By Amin Kef Sesay
Honourable Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, representing Constituency 128, in the far West End of Freetown, reacting to the recent findings of the Anti-Corruption Commission has revealed that on the 22nd February 2021, he received a signed copy of the subject matter report of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) which, according to him was triggered by some media interviews he gave on 21st & 22nd October 2019.
“I should state that this report comes about sixteen months after my statement to the ACC,” he said maintaining that the signed copy of the report copied him is different in content from what was published.
Dilating on the issue of Constituency Development Fund (CDF), which the ACC reported that “MPs did not utilize the money for the strictly prescribed purpose….but they rather used the money for other developmental activities…as they deemed necessary” he questioned under which financial law or regulation did those MPs unilaterally decide to divert funds budgeted for a specific purpose to some other purpose underpinning that the ACC did not say.
He furthered that as a law-abiding lawmaker he presented receipts of use of his CDF funds for the intended purpose and stated that the ACC did not make any mention of that in their report.
Tawa said he also noted that on the issue of General Imprest and Parliamentary Oversight, the ACC reported, confirming his statement that Parliament received about 95% of its 2018 budgetary allocation. He said, however, ACC concluded that imprest for 2018 and 2019 “were expended and appropriate returns made” and that there was no specific disbursement of funds for parliamentary oversight even though it was a budgeted activity by Parliament and 95% of the total budget sum was received.
He highlighted that in the Anti-Corruption Act 2008 (ACA 2008), deprivation of funds to a public body amounts to misappropriation of public funds (Section 36(2) of the ACA 2008) but yet the ACC did not find this prosecutable.
The Member of Parliament also raised the issue that on the issue of Procurement, the ACC reported that “processes and procedures were not fully followed” and that there was “a serious lack of proper procurement and accountability regime in the financing structure of Parliament”.
The ACC concluded that the said anomalies need to be “immediately and properly addressed” without any recourse to Section 48 (1) which makes wilful or negligent failure to comply with procurement procedures a corruption offence.
In that regard, Tawa said he is convinced that in the report the ACC took on the role of investigator and tribunal.
“I believe that only the court has the jurisdiction to say if any action or omission amounts to misappropriation. The role of the ACC is to present the facts of the allegations to court and not to decide between the whistle-blower and the persons reported. I feel that the ACC’s prosecutorial discretion has been abused,” he averred.
As a whistle-blower, he continued, the report demoralizes his resolve to help in the President’s promise to fight against corruption.
The MP made known that he has neither received support nor any form of protection from the ACC as a whistle-blower.
“Instead, I was treated as a suspect and subjected to rigorous investigations,” he said adding that at the end of the day the Office of the Clerk of Parliament against whom his report was directed, has been described as a whistle-blower too.
He asked the question: How can the leadership of a serious institution lacking proper procurement and accountability architecture be a whistle blower?
The MP concluded by thanking everyone for their support, prayers and good wishes, stating that the fight for a New Direction shall continue maintaining that the outcome will not deter him but has rather energised him to strive and to fight on.
A senior citizen intimated this medium that listening to the right Honourable, Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, shows vividly and without any iota of scepticism or doubt, tells that, in the midst of unpatriotic, selfish and partisan politicians, there are still decent and unique politicians who will always stand the test of time in defending and upholding the truth in ensuring the due processes are disproportionately maintained irrespective of intimidation, suppression or oppression.
