By Crispina Cummings
The parliamentary oversight committee on finance and development has engaged several ministries, departments and agencies that are currently working under the local councils in Bo and Moyamba Districts with the object to account to them for funds given to them by the councils for their operations. In Moyamba where officials of the agriculture office appeared before the committee to explain how monies were spent on projects,only the crop officer Simeon Sam and the monitoring and evaluation officer Anderson Sam Fanah showed up. And they seemed unprepared to answer to some of the questions from the committee. The director of the agriculture office, John Kamara, the accountant and the store keeper were absent. The committee asked that the officials present all documents relevant to the process after which they were asked to leave. The committee also probed into the activities of the primary health care units in Moyamba where the finance officer, Daniel Sandy pointed out that they were working in line with the council’s plans. He said the district had 98 primary health care units all of which he said were in working conditions. He said they were trying to ensure that nurses were available to attend to patients. Sandy told the committee that the last time they receive cost recovery drugs was in December last year. The committee then requested for the2012 government price list for drugs. The finance committee also probed activities of MDAs in the Bo City Council during which the chief administrator,William Alpha gave a breakdown of funds received from the government which showed some discrepancy The Chairman of the committee asked why the discrepancy. He also asked whether the council had monies in the banks that were lying idle either because the projects did not use up all of it or the council under-spent. Alpha responded by explaining that monies for different projects were tied to specific accounts. The chairman advised that the chief administrator tidy up his accounts to avoid misunderstanding. The committee also engaged the health sector in Bo District but they were asked to go because of clarity in their accounts. The chief administrator of Bonthe District Council, Philip Sama gave an overview of monies they received from the government and expenditure for health, agriculture and education for 2012. The committee also visited the office of the domestic tax department, the National Revenue Authority. The revenue officer, Charles Coker told the committee that the office does not collect monies in cash but rather only collects pay slips paid into the account by taxpayers. He said the bank statements were taken to Freetown. The committee observed however that the NRA office working environment was poor. He said they lacked notice boards and had only old vehicles while the office collects impressive sums as tax. © Politico 23/07/13
