The Tranparency and Accountability Committee in the House of Parliament headed by the Chief whip Sierra Leone Parliament Hon. Claude Kamanda has engaged the two local councils and their devolved sectors in Kenema on government and donor grants received and expended for the fiscal years of 2014 to 2016.
Addressing the Councils and devolved sector officials the Chairman of the committee Hon. Claude Kamanda said they were in Kenema to look at the financial allocations to Council in the past, present and future projects of the two local councils.
He said the process opens up councils to the people on whose behalf they received grants and implemented development programmes.
He reminded the councils that their terms of office which could have ended in November 2016 has been extended by parliament to 2018.
The Kenema District Council and City Council and their devolved sectors presented project documents and financial reports to the committee for the period under review.
Giving out the committees findings immediately after the engagement, Hon Claude Kamanda lauded the efforts of the district council managing the Agricultural Business Centre (ABCs) and the education sector for providing the school management committees in the district with the requisite trainings to be able to carryout their duties in the area of promoting education.
He said however, the Transparency Committee frowned at the district education office for failing to account for an outstanding amount to the tune over 407 million Leones of government grant especially when a host of schools in the district remain delapidated. He said that the committee also found out that, edcuation again could not account for another 44 million Leones of donor funds and another 8 million Leones for which explanation on its use remain doubtful.
He called on the Ministry of Education Science and Technology office in Kenema to provide adequate explanation backup with document or risk facing ACC investigation.
The Hon. said, the agriculture sector having done well in the area of ABC, they were also not able to account properly for over 50 million Leones for potato vines and cassava cutting and over 1,000 bushels of rice adding that the committee also noticed a lot of financial regularities with the two devolved sectors.
The Transparency and Accountability Committee Chairman said for the Kenema city council apart from its devolved fire force on the overall council could not give supporting reports of their expenditures and therefore they have been sumoned to a further proceeding in Waterloo slated for Tuesday 28th June 2016.
By Saffa Moriba
Tuesday June 28, 2016
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