By Sulaiman Jalloh
Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, the Deputy Speaker Parliament and chairman of the parliamentary Public Account Committee (PAC) has said the government’s main agricultural store located at Kissy warehouse in a Freetown is a mockery to the Feed Salone initiative.
The 2023 Audit General’s report raised issues surrounding the store facility that include poor management, dilapidated structures, and wall cracks.
Addressing staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security on Monday, January 20, 2025, in Parliament, the Deputy Speaker attributed the negative impact of the facility on the government’s main development agenda (Feed Salone), while promising that he and his team will ensure to institute a proper management system.
It is said that the physical verification exercise conducted at the mechanical store at Kissy on 29th February 2024 revealed that the facility is still dilapidated as no repairs have been done. Auditors also mentioned discrepancies on record system.
Among items that were not recorded during the time of audit include harvesters, rice thrashers, and transplanters. Auditors however recommended that the senior store and inventory officers should be investigated and fully account for the missing items.
Hon. Tawa emphasized that the state of mechanical and warehouse is not a good sight for money spent by government, noting some of equipment are covered by grass and that some machines are still in their boxes or containers for more than a decade without being used by the Ministry while farmers are struggling with equipment to do their farming activities across the country. He added that with the amount of farming items/equipment in the store and the conditions of some of those items, the Feed Salone will not progress.
In his response, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, expressed dissatisfaction over the matter, noting the Ministry is working with partners to help revamp the status of the said mechanical store.
In a PowerPoint presentation, the Public Account Committee presented photos of abandoned, and dilapidated machines and chemicals at the store. The photos were taken when the committee made an oversight visitation at the store.
“Over ten years government has spent money on them and by the way if it is there for over ten years it means these machines were bought during the four hundred plus machines during the era of President Koroma,” he underscored, adding there are new machines as well which could be used to implement the Feed Salone agenda initiated by the government of President Bio.
The unannounced visit to the store facility underscores parliament’s commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability among Ministries Department and accountability (MDAs).
“The President travels to lobby for money to make the Feed Salone work. You have people that undermine the Feed Salone every day,” he said, while showing a collapsed fence at the mechanical store in Kissy as he urged the Permanent Secretary of the Agric Ministry to be conducting regular inspection.