Freetown City Council treats parliament with contempt
Freetown, July 30 (SLENA) – Last week hearing with officials of the Freetown City Council and the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Transparency and Accountability which was supposed to be held at Cathedral Hall Gloucester Street in Freetown was a total mess, according to report monitored by SLEN’s Parliamentary reporter, Sulainman Bah.
It was to the dismay of the committee when it learnt that officials who were supposed to be at the hearing including the Finance Office, the Chief Administrator, council’s engineer, councilors, Ward Committee members and some devolved sectors were woefully absent.
Even the Mayor, report says, came in when the committee had taken a final decision to stand them down.
Council officials and sector heads were supposed to account to the committee for money spent during the fiscal year 2013 -2014 given to them by the central government for devolved sectors to develop the municipality.
Some devolved sectors however honoured the committee’s invitation and were at the hall for more than five hours waiting for officials from the Freetown City Council to be present before the committee hearing.
The deputy chairman of the committee, Hon. Alhassan Kamara of constituency 96 in the Western Area and other honourable members of the committee was very furious for the contemptuous manner council had treated them.
The committee’s deputy chairman of the committee then ordered the deputy CA to apologize to devolved sectors who had their time for a full working day without a fruitful meeting
Present before the committee was the deputy chief administrator, Mohamed AS Koroma who on behalf of council apologized to parliament and all devolved sectors present for forgiveness.
Deputy CA informed the committee that officials of councils were attending to equally important state functions which was why they were absent for the meeting.
The committee however observed that parliament had given council notice for the said hearing long ahead.
The committee therefore regarded the council’s absence as insult and also parliamentary contempt.
Credit SLENA
By Sulaiman Bah
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