By Ragan Conteh
Sierra Leone Airports Authority (SLAA) with key functions to administer, control and manage aerodromes, provide and maintain facilities necessary for the efficient operations of aircrafts at the Freetown International Airport, were stood down at the ongoing budget hearings on Friday 27th September 2019.
The Budget Hearing Committee scolded the SLAA for haphazardly presenting their 2020 Fiscal Year budget to the committee hearings.
The hearings had indicated that the presenter from the SLAA was grossly incompetent.
The Authority was also blamed for failing to abide by the Ministry of Finance call circular sent out to all state owned enterprises, Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) including the Airport Authority as blue print for all presentations.
The Committee hearings have also noted that the SLAA haphazardly prepared their budget indicating costs in dollars instead of Leones.
Many members of the committee including state and non-state actors had frowned that while government is making frantic efforts in dealing with the issue of dollarization, a government agency is reversing such gains by making costs in dollars.
The head of the session, Joseph Fatoma, pointed out that Airport Authority is a government sub-vented institution and hence they should leave up to their expectations.
The Committee urged them to go to the drawing board and strategize with a view to make a better presentation.
Moses Mambu Jr. representing the National Civil Society Accountability for Service Delivery noted that the predicament they faced at the Airport quite recently is worrisome and needs swift intervention by the relevant sectors of government with a view to bring sanity to the Airport.
He continued that the Airport Authority should not submit to the committee what he referred to as “half baked budget.”
He had called on the leadership of the Authority to resign its position.
Junior Mambu continued that recently 70 passengers on board Kenya Airways aircraft would have been perished as one of the engines of the flight got faulty.
He noted that the passengers were saved by divine intervention and called on the authorities to take stringent actions to monitor the various airlines operating in the country.
The Manager Commercial, Finance and Corporate Planning at the Airport Authority who presented the budget, Bobson Kargbo, stated that the authority wanted $21.1 million for the 2020 Fiscal Year to conduct its functions effectively and efficiently.
Mr. Kargbo says $12.5 million has been budgeted for the renovation of the Airport runway.
He claimed that this is the first time the authority is presenting a budget to the National budget hearing process.
He assured the committee that the SLAA will go back to the drawing board and re-adjust its budget to the satisfaction of the committee.