By Septimus Senessie in Kono
The Chief Administrator of the Koidu City council, Charlie Patrick Kallon spent the night of 7 June in detention at the Tankoro Police division in Koidu for allegedly treating the Parliamentary Committee on Transparency and Accountability with “contempt".
Kallon was detained on the orders of the chairman of the Committee Hon. Claude Kamanda, MP on the first day of a public probe into the activities of the council.
According to Hon. Kamanda, he ordered the detention of the Chief Administrator because “he failed to inform the Mayor and other staff of the council about their visit to the council, which was apparently communicated to him by the Clerk of the committees through telephone calls seven days before the visit.”
The MP said Kallon "put up unnecessary arguments to delay the work of the committee. Kamanda said, “as long as the CA keeps misleading this Parliament, he has committed contempt of parliament, according to the provision of Section 95 of the 1991 constitution Act No. 6,” adding that as a chairman of this committee, “I therefore ordered his detention by police for 24-hours after which his fate will be decided".
Chief Administrator, Charlie Kallon told the parliamentary committee that on a date he couldn't recall, he received a telephone call from someone who identified himself as the Clerk of the Transparency Committee of parliament who informed him that the committee would be visiting the Koidu, New Sembehun City Council to investigate their activities. He said he informed the Mayor about the proposed visit.
Kallon denied receiving any letter from the committee until the day of the meeting.
The Mayor of Koidy City, Saa Emerson Lamina told Politico that the CA did not inform him about the visit of the committee despite the fact that both of them work in the same office.
(C) Politico 11/06/13
