No, the claim that the U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone Bryan Hunt has reassured Sierra Leoneans that the $500 Million MCC grant would not be given to the Government of Sierra Leone because it did not pass the MCC scorecards is false.

SLAJ iVerify has fact-checked a viral social media claim that the U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Bryan Hunt has reassured Sierra Leoneans that the $500 million grant will not be given to the Bio-led administration because it did not pass the MCC scorecards and found it to be false.

To arrive at this conclusion, SLAJ iVerify reviewed the circulating video interview of the US Ambassador, Mr Hunt on the AYV from which he was quoted. From our assessment of the former, the Ambassador never said that Sierra Leone could not be given the compact grant because it failed the MCC scorecard.

“The scorecard is only a first step. The scorecard means that the board can now consider whether Sierra Leone should continue its eligibility for the compact and then it would need to decide to move forward with the compact. So I consider it as an important first step but it is certainly not the end of the journey” Mr Hunt said during the AYV interview.

Furthermore, Mr Hunt revealed in the interview that the MCC doesn’t only look at scorecard results to decide whether a country should receive the compact grant.

“We also look at the broader trajectory of a country’s economic, social and democratic democratic development. The multi-tier elections of 2023 raised some serious both domestically and internationally about the path of Sierra Leone’s democracy” Mr Hunt further emphasised during the AYV interview.

Also, SLAJ iVerify contacted the U.S Embassy Communications/ Public Affairs Department which similarly discountenanced the claim.