Parliament Probes EU Funded Project In Kambia District

The Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Local Government on Tuesday 20 2024 started probing all District Councils on the European Funded Projects to get first hand information about the project in each district.
Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Musa Fofanah, said they are not their to witch-hunt any official of the Council, but to ensure that the project that was launched years ago have been implemented by the Council, adding that what they are doing as a Committee is one of their main functions as Members of Parliament, to ensure that monies received for and on behalf of the people of the country are used for the right purposes.
Hon. Fofanah maintained that the Committee cuts across all party lines, an indication that as MPs they are working on the interest of the people. “ when the Council fail, we, as the people representatives, get the blame and bashing, and when they succeed the President and MPs get the praise; that is why we are doing our work diligently” he stressed.
Hon. Slyvester Bioma said there was no Minute of the Technical Planning Committee on EU projects implementation, as enshrined in the 2022 Local Government Act, but the CA told the Committee that those meetings were held at EU in light of presentation and related document of evidence to that.

Other Committee Members also raised similar concerns that other essential documents relating to project implementation transparency were not produced. That certain aspects relating to contract bidding were not clear. Eg rehabilitation of hand dug well. Construction of 4 concrete bridges and 32 rehabilitation.
To close the project, they have sent their report for their files to be audited on various transactions.
Contract documents were not produced, as according to the CA, since the projects have closed, the documents, he said, were not available, especially for the 5 construction of boreholes, costing billions of old Leones. That contract documents were not available and are with EU. There were also variance in cost of boreholes contracting. There were mismatch in bidding
Responding to the Committee, Kambia District Chief Administrator told the Committee that, the sector wanted to take ownership of the EU Project.
He also told the Committee that 90 percent of the job is done by contractors, but most of them were not present, as the latter told the Committee Members that they have completed their projects long ago.
The Chief Administrator said contractors factor various obstacles in digging boreholes, adding that he also said the Council water engineer did the holistic geophysics of all the boreholes.
He concluded by thanking the committee for their visit and urged them to continue their visit to the Council, adding that some technical issues on construction were not clearly explained There was no substantive deputy CA but acting.