By Kemo Cham and Prince J. Musa
Three Chief Administrators were briefly detained between Monday and Tuesday this week on the orders of lawmakers over violations of the Local Government Act of 2004.
The Chief Administrators from Kailahun, Pujehun and Kenema were all detained on the orders of the Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Transparency and Accountability, Festus Mohamed Lansana of Constituency 015 in Kenema District. He accused the officials of lying and contempt.
The Committee is currently on a routine tour in District and City Councils across the country, as part of its oversight responsibilities.
In Kailahun, John Lahai Swarray was detained for lying to the committee members that he posted on the notice board financial statements, income statements, seven years of expenditures and minutes of the Council’s last meeting, in line with the Local Government Act. Swaray also flouted Section 95 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, which says that any act that impedes the work of MPs tantamount to contempt, said Hon. Lansana.
The MP told Politico that Swaray was supposed to inform the sector heads about the impending arrival of the committee so that they could prepare and present their individual reports on monies devolved to them.
“That prevented us from inquiring into the sectors in Kailahun,” he said in a telephone interview from Bo.
In Pujehun, Mohamed Arafan Kabba, CA of the District Council, was also caught lying to the committee that he’d posted all relevant documents on the council’s notice board, as required by the Local Government Act, according to Lansana.
Vivian Senesie of the Kenema City Council failed to present documents to the committee and lied about how funds were used to bankroll the monthly national cleaning exercise.
According to Hon. Lansana, Senesie later told them that he made a mistake in his presentation about how his office used funds meant to fuel tricycles as part of the cleaning exercise.
The Committee chairman said out of nine local councils they have visited in the ongoing oversight tour, six have accounted fully.
The team was set to leave Bo on Tuesday for Makeni.
Hon. Lansana said they have ordered all three CAs who have not accounted fully for their activities to do so later in Freetown.
In the case of Vivian Senesie, he is expected to present receipts to back up his claims for monies to the tune Le66million.
© 2019 Politico Online
