last a year or even do not materialize. All this, each minister is required to give themselves the means so that at their level, files are processed with celerity and in conformity with requirements, with diligence, celerity, and also sincerity, transparency, so that we emerge from these blockages that mean what we should have done 2 years ago we have not yet managed to implement. I am not saying that everything we have done is good, but we will do everything to correct the imperfections due to many factors that we will analyze objectively to put this country, its administration at the service of the people.

Because the will of the President is a very ambitious will for Guinea. The Prime Minister, by his constitutional role, is responsible for implementing this, and the President's ambition is also relayed by the ambitions of the Prime Minister, head of government, that I am, to transform and change this country. Those who subscribe to this action will have the thanks, congratulations, and necessary encouragement, and the culture of results we are based on. Those who are not there, at that moment, the President of the Republic will take the appropriate measures so that those who do good work, those who achieve results, are congratulated and honored. Those for whom there are major constraints that mean results are not forthcoming, the President of the Republic will of course take his measures.

Well, in detail, it's a bit difficult to say like that. For example, we have objectives, notably I give the example of the cinema center, which is carried by the Minister of Culture, Tourism, and Handicrafts, so that within 2 years, at Place du 8 Novembre, there will be a cinema, with, of course, private financing, two towers that will create spaces dedicated to cinema and also to commerce, housing, and offices. So it's a 2-year objective. If after a certain period it turns out that it's not advancing, not moving, it goes without saying, the performance contract will allow us to say, 'Mr. Minister, see that you are behind schedule, accelerate, question yourself, or ensure that the blockages that prevented you from achieving your results in this first stage, because you know each project has sequences, and performance contracts also evolve in sequence. What we can do this year, if we don't do it, means we are not performing. And so on, and so forth. I can give other examples. Look at how we lost international commitments we had made regarding the organization of the Africa Cup of Nations, since you like football. It was public, it was announced for years, but later when it came down to it, what was done? It turns out nothing was done. So this means that in terms of responsibility, those who should have been responsible for ensuring that all this was implemented did not do their work.

Not in the details, but it's to say that the project, the result was not satisfactory, and the project is global. Now a ministry may have constraints that do not depend on that ministry for the implementation of certain aspects of their project. Of course, at that moment, one must not remain silent and say I cannot because the financial pool was not diligent. Everything that can cause delays or blockages in the implementation of the Republic of Guinea's projects, and mainly currently within the framework of the Simandou program, if there are obstacles and constraints, the responsibility of ministers is to declare the obstacles so that there is a correction. And the existence of the delivery unit, which is led by Mr. Angelo Diallo, goes in this direction so that we can at any time have indicators to have the capacity to react.

All the more reason. Earlier, Mr. Condé raised the question of our weak absorption capacity. Why don't projects advance? Why does something that could be done today spend 2 months, 3 months in a drawer? Is it possible, I'm not accusing anyone, is it possible that there is a will to delay the process? Is there a will to demand a toll for this project to move to another stage? It is all this that ministers are responsible for ensuring, within their responsibility, to monitor and ensure that a file that enters a ministry on a certain day at a certain time, they must structure the evolution of the passages of this file for studies, for its conformity with regulatory texts, so that we can say after two weeks the file can make the rounds if such and such is not done. This means that in terms of correction, in terms of monitoring, there is someone who did not do their job.

Each one assumes their share of responsibility. The CRIF falls under the judicial power, not the executive power, and each must stay within the framework of constitutional and regulatory provisions so as not to encroach on fields that are not theirs. Only the Prime Minister has his role.

I think you didn't follow me when I chaired the closing of this review. I was much more interested in the 45 projects that were not awarded. Of course, we saluted the performance of the eight projects that were awarded. For those that were not, I gave precise instructions to this effect to the team of advisors of the Prime Minister's office, in relation with the advisors in the ministerial departments, to provide us with a state of play point by point, case by case, why these projects were not performant. And since the review was done last week, they are given until early June to report on this. We will have more and more, and I told the team of advisors who assist me at the Prime Minister's office, the Prime Minister's advisor is no longer a passive advisor; it is an active advisor who must assume total responsibility to allow alerting the Prime Minister on all the projects they are in charge of, to ensure that public performance is superior. We have advisors with very precise assignments, and each one, as far as they are concerned, must assume their part so that we can have a global governance, a serious governance, a governance capable of carrying the ambitions of the President, and of which the Prime Minister is the main responsible.