By Mustapha Sesay
The protracted delay in approving the budget of the Kenema City Council (KCC) was again extended last Thursday.
The parliamentary oversight Committee on Finance for the third time stood down KCC officials for failing to present a comprehensive financial report for 2014.
The controversy between the committee members and the council on the report centres on the fact that KCC has spent more than what they received as income from both government and other partners.
The report submitted to the committee earlier indicates that the council received a little over Le 3.5 billion but spent about Le 3.6 billion. The MPs found out a disparity of Le 41 million.
And on Thursday, MP Hassan Sheriff, chairman of the oversight committee on Finance, told the council officials that as a committee they found it difficult to deliberate on the report because of the figures which showed that there was money coming from extra sources which the council had refused to disclose.
After series of explanations, the finance officer of KCC, David Kallon, said that the council had a “geld account” with Guaranty Trust Bank which they had not been able to access since 2013 and that they had over Le 50 million in it. He said that would address the Le 41million disparity.
But it was later discovered, as argued by MP Komba Kamanda, another member of he committee, after going through the bank statement, that the council had less than Le 5 million in the “geld account” as of November 2014.
The committee later resorted to a closed door meeting after which they came up with the decision that the council should go for the fourth time and tidy up its report. The committee said it would not accept a report that was not consistent.
Chairman Hassan Sheriff said they were careful with KCC because they didn’t want to mess with the report for the sake of issues of credibility.
“When this saga started last year, I was personally dragged to the Anti Corruption Commission for allegation made against this committee and I told the Commissioner that I don’t ask MDAs for money but if they give me in good faith I will accept it, because it’s lawful,” Sheriff said.
The council is to reappear before the committee on Tuesday 30th June, and MPs hope this time a report that is devoid of discrepancy will finally close the matter.
(C) Politico 30/06/15
