By Ragan M. Conteh
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Environment, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, has ordered the Clerk of the Committee on Environment in Parliament to issue out a contempt letter to the Sierra Leone Timber Association Executive for impeding the progress of the Committee.
Hon Tawa made this disclosure on Monday 16th March 2020 at Committee Room One in Parliament.
The SLPP MP explained that the letter, according to Hon. Tawa Conteh, is prompted by the refusal of the Timber Association Executive to present relevant documents earlier on requested by the Committee.
The Committee Chairman also disclosed that the Committee has equally committed contempt of Parliament for failing to attend the hearings of the Committee as summoned recently.
Hon Tawa revealed that the work of the Committee has been stalled by the refusal of the Timber Association to honour their requests.
He claimed that the Timber Association had collected over six billion leones at Mile 38 Checkpoint, and vowed that the Association should account for such monies, noting that this falls within their mandate
The Deputy Committee Chairman, Hon. Alpha Amadu Bah, representing Constituency 115, Freetown, in his own contribution, noted that the Committee is working on systems and processes.
According to Hon. Bah, the Timber Association Executive, headed by Mr. Janneh and Abdul Sery Kamal, had been invited by the Committee twice but had failed to produce the requested documents, which, according to him, will help the Committee to probe into the matter between the outgoing executive and the incoming Timber Association Executive.
The Committee, he lamented, had written several letters disclosing several transactions on the timber trade, which, according to him, they are yet to account for.
He continued that the 1991 Constitution gives them the powers of the High Court.