By Crispina Cummings
A special parliamentary select committee on nongovernmental organisations has ordered the Environmental Justice Foundation, EJF, to stop operations.
EJF is an organisation operating in and dedicated to marine and related issues in the Bonthe district.
The committee chairman, Claude Kamanda, MP, said they had reached that conclusion after they found out that the organisation was operating "illegally" in the country.
“They have not renewed their operations license since it expired in 2012”, he said.
But the foundation’s country director, Victor Cole, said they had not renewed their licenses because they were still waiting for a memorandum of understanding to be signed by the ministry of fisheries and marine resources.
However, director of fisheries and marine resources, Alpha Kargbo, said he was surprised by the director’s response because the MoU was never intended to be their work plan. He said the organisation had overstepped their mandate, adding that his ministry had no personal issues with the EJF as they were in the country to help bring knowledge.
He said the foundation had acted out of the ministry’s capacity, as “they do not inform the ministry when they bring in experts to do research in their operations areas.”
Kargbo also accused EJF of engaging and advising the artisan unions “in a way that seems inciting against the minister and the ministry”.
The meeting was stood down to be continued today when the committee would look into other issues concerning the organisation.
(C) Politico 19/06/14
