Sierra Leone: As Internal Affairs Ministry Faces Financial Constraints…PS Says Not Even Generator To Print Documents

The Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alhassan K. Kondeh, has disclosed to parliamentarians that since they (meaning himself, the Minister, Rtd. Major Alfred Palo Conteh, his Deputy, among others) started work in about six weeks ago, “we have not been allocated a dime”.

He made this disclosure on Wednesday in one of the committee rooms, parliament building, when the ministry was invited by the Parliamentary Committee on Internal Affairs to report on what they have been doing with regards their objectives.
At the start of his presentation, Mr. Kondeh apologized to members of the Committee including Hon. Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, Hon. Pateh Bah, Hon. Alie Kalokoh and Hon. Alusine Kanneh for the absence of the Minister and his Deputy who he said had attended another meeting.

While he was explaining about the work of the ministry, he said it is the ministry’s policy to develop and strengthen policy coordination and oversight role, stating that the status at that time was that the ministry drafted the policy and as 31st December 2015, they had a cabinet conclusion and framework document but that they only have the “original copy”.
“We are unable to print multiple copies because we have power cut but we have the original which the chairman and members will look at or we kindly ask for reschedule of the meeting so that we make the relevant documents available,” said the Permanent Secretary.
Questioned on why they did not use a ‘generator’ to print the documents, Mr. Kondeh said “the ministry does not have a generator. Since we started work, we have not been allocated a dime”.

At that juncture, Hon. Pateh Bah said it appeared that the ministry is not well prepared for the meeting, stating that also the minister and his deputy are not present suggesting that they give them more time to put things in order and bring all relevant documents to the committee.

Hon. Ibrahim Kargbo said “the importance of Parliament must not be undermined by ministers and deputies. If they are invited to meetings, they must come to those meetings otherwise we will ensure that we name and shame them in the Well of Parliament”.
He said when it comes to policy formulation and presentation of matters relating to policies that have to do with their ministries, they are the ones who go to cabinet as they are conversant with cabinet conclusions so if they are not here “I do not know how they expect you to be able to explain the detail of cabinet conclusion”.
“We are going to be very lenient with you this time and ask you to stand down the meeting and go back to work and update your document and also tell your minister and deputy that one of them must be here in the next date to answer to quarries”.

Source: Awoko