The Parliamentary Committee on Local Government and Community Affairs, chaired by Hon. Musa Fofanah from Kono District, last Wednesday (25 October 2023) engaged various Local Councils to familiarize with them and have deep knowledge of their operations.
Members of the Committee also wanted to know how far the devolution process had gone and how better could be understood by the beneficiaries, according to the Committee chairman.
He explained that it was also the responsibility of Parliament to assess and investigate projects being implemented by the Councils’ Sector Heads in order to foster development and complement Government’s efforts.
Hon. Fofanah disclosed that it was deliberate that they stressed on the presence of Sector Heads to account to the Committee like other heads of Government Agencies and Departments. He described the absence of some Heads as an affront to the committee and that they would not hesitate to take deliberate actions if they failed to appear on the next adjourned date including the holding of the 2023 budget hearing.
In his submission the Deputy Committee Chairman, Hon. Edward George from Moyamba District, explained that most of them (MPs) had to answer to queries they knew very little or nothing about. He, therefore, highlighted the three typical functions of MPs and not to directly bring development at local level.
He maintained that the Sixth Parliament would not do business as usual and that they would do everything within their reach to ensure that the proper frameworks that would drive the nation forward were laid.
Hon. George stressed further that the best thing for the Councils was to do the needful at anytime they receive correspondence from the Committee Clerk as they had important matters to deal with.
The Falaba District Council Chief Administrator (CA), Abu Bakarr Daramy, promised to go by the Committee’s directives to make his job easy.
He requested for the Committee’s protection, stating that they needed the corporation of all Sector Heads for them to succeed.
Mr Daramy noted that Falaba District was one of the three districts established after the 2016 Census with a small population, saying that at the moment they had no political head.
He disclosed that Falaba did not have a lot of economic activities, therefore the revenue base was low and that it was largely dependent on subsistence farming and cattle rearing.
Some of the Councils that were stood down are Bombali, Tonkolili, Karene, and Port Loko.