The Honorable Member of Parliament for Constituency 132, Tawa Conteh, has in a press statement said that the outcome of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) investigations on alleged misappropriation of public fund by Parliament has demoralized efforts, as promised by President Julius Maada Bio, in the fight against corruption in Sierra Leone.
He said that on February 22, 2021, the ACC sent him a signed copy on a subject matter report which had been triggered by some media interviews he gave on 21st & 22nd October 2019.
He noted that the report came nearly sixteen months after his statement to the ACC, adding that the signed copy of the report copy that he received is different in content from what was published to the public.
Hon. Tawa Conteh said during a radio talk show on 98.1 on Monday that the report raises serious concern and does not reflect issues raised by him. He added that the ACC in their report also neglected the law but rather preferred to take mere explanations during which they also act as investigator and judge.
“They investigate, bring outcome and show breaches by parliament in their report. The ACC reported that the outcome of their investigation did not reach the threshold to prosecute the Members of Parliament,” Tawa said.
Hon Tawa referenced that the same threshold that the ACC did not meet to prosecute Parliament after investigation on procurement is the same threshold the ACC charged and prosecuted the former boss of Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMA) to court, under section 37 of the Public Procurement Act and section 44 of the same Act.
“Parliament refused to follow procurement procedures which the ACC said in their report parliament seriously breached procurement procedures which contravene paragraph (b) of sub-section (2) of section 48 of the ACC Act of 2008,” Conteh said.
He cited that in that regard, the ACC reported that even though Parliament did not follow procurement procedures but due to their threshold they did not fall within the category of persons that should be prosecuted.
“The ACC in their report stated that With respect to the procurement undertaken for the period 2018 and 2019, processes and procedures for the acquisition of goods and services were not fully followed. Most of the Procurements done did not go through the complete procurement cycle; (i.e.) Local Purchase Order (LPO) and Request for Quotation (RFQ) in some instances did not form part of some of the Procurement documents produced and submitted to the Commission by the Procurement Department. This signals a serious lack of proper procurement and accountability regime in the financing structures of Parliament; which need to be immediately and properly addressed,” the ACC said in their report.
According to Hon. Tawa, the ACC reported that Member of Parliament did not utilize Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for the strictly prescribed purpose but MPs did use the money for other developmental activities as they deemed necessary.
“Under which financial law or regulation, did those MPs unilaterally decide to divert funds budgeted for a specific purpose to some other purpose, the ACC did not say. As a law-abiding lawmaker, I presented receipts of use of my CDF funds for the intended purpose, but the ACC did not make any mention of that in their report,” Tawa said.
“The Constituency Development Fund of Sixty-Nine Million Leones (Le.69, 000,000.00) was given to each Member of Parliament (MP), for 2019. Considering the number and our limited resources, a random selection of well-balanced pool of Constituencies were sampled for investigation from across the country and Eighty-Four (84) constituencies out of One Hundred and Forty-six (146) constituencies country-wide formed part of the investigation. That out of the Eighty-Four (84) Constituencies, a total of Seventeen (17) offices were rented or constructed by MPs, six (6) Constituency offices are still under construction and Sixty-One (61) Constituencies did not have an office space either rented or constructed. It was further revealed that majority of the MPs did not utilize the money for the purpose prescribed by the Speaker, i.e., to rent or build an office space; but rather, they claim to have used the money for other activities within their Constituencies as they deemed necessary. Many, including Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, had offices in their homes instead. There was, and remains, no established system in place to ensure specific use; and MPs could not agree on the strict understanding of the intended use,” ACC said.
By George M.O. Williams
16/03/2021. ISSUE NO: 8021