Paran And Corruption Scandal, A Tip Of The Iceberg
I know the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) cannot do more than what it has done with the few Leones it claimed to have collected from the now disgraced wife of the country’s clerk of Parliament, Hon. Paran Tarawallie.
The reason being is that the current ACC’s fight against corruption is only meant for the opposition, All People’s Congress (APC) or those perceived to be members and as a result, Paran’ have nothing to worry about.
Infact before this time, it was an open secret that the suspended Clerk of Parliament, used to defend and cover up tracks of corrupt activities of Heads of Government Institutions (HOI) including the ACC.
So it could therefore be a laughable indictment if not an own goal for the ACC Commissioner, Francis Ben Kaifela, to launch serious investigation against someone that appears to have been his partner in crime.
In his quest to execute his plan prior to this scandal, the suspended Clerk sidelined the Director of Finance, a seasoned and no nonsense financial manager and brought in his ‘own man’ for simply advising him and the Speaker, Hon. Dr Abass Bundu on prudent spending and other financial matters.
As if that was not enough, through his directive, the suspended Clerk and cohorts also allegedly sold a number of used vehicles, these include, Prado land cruisers with registration numbers: ALH 402, 404, 405; air conditioners; two Committee buses, and one ambulance.
All of these items were in good working condition according to source and some of them are property left by the previous administration with support from the former Chinese ambassador to Sierra Leone, Hu Peng, the PA system and furniture placed in the plenary (well), chambers and committee rooms.
One thing you cannot take away from Mr Tarawallie is that of his desire to recruit people for the purpose of finding jobs for his men/women even though only about 40-45% of them are actually serving Parliament.
Of course the method of his recruitment was faulty. So Parliament was like a dumping ground, den jis dae kam pak dem.
Procedurally, Parliament recruitment must be done through the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) chaired by the Speaker and the clerk as secretary, advising the chairman when necessary and the composition of PSC is the entire leadership of the House in order to review and make decisions from time to time.
Ironically, Paran became “the big boy” or elephant in the room, taking decisions and orders unilaterally.
It will interest you to know that even the Business Committee which is mandated by law to determine the business of the day, ie what will be in the order paper (op) and what should and should not be discussed in (on) the well among other things was rendered useless by the SLPP leadership.
Interestingly, maybe Hon. Chernor RM Bah “Chericoco” was and still ashamed to say this to the public and I cannot speak for Hon Abdul Kargbo that decisions most times taken by this committee were done without the knowledge of these people even though the said committee is made up of all opposition leaders of the various political parties in parliament.
Let me shock you, most of the unparliamentary actions or misunderstanding at that time were as a result of that.
From my investigations, it is revealed that most times they will hold meetings only for the Opposition leaders to come on the next day and see something different from what was discussed in the order paper.
I don’t know if I’m making sense here, most of these decisions are today affecting the dead, living and the country at large.
It is also not surprising to know that, since the introduction of the Parliamentary system in Sierra Leone, only the suspended Clerk, Paran Tarawallie’s tenure that journalists intending to cover parliamentary proceedings were ordered to submit CVs to the clerk as if they were applying for jobs or being paid by Parliament.
*See next episode on how the €3.5 million European Union money meant for the rehabilitation of Parliament ended up being misused, leaving the House in more problematic than it was.
Cc Hassan Yankees Koroma, President, Parliamentary Press Gallery (former)
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