By Sulaiman Jalloh

The deputy Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Amb. Zhang Dianbin has Thursday, October 17, 2024 presented a cheque of Two million one hundred and sixty-five thousand new Leone (NLe 2,165,000) to the leadership of Parliament for the construction of Mobile offices.

This support underscores the good bilateral relationships between Sierra Leone and China which extend between the Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone and Sierra Leone’s House of Parliament.

Presenting the cheque to the Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Segepoh Solomon Thomas in the presence of the Deputy Speaker, the Clerk of Parliament, the Deputy Opposition Leader, the Charge d’Affaires of the Chinese Embassy, Zhang Dianbin said the presentation was introduced on the request the House Speaker made to the Chinese Embassy, to help with Mobile Offices within Parliament. He assured the Speaker that China would always be ready to assist the House of Sierra Leone Parliament, adding China has the strongest determinism to cherish the bilateral cooperation between the Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone and the Sixth Parliament.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the leadership of Parliament, Speaker Thomas expressed his thoughtful gratitude to the Chinese Embassy and the Government of the People’s Republic of China for such timely aid. Speaker Thomas appealed for permanent offices like the one China built for Ghana.

Speaker Thomas informed the Deputy Chinese Ambassador that any grant given to any of the branches of the Government of Sierra Leone should be laid in the House of Parliament as enshrined in the country’s 1991 constitution, noting that the cheque would be laid in the House of Parliament before implementation. He also assured the Chinese Deputy Ambassador that he would be formally invited on the day when the grant would lay in Parliament.

Section 118 subsection (2) Act. No 6 of the 1991 Constitution states that “An agreement entered pursuant to subsection (1) shall be laid before parliament and shall not come into operation unless the same been approved by a resolution of Parliament”