By Crispina Cummings
Members of the legislative sub-committee in parliament Monday held a briefing with the ministry of trade and industry on the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing, SLPMC Bill 2013.
In his address the minister, Osman BoieKamara, told parliament the reasons for the need to approve the bill, adding that the draft document presented to parliament was the outcome of various cabinet conclusions.
He said cabinet wanted all stakeholders to be adequately consulted before it could direct the Attorney-General to draft the bill. The minister explained that the process started on 28 January 2009 when cabinet directed the trade ministry to establish a produce marketing company and for which the government of Sierra Leone should contribute the core assets of the defunct Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board (SLPMB) as share equity.
He stated that the involvement of relevant stakeholders in the process was to work out the mechanism for the transfer of the assets to SLMPC, and concluded that the said assets constitute 51% of the government share and the 49% was for the general public.
During the questions and answer session, Dr. Bu-BuakeiJabbi, MP of constituency 008 in the eastern Kailahun district, requested that the ministry supply the committee with further documents.
He argued that other crucial documents, which were merely mentioned in the overview, should be made available to members of the Legislative Committee of Parliament so as to enable them do justice to their oversight responsibilities and obligations “considering the proposed repeal bill”.
Dr.Jabbi added that a detailed list of such crucial instruments and documents were to be supplied, and asked that the bill should not be treated as a matter of urgency since the current parliament was a new one.
“The bill should not be rushed in Parliament for approval. We all know that it was thrown out of parliament. Therefore new members will have to study the document well to understand it properly,” he urged.
