Parliament slams contempt on Waterloo Rural district council
Waterloo, July 24 (SLENA) – In line with its constitutional mandate to oversee the activities of ministries, department and agencies (MDAs), the Transparency and Accountability Committee in Parliament on Tuesday this week probed the finances and operations of the Western Area Rural District Council in which various sector heads operating under the district council was on parliamentary contempt for failing to produce documents in time to the committee investigating in their devolved activities. (Photo: CA Tamba Alieu defending the council before the Transparency committee )
During the hearing at the Waterloo District Council hall, the parliamentary committee in its deliberation with council officials found out that even the Chief Administrator, Tamba Alieu and the Finance Officer who have knowledge on parliament activities and operations were unable to submit full documents to the committee for an investigation.
All the devolved sectors excluding youth affairs and sport were not prepared to face the committee. While others were late some were absent, having being issued a month notice in lieu of scheduled hearing. They were to prepare their documents and plans of activities that have been undertaken during the fiscal year 2013 and 2014.
In his remarks, the deputy chairman of the committee, Hon. Alhassan Kamara noted, among other things, that the committee is working interterm with the Local Government Act of 2004 with the objective to see how effective councils’ operations and sector heads are while working with finances allocated to them by the central government.
The deputy chairman stated that parliament was working on its mandate as mandated in the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, noting that council has total disrespect for parliament in which devolved sectors like education, agriculture, health, waste management and others do not have copies to present to the committee for deliberations.
However, the committee concluded that council lacks respect for parliament and it was therefore agreed unanimously that the Western Area Rural District Council should face parliament this week with all devolved sector heads and officials to explain how government funds allocated to them for development of the rural district were spent.
Credit SLENA
By Sulaiman Bah
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