By Septimus Senessie in Kono
The Parliamentary Committee on Transparency and Accountability has asked the Koidu City Council to account for over Le 900 million from last year’s third and fourth quarter allocations paid to the council in February and May this year as a roll over of 2012 allocation for the development of the city.
Those under investigation are the chief administrator Charlie Patrick Kallon; finance officer Daniel Kai Gborie, procurement officer Musa Kabia and the development and planning officer Edward Alpha.
Addressing members of the audience including the mayor, councillors, the media and civil society groups at the Koidu City Council conference hall, the chairman of the committee, Claudius Kamanda, MP, said the role of his committee as enshrined in Section 93 of the 1991 Constitution was to ensure that the tenets of transparency and accountability were enhanced by the local councils and ministries, departments and agencies in the country. He pointed out that they would leave no stone unturned in their quest to achieve those goals.
Kamanda asked the officers under questioning to present to them supporting documents indicating how they dispensed the roll-over funds paid this year, a list of the fixed assets of the council, and progress reports on the implementation of projects with other partners.
Responding, the chief administrator said the third and fourth quarters of the allocations for 2012 which they received in February and May this year were used to run the institutions devolved to them, including the government hospital, refurbishment of the district education office, provision of fertilizers to farmers in the city, and support to youth groups, among others.
The procurement officer told the committee that they were observing the principles of procurement as enshrined in the National Public Procurement Act and that all of their transactions were made public and transparent.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the councils’ health committee, Tamba Francis Foyor challenged the reports of the three officers, pointing out that over the past months patients at the government referral hospital in the district were “eating cassava because of the lack of food at the hospital.” He said the political wing of the council was unaware of how those allocations were utilized in the city.
The chairman of the education committee of the council, Kai Lawrence Mbayo also questioned the credibility of the report, saying that all the work done at the education office did not meet the value of the money allocated for it.
Other committee chairmen testified before the parliamentary committee.
The monitoring and evaluation officer for the council, Tamba Amadu Kabba expressed grave disappointment over the Koidu City Council for not allowing him to carry out his duties. He said he was never allowed to monitor the council’s projects and project documents were not also made available to him since he took office some years ago.
In his reaction, Kamanda said that based on all the various testimonies received by heads of the committee and the council failing to produce supporting documents to highlight how the monies were utilized, “the council was not transparent and accountable to the public”.
He also observed that the council did not have a notice board where all its financial transactions were to be made public, something he said was a contravention of the Local council Act of 2004.
He said that the issue of the council was “so serious that we will recommend to the Anto Corruption Commission to probe further”.
