By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The House of Parliament has approved a bill to replace the 2017 Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Act. The bill which was passed on Thursday is expected to increase security and assure safety at the Freetown International Airport in Lungi in line with international standards.
The bill is one of the many criteria Sierra Leone is looking to satisfy inline with the Universal Security Audit Program (USAP) that is being carried out by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation, Sadiq Sillah, said the new bill will give the country access to information about passengers coming into the country and to be able to profile them.
“With the 2019 Act, we will get automatic access to know the profile of people coming into the country,” Silla said in the Well of Parliament while presenting the bill.
Speaking on the importance of the bill, the Leader of Coalition for Change in Parliament, Hon. Saa Emerson Lamina said the bill is important to make Sierra Leone a competitive country in the aviation industry.
“We want our country to compete with other countries in aviation,” Lamina said.
This bill came to parliament with a certificate of emergency which did not give Members of Parliament (MPs) time to deliberate on it, as it ought to be. This provoked criticism of the Transport Ministry by MPs.
The Speaker of Parliament, Dr Abbass Bundu said: “If due diligence is exercised at ministerial level, there will be no need for certificate of emergency from the President.” His sentiments was shared by many other MPs in the house.
The Leader of the National Grand Coalition party, Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, said the executive must not make it a habit to push through emergency bills in parliament.
“This new parliament does not like passing emergency bills. The executive has to conform with parliament’s schedule. This is a very important bill,” Dr Yumkella said.
Despite their support for the bill, the All Peoples Congress also raised similar complaints regarding the emergency status of the bill, considering it has to do with safety and security.
Hon. Hassan Sesay of the APC said: “We have no intention of blocking this bill. Anything that deals with the development of Sierra Leone we will support 110%. We will support you, but don’t misunderstand this to the extent of coming with bills late. This goes to all other MDAs that will come to Parliament.”
Responding to the concerns, the acting Leader of Government Business for the day, Hon Sahr Nyuma said he understood the concerns of fellow MPs, but stressed that the need to pass the bill is in the country’s interest.
“I understand the case my fellow MPs are making; however, we are doing this in the interest of the country,” Hon. Nyuma said.
He added: “Let us use our oversight function once the bill is passed to monitor it properly.”
The Deputy Minister said the reason for the delay is because of the comprehensive work that they were trying to put into the document.
“We wanted something that is of global standard. That is why it took us so long, because we had to engage with ICAO and other aviation experts from UK,” Sillah said.
The passing of the bill now means Sierra Leone has met one of eight criteria that is set by ICAO’s USAP review. Sierra Leone needs to score at least 75% in the audit process to be labelled as a safe destination for planes and passengers.
© 2019 Politico Online
