By Tabora Bojang
The Chief of staff at the Office of the President, Mod K Ceesay yesterday confirmed to The Standard that the government has formally received the National Assembly’s report on the Russian oil sale investigations.
The investigation came after allegations that three companies, Apogee FZC, Ultimate Beige Logistics and Creed Energy Limited imported about 36,935.614 metric tons of petroleum, evaded tax and fled the country with officials allegedly receiving bribes to look the other way. The matter was investigated by the select committee of the National Assembly whose report and recommendations were adopted by the plenary and sent to government for action.
When contacted, Chief of Staff Ceesay said: “The executive have received the report and what we are required to do on the report we have done that and we have reported back to the parliament.”
Asked if the recommendations against certain officials have been carried out, Mr Ceesay said he “cannot discuss those details”.
“Parliament wrote to us and we have responded to them. That is where I can stop,” he stressed.
However according to Hon Lamin J Sanneh, the chairperson of the select committee that conducted the investigation, he is not aware of any correspondence from the executive regarding actions they have taken on the recommendations.
“For the executive to claim that they have received the report and written back to parliament may be misleading because that is not the procedure. Once we lay and adopt the report with resolutions, we expect the executive to implement the recommendations and report back to the parliament. The response should be in a written format and the Vice President should come and stand before the plenary and respond to every recommendation,” Sanneh explained.
