By Mustapha Sesay
Parliament on Tuesday endorsed the report of the Public Account Committee (PAC) on its findings on the controversial Ebola audit report.
The vote to endorse the report came after a protracted debate in the well of parliament and it followed months of investigations by the committee which invited dozens of people or representatives of institutions named in the report.
The audit report on the use of Ebola funds was done by the Audit Service Sierra Leone and it generated enormous interest both locally and internationally when it was released last year.
Millions of US Dollars earmarked for anti Ebola projects went unaccounted, it found. It indicted several individuals from both the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) and the former Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), who were in charge of the funds. But recommendations in the PAC report picked on only three individuals as having shared the greatest responsibility in mismanaging the fund, thus seeking for their suspension.
This decision was the basis of most of the rancor in parliament on Tuesday, with MPs from both sides of the political divide criticizing the report.
Sierra Leone Peoples Party MPs notably voted against endorsing it. It was the first time in a very long time opposition MPs unanimously voted no against a decision in the well of parliament. But this is no surprise given that despite voting to endorse it, APC MPs were equally opposed to it.
A greater percentage of the anomalies in the audit report were directly connected to flawed procurement procedures and unnecessary disbursement of funds by the director of finance at the Ministry of Health Festus Kuyembeh who, along with Sadiq Kapuwa and Ibrahim Swaray, all of the MoHS, face suspension as per the PAC recommendations.
APC law maker Isata Kabia from Port Loko said justice should be for all, and shouldn’t be selective.
Opposition MP Foday Rado Yokie said the recommendation against the three were “very very harsh” and selective.
Responding to the various comments made against the report by his colleague MPs, Hassan Sheriff, a member of the PAC, expressed disappointment with the way his colleagues criticized their decision. He noted that the three individuals captured in the report were the vote controllers in the Ministry of Health and as a committee their roles were to unravel whether those entrusted with government money for the job executed them properly
He observed that this was not the first time government funds had been misused and noted that the public uproar that came after the audit report was immense.
Majority leader Ibrahim Bundu also felt disappointed. He said the report had been in the public domain for a month now and that it had not generated the kind of debate that surrounded the audit report. He said PAC had done its job and that it was left with the public to proffer expected advice on how the recommendations in the report should be handled.
“If we cannot stand together as parliament with this test case then we are going in the wrong direction. Let`s leave this report to the public to decide,” he warned.
Defending the report, PAC Chairman Chenor Bah recalled that when the Ebola audit report was released formal and informal debate ensued in the well of parliament and that since then he had read books to keep himself updated with the task because ignorance was not acceptable in their work.
He said the committee members had received training from credible institutions in line with their role in handling such matters. He said some of the comments from the MPs were not from informed point of view, thus he told them to read the report in totality and not in passing to get a better understanding.
He said most of their findings were based on systemic failure.
“We have recommended that the three individuals (Festu Kuyembeh, Sadiq Kapuwa and Ibrahim Swaray) be suspended and demoted,” he concluded.
(C) Politico 15/07/15
