By Saio Marrah
The Parliamentary Leader of the opposition National Grand Coalition (NGC) in parliament has asked parliament to conduct a hearing on the allegations in the media on mismanagement of public funds by different institutions within the Office of the President.
Speaking in the well of parliament on Tuesday 16 February 2021, Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella said that as Members of Parliament, they had been receiving so many phone calls from different people asking them about their reaction to the allegations.
“I was not here when Hon AKK raised the issue of the major bombardment we are getting in the media about this ‘alleged allocation of funding with different institutions in the office of the president’. I know my colleagues in the opposition have raised it here, I am just wondering where we stand,” he said.
Dr Yumkella noted that there was a provision in the constitution of Sierra Leone that gave parliament the right, power and responsibility to conduct hearing and investigate issues relating to governance.
“I know that Section 93/23(6) gives this parliament the opportunity, responsibility and power to do their own hearing and investigations. I know we have our finance committee, transparency committee so that we can give an opportunity for government to come out with their own fact and figures and their own side of the story, but these allegations keep bombarding us and we are getting phone calls from all over people harassing, saying what the parliament is doing,” he said.
He therefore suggested to the Speaker to provide an opportunity for hearing to be done so that “facts can be put out”. He said parliament also had the power to ask for documentation. He added that he would formally write a letter to the Speaker to make his request formal.
Responding to the submissions of Hon. Yumkella, the Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Mattew Sahr Nyuma said that even though he respected his views, there were procedures to follow as parliamentarians.
He said the issues raised by Dr. Yumkella were merely based on allegations and that “parliament does not deal with allegations but facts”.
Nyuma said that “very interesting things are coming up, I can understand. You are talking about allegations and you want parliament to deal with allegations. Parliament deals with facts, deals with documentation. We don’t deal with allegations. We are credible, we are not social media parliament,” he said.
He added: “There are procedures in getting all what you want. As an MP you should use your constitution and your standing orders to ensure that the right thing is done. I respect your view. Let us do due process, we don’t deal with allegations here.”
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