By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Transparency and Accountability Committee in Parliament briefly detained two officials of the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) on Tuesday for allegedly refusing to attend to the committees summon on time and for failing to come along with the Governor of the Bank.
The two officials were shortly released after the Bank Governor, Professor Murana Kallon showed up at the committee room one and denied any knowledge of receiving any summon.
The officials who were escorted to Parliament by the Sergeant of Arms were Hawa Kallon, who is the Secretary to the board of the bank and
Sullay Mannah, Director of Legal Affairs.
The committee had summoned officials of the bank to give explanation about the Le500 billion COVID-19 funds that was given to commercial banks to provide loans to businesses. Parliament was also seeking explanation for the auction process of the country’s foreign reserve and they also instructed the bank to provide documentations regarding the procurement processes they have been involved in since 2018.
Chairman of the Committee, Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, representing the Sierra Leone Peoples Party, expressed disappointment in the bank’s action and described it as an “affront” to the authority of Parliament.
“We deem the action of Bank of Sierra Leone and by extension the Governor as a way to impede the work of parliament. This is an affront to Parliament. Our role as a committee is not to intimidate or threaten but to get clarity about systems and hold you accountable on behalf of the people of Sierra Leone,” he explained.
The bank sent the documents Parliament was asking for, but Governor Kallon said he didn’t get the summon sent by the bank. However, he apologized and said an investigation would be done on how this could have possibly happened.
“I apologize for this action. But I want you to know that I was not aware of this summon, but when I get back to the bank, I will investigate how all of this happened,” he said.
Asked about the details of the documents that were sent to Parliament, the Governor said he was not in position to explain them in detail because he wasn’t prepared.
Parliament also had contention with the level of officers that were sent to represent the bank in front of the committee. The committee eventually stood the bank down after 18 minutes of grilling and ordered the governor to be back at the committee with his relevant officers to answer to some queries.
A member of the committee, Catherine Zainab Tarawallie of the All Peoples Congress said: “On Thursday bring the relevant authorities and documentations because we are going to ask questions.”
Kallon, who took excuse for his absence on Thursday, said he won’t be available because of other engagements but will send the relevant department heads.
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