By Tabora Bojang
The president is yet to act on a resolution passed by the Finance and Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly (FPAC) to send the executive director of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) Sanna Dahaba on leave pending the outcome of police investigations into missing Covid-19 funds.
In September last year, the assembly passed a resolution following the auditor general’s report on the government’s Covid-19 expenditure which exposed “serious irregularities” in the management of the funds. The resolution resolved that Dahaba should account for all undelivered food items worth over D100 million on or before 25 September, 2023 and account for the shortage of delivery of oil worth D37,653,700.
The assembly resolved that if Dahaba fails to deliver the items or the monies by the deadline, the president must consider sending him on administrative leave pending the outcome of the police investigation.
Updating the plenary on these resolutions yesterday, FPAC chairman Alagie Darboe said the Office of the Vice President where the resolution was submitted, has not provided FPAC with any update on the status of these resolutions against the NDMA boss.
Chairman Darboe said up to November 2024, the executive had also failed to send these resolutions to the IGP to conduct investigations against persons implicated. “The suspension should have taken effect. The police said they are now investigating but that only came after the executive wrote to them to do so but they were not acting on the resolution that this Assembly passed. We do our oversight, prepare our report and pass resolutions but the actual implementation lies on the executive. When the National Audit Office conducted a special audit on the IEC, the government did not waste time to tell the police to investigate and we are yet to review that report on the IEC. If the police are serious about things coming from the executive, why not the National Assembly?” he queried.
Member for Kiang, West Lamin Ceesay, said the resolution was passed over a year ago and that the executive should respect parliament’s resolutions.
Member for Jeshwang, Sheriff Sarr, expressed his disappointment over the non-implementation of the resolutions and called on his colleagues to take “strict actions” and save the nation.
