By Sulaima Jalloh

Deputy Speaker of Parliament who doubles as the Chairman of Public Account Committee (PAC), Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, has, during the ongoing 2022 Audit Report hearing at the Parliament Building on Tower Hill in Freetown, ordered the deduction of salaries equivalent to three thousand, five hundred Pounds Sterling (£3,500) from three staff of the Sierra Leone Roads Safety Authority (SLRSA) which was discovered missing and allegedly embezzled by them.

The said staff are Director of Finance, Joseph H. Momoh; Human Resource Manager, Josie Scottmanda and the vote controller.  Probing the SLRSA, PAC discovered that the Authority was to spend 7,000 Pounds Sterling on two staff to study abroad and only one of them travelled, but failed to account for the remaining £3,500. Therefore, Hon. Tawa ruled under Standing Orders (SO42) of Parliament.

The Deputy Speaker boasted that PAC has garnished businesses and accounts of individuals, including a Member of Parliament, stressing that there will be no sacred cow. “We have garnished accounts of big individuals and institutions in society; therefore, SLRSA should not be surprised if the same is done to them,” the firebrand lawmaker asserted.

Hon. Tawa maintained that government money cannot be used without justification and urged the Committee to collect money and placed it on the consolidated revenue fund, stressing that no MDAs have the mandate to spend government’s money without following due process and providing supporting documents.

Responding to the PAC Chairman, the Human Resource Manager, Josie Scottmanda, said that the money was used to process the travel documents of the said staff but the British Government denied him a visa.