By Mustapha Sesay
The parliamentary oversight committee on Finance on Tuesday ordered officials of the Kenema City Council (KCC) to redo their budget proposal submitted to the committee over ‘inconsistencies.’
Hassan Sheriff, APC MP, chairman of the committee, said they`d summoned the KCC on the instruction of the Speaker of parliament and the Majority Leader.
For months now there had been a standoff between KCC and parliament over the delayed approval of the council`s budget. Parliament officials blame the KCC leadership for failing to properly account for its 2014 budget. The KCC, on the other hand, accused the members of the Finance Committee of soliciting bribe in return for the approval of their budget. That led to the initiation of investigations by the Anti Corruption Commission, which is yet to come out with any statement on the issue.
The stalemate left the KCC management with no budgetary allocation for about six months now, consequently unable to effectively implement certain projects, as complained earlier by its Mayor, Joseph Samba Kaifala.
On Tuesday the tone in parliament was a little subdued but clearly serious as MPs questioned the KCC team led by the mayor himself on how previous funds were spent.
Before commencement of the day`s hearing, the committee head advised both sides to be “civil” with their words so as to allow for smooth discussion.
After the submission of the proposed (2015) budget by the Council Administrator (CA) of KCC, Daniel Momoh, the committee members straightaway raised concern that it was not in conformity with what had been earlier submitted to them.
The KCC administrator gave an overview of the 2014 budget, which attracted questions upon questions from the MPs who later discovered a huge discrepancy in terms of the monies received by the council.
It turned out that the council received a little over Le 1.5 billion, leaving a balance of Le 2.454 billion which was from neither government nor any of the institutions mentioned in the report.
When asked to explain the balance, the Finance Officer of KCC David Kallon said the money was home revenue raised by the council.
Mayor Kaifala added that they received Le600 million from the Road Maintenance Fund and said they have used over Le 400million of that amount on road maintenance.
After the mayor`s explanation, the chairman asked the council representatives to submitted documents that would back up their claims.
“I will like to see the memory stick and every other documents,” Sheriff said, adding: “any undue delay you will hold yourselves responsible.”
Dixon Rogers, an opposition SLPP member of the committee, who was seemingly not comfortable with the narrations of the KCC team, told the officials that Kenema had the worst town roads in the country and that the council should be ready to show them (MPs) the roads they`d spent the said money on.
The MPs later pointed out that the council`s initial 2015 budget submitted was larger than the one submitted on Tuesday, with a difference of over Le800 million.
In light of this consistent inconsistency highlighted by the committee members in the budget, its chairman told the council officials that as a committee they would not go by the document presented for budget allocation unless they went back to the drawing board.
“You have to change the document and make sure that it is signed by the Commissioner of oath to ensure that the figures are correct,” said MP Sheriff.
Shortly after the meeting with committee members, the Kenema City Council Mayor told journalists that he was personally going to ensure that they do their calculation well before returning to parliament. He said they were under pressure and that this was mainly because of the balance they had to create between their work and meeting the demand of parliament.
“I have to say parliament has been thorough with us. And if that is how they are with every other institutions, I need to say bravo to them,” he said.
© Politico 03/06/15
